Please Critique "Escape From Skyrim" 1:10 of Atmospheric/Liquid/Uplifting/Dark/Techy

[bigheadmikelove]

My business has been a bit slow with the end of the year, so I haven't been working nearly as much as I normally do. I picked up Skyrim on a whim as I played the first 2 games in the series when I was a youngster. It has sucked away these 8 hour days that I have been blessed with so far this winter...I decided to escape from the game (World ) for a while. I hit record and this is what came out...

Also please be aware that Seathasky's new album "The Past In My Mind" is out now and heavily featured on this mix. It is one of the best Drum and Bass Albums of 2011, it's a shame that everyone is going nuts for Blu Mar Ten's new record, which is fantastic, and not seeing one of the gems of Drum and Bass in 2011 that could get passed by...

GO BUY "THE PAST IN MY MIND"(on Offworld Recordings) BYSEATHASKYRIGHT NOW!!! IT IS POSSIBLY THE BEST DRUM AND BASS ALBUM OF 2011

Also as always be aware that I do not plan mixes at all and there are mistakes as I am not a very skilled DJ, I just like to blend tunes logically and I try to stay harmonically correct as much as I can. Please help me get better by critiquing my mix in the comments...



Tracklist -
Format (because my wife said that people could possibly not figure it out if they weren't into EDM)

Artist - Song Title (Remix Title) - Label



Seathasky - For Love and Science - Offworld Recordings
Electrosoul System - Nine Planets (Bop Remix) - Kos.Mos.Music
Unquote - Nonexistence (Sobersoul Remix) - Digital Colours Recordings
Seathasky - Love For You - Offworld Recordings
Cain Mos - Alone - Basswerk
Calibre - Peace Organ - Sun and Bass Recordings
Kofi & Axis - The Brooklyn Tree - Soul Deep Recordings
MSDOS - Lazy Saturdays - Soul Deep Recordings
Blue Motion - Astronauts - Rotation Deep UK
Parhelia - She Is Made Of Flowers (SND Remix) - Absys Records
Choke & Gigz - Circles - Rotation Deep UK
Seathasky - Alcohol - Offworld Recordings
Marcus Intalex & S.P.Y. - Celestial Navigation - Soul:r
Mage - Tones Of Persistence - Celsius Recordings
Seathasky - Reefer - Offworld Recordings
FD - Blue Sky Research (Sun And Bass VIP) - Sun & Bass Recordings
OB1 - Jasmine Nights - Metalheadz
Purple Haze - Purplescape - Kos.Mos.Music
Method One - Flight Of The Fallen - Absys Records
Blu Mar Ten - All Thoughts Are Prayers - Blu Mar Ten
Seba - Painted Sky (Foxrox Remix) - Unsigned
Seathasky - Heartache - Offworld Recordings

Enjoy and please comment on the mix

[Jester]

looks good mike. going on the psypod

[bigheadmikelove]

looks good mike. going on the psypod

Right on Jester, lemme know what you think...it's a bit more techy than my normal soulful jazzy DnB...I hope you like it

[Flash101uk]

On this mike.

Also all over seathasky, edumacate me with some liquid loveliness

Top man for getting skyrim too. Its a properly good game, I too am totally engrossed, literally no one on earth has the time to 100% this life sucker of a game.

What race did you start off with? I went Nord because I like big chins . .

[YoshiExcel]

I listened to this mix yesterday while doing some chores (noone told me this would be part of married life lol). First off i have to say, amazing track selection. You dont get to hear this kind of dnb often, much less a mix of it. Seathasky - Love For You - Offworld Recordings was my favourite track in the mix. I did check the Seathasky release on Beatport and added a few of the tracks to my hold bin, hopefully someone nice will buy them for me for christmas haha.

I didnt really get to analyze the mix more because i was kinda doing other stuff at the same time but nothing really stood out besides a couple questionable transitions (including the first one). This would be perfect to listen to with my headphones on just laying on the couch and falling asleep, soooo relaxing! This really inspires me to make my own mix of this type, hopefully after i release Chromatic 03 then i can start on a new one. I really just need to finish up chromatic 03, i have just been really lazy these days.

Anyways, great job on the set mate! We have some of the best dnb people here even though its very few of us.

[Citizen_Insane]

Downloaded and will definitely be giving this a listen at the end of my day given what Yoshi said about it's ability to induce relaxation... hell, might even help my insomnia

[Flash101uk]

Really nice liquid mix man, I noticed some of the transitions in the first half, but mainly because I know the tunes.
Second half flowed effortlessly, really, really good job man. Enough peaks and troughs in the energy to amplify the phrasing and tunes.

I like the transition to some edgier, darker dnb around the 52mins mark, I kinda wish that heavier stuff lasted a bit longer tbh, thats just personal taste though

Cool fader tricks too man, I need to get some of that nailed down.

Love the outro tune Seathasky - Heartache, properly nice liquid selection.

[Citizen_Insane]

Great mix man! As Flash said, some nice fader tricks in it, sounded mint

Only bits that seems off to me were around 17 min (key issues) and 45 (dunno why but it just didn't sit right to me).

Overall lovely work man, and that Seathasky album is now on the "music to buy" list. Keep it up!

[bigheadmikelove]

Top man for getting skyrim too. Its a properly good game, I too am totally engrossed, literally no one on earth has the time to 100% this life sucker of a game.

What race did you start off with? I went Nord because I like big chins . .

Firstly as I haven't played in quite a while (the damn patches keep on fucking my save games up...feck fuck and fick it pisses me off)

My first character was an Argonian as I like to hear all the racist prattle from the town folk (though they seem to realize that I save them from dragons regularly, yet still I'm whats wrong with (Insert city/hold here) kinda funny...then a patch and my saves were all fucked So I went Nord Potion/poison dealer, I basically run around buying up every alchemists inventory (and every soul stone) and make a bunch of bows that cast absorb health like 7 times and sell a bunch of paralysis and slow poisons...my cashflow is unreal after like 2 trips to whiterun and say solitude or wherever... I'm pretty much a nord tank of death...I also enjoy the strong jawline ;p

I didnt really get to analyze the mix more because i was kinda doing other stuff at the same time but nothing really stood out besides a couple questionable transitions (including the first one). This would be perfect to listen to with my headphones on just laying on the couch and falling asleep, soooo relaxing! This really inspires me to make my own mix of this type, hopefully after i release Chromatic 03 then i can start on a new one. I really just need to finish up chromatic 03, i have just been really lazy these days.

Anyways, great job on the set mate! We have some of the best dnb people here even though its very few of us.

Glad you liked the tracklist yoshi, yeah the first mix was a bit overcooked (and I totally fucked up the loop at the end of the mix....I really drew alot of inspiration (and totally bit that Parhelia track, thanks again for letting me know about that one) from your Melodic liquid style. Again, glad you liked it...maybe we can do a b2b on stuff of this nature...wouldn't be too difficult I imagine.

Really nice liquid mix man, I noticed some of the transitions in the first half, but mainly because I know the tunes.
Second half flowed effortlessly, really, really good job man. Enough peaks and troughs in the energy to amplify the phrasing and tunes.

I like the transition to some edgier, darker dnb around the 52mins mark, I kinda wish that heavier stuff lasted a bit longer tbh, thats just personal taste though

Love the outro tune Seathasky - Heartache, properly nice liquid selection.

Flash, thanks for the input as always...the first half definitely isn't as strong as the second half to my ears. As far as the harder stuff, I assume you are talking about where I used the OB1 sample...I was going to stick with the entire song, but I just felt that it would have taken the mix too far out of the realm of what I was trying to do...I've got to learn to keep the vibe consistent (rather than play a bunch of different styles)

As far as the outro, I hoped that it fit the mix, it is a fantastic track though

Great mix man! As Flash said, some nice fader tricks in it, sounded mint

Only bits that seems off to me were around 17 min (key issues) and 45 (dunno why but it just didn't sit right to me).

Overall lovely work man, and that Seathasky album is now on the "music to buy" list. Keep it up!

Citizen - Thanks for listening, As far as the mix at 17 minutes, I think that song (Peace Organ) changes key...I will be getting my guitars moved up to my new house soon, so I will be able to check my key signatures much easier... The mix at 45 minutes (Reefer into Tones of Persistence) was kinda off sounding to me also, I think I was running short of time to find a track there...tones of persistence is such a full song whereas Reefer was more of a beat oriented breakers sort of track...I thought it would work, but it really didn't I guess.

thanks for enjoying my few little fader tricks (beatcuts and whatnot) I'm really working on getting them down, I fucked them up quite a bit on this one...oh well, it's just a jam session anyway. One way to work on them is to make an even cut every beat during a little 4 count "whoosh" giving it a sort of syncopated sound... and then we could all be LTJ Bukem lol

Also, the mix from alcohol to celestial navigation to tones of persistence (from 38:00 or so until 44:30 or so) did that come off well, as I think I may have over eq'd the whole thing, what did you all think?

Again thanks all for listening

[Awesomer]

I listened to your mix while helping my girlfriend make some asian barley soup. We listened via XBMC on the bose speakers downstairs. Here's my feedback.

- Thanks for the tracklisting and download link and proper embedd on DJTT.

- I am sorta into drumfunk and some liquid and minimal dnb, used to be into atmospheric, intelligent, etc back in the day. This particular selection of mostly liquid (?) was a bit too liquid for me. The super major key stuff, esp. with vocals, is not my favorite. I liked the handful of heavier/darker tunes. But in general the progression and harmonic progression was reasonable. I didn't hear any phase issues.

- I might have heard one or two things that sounded like a "glitch"? Like, a software error or something?

- Your transitions and mixing were nice but I'd like to hear even more of the active mixing and fader stuff. Really helps rinse this style of music out.. EQ work was solid too.

Thanks for posting, and keep at it!