Sea Of Glass (Blu Mar Ten Remix) - MIDDLETON, Tom
Without You (Seba Remix) - Little Jinder
Three Dimensions - State Of Mind
Hell Hath No Fury - Klute
Mystic Sunset - DJ Marky, S.P.Y.
Hooked (Survival Remix) - Slider & Expose
Call To Arms - Skopes
Spectacle - Cursa
No Fear - Enei
Basic Memory - Phace
Bodydouble (Phace Remix) - Pilotpriest
Bossa Nouveau - Hybris
Connections - Cursa
Not There - Vantage
Still The One - Blu Mar Ten
Broken Dreams - Lenzman
When Our Word Jaded (Seba Remix) - Furi Anga
All comments and critique welcome, I hope you enjoy the mix
I listened to your mix while eating tater tots and talking to my girlfriend about our labor day picnic plans. Here’s my feedback.
I guess I am pretty OK with “liquid dnb” as a way for techsteppy dnb to evolve, but what I don’t care for in “liquid dnb” is the high pitched vocals, strings, super bright shininess. I understand that positive feeling is part of the whole sense of the genre, but within the first 5 or 6 tracks on this mix I heard some modern dnb that didn’t seem overtly “liquid” but was “intelligent” … is that the stuff you’re referring to as “minimal dnb” ?
I thought your mixing was quite good, heard a few very minor mistakes like having the bass in on both records at the same time or being slightly off phase in the high end with both records having high and mid end un-eqed. Nothing someone who wasn’t an attentively listening DJ would have heard, probably.
I didn’t hear any issues in terms of levels or anything, and a few of your mixes had clear overlap and good tension as a result.
I liked the mix, but it did seem to peter off a bit for me in terms of.. coherence.. near the end? Maybe that was just me..
Thanks for your feedback man. Its interesting hearing this from someone not deep into their dnb (am I right in saying that?)
Your first point, all of the first 6 tracks are classified as ‘liquid’, after about 14:30 is where the minimal breaks in. The classifications of dnb blur the lines quite a lot. Minimal dnb isnt really that minimal, but its not dancefloor or liquid. Theres a bit of neuro and techstep in there too. See what I mean? lol. You can break it down in so many ways I tend to use the broadest terms to generate the broadest interest
Your second point; there are a couple of mistakes in there, I know i dropped out of phase slightly after some of the transitions. I think I pulled then back pretty swiftly though.
At no point were there 2 basslines un EQ’d, of that I am certain. I do take pride in my EQing. I think what is happening here is down to my mixer. I use an ecler, which has a very broad mid range. So killing the bass on the incoming still leaves the lower midrange bass in, same goes for the highs.
What system did you listen to my mix on out of interest?
At the end of the mix I did peter off back into some heavier liquid territory, its intentional, to amplify the peak with the heavy minimal stuff. To bring the listener back down. Did you get that from the mix?
Thanks again for your positive and interesting feedback
Listening to this right now, so far im really enjoying it. transitions so far, very smooth, no key clashes or anything. I really enjoy our mixes Flash101! =D now i wanna make a new mix!
Edit: as i posted reply, mix got a bit heavier! =D
Flash, this is an excellent mix. I’m trying to bite quite a bit of the selection as we speak. The tom Middleton track in particular I’m having a hard time finding…lemme know where I could get a legal copy please
I listened to my first Jungle mixtape in 1994 and have appreciated Jungle and DNB on some level ever since.. but the direction DNB took after people started calling it DNB didn’t really work for me. At first it was pleasantly robotic, but after a while it seemed to become.. generic and uber robotic. I always identified this sound as “tech-step”, and mostly tuned out of anything with the boom-tchik-boom-----TCHIK and percussion playing on every 16th on every track. It seemed a little bit like “fakebeat” to me because the beats.. didn’t.. actually break. And given my like, intro was Photek “rings of saturn” and Congo Natty ragga jungle.. it was a hard transition for me.
I never really had a social crew or local scene which would be playing the music I have now found is called “drumfunk”, aka DNB with emphasis on the D part. This forum has actually helped me start to discover the styles of modern DNB I appreciate, because there are various guys who play Liquid and Drumfunk and etc. who helpfully provide tracklists.
The point about the mid-bass seems likely. Now that you mention it, I am pretty sure it was a mid-bass pattern which I noticed.
I was listening on some (“classic” in that they are older but well taken care of) Klipsches. I didn’t have the sub turned on, so it was just their (solid) bass response.
I did actually get the progression you were going for, especially on the second listen it is really clear that you take things to minimal/drumfunk/etc. land in the middle and then return to liquid. Given my slight anti-preference towards “pure” liquid (with the strings and vocals etc.) I somewhat perceived this as “I liked the middle more than the end” but the fact that I perceived it I think means your mission was accomplished.
Thanks or replying mate, you should check out paradox’s new album; ramifications. Sounds like it’d be right up your street
The mid bass thing is a tough one, as its difficult to take it out of the mix without killing the rest of the mids I try to pick tunes that bounce off each other when layering. Its nice to find a pair of tunes that call and respond to each other in the basslines. Hopefully some of that came across.
Glad my indended progression came across too, mission accomplished
Totally looking forward to this, much of the track list is awesome and I’ve really been feeling the Minimal D&B lately.
