I download a lot of other DJ’s mixes. Most of them warrant no more than a cursory scrub before being discarded as Not My Kind Of Music. Some get a more detailed scan, with a couple of interesting tracks noted down to check later. A few get played in full, chugging along in the background while I work, a good track interrupting me every so often demanding to be ID’d.
But once in a while, a mix comes along which, gently but firmly, grabs hold of me, takes me over. A mix that cannot be a background to any other activity, but draws in more and more attention, and rewards it.
Such mixes are very rare.
But it should be no great surprise that BETA should come up with one, because he is a man of very rare talent. He’s repeatedly blown me away with his productions over the last two years. And while others may jostle to be flavour of the month, BETA’s sheer consistency, razor sharp production, and the way that each new release nudges the sound of progressive breaks forward, have earned him a place at the very top of my personal league table of producers.
Somehow, in all of the time I’ve been buying his music, I’ve never heard him mix. It was worth the wait. This is what progressive breaks is supposed to be like. The mix traces out a beautiful curving flow, through bigger and ever more epic tunes, until the last track, which goes way beyond merely “huge”, shoots straight through “immense” and breaks off the top of the chart. Shock Theropy[sic] – Void is the first breaks tune to really knock me flat in a long while – I hope it’s getting released soon, cos I can’t wait to play it out and watch it knock other people flat…
In the meantime, I so wanted you to hear this mix, that I started a new section of my website for it. Only a very few selected mixes and tracks will earn a place in Recommendations. By starting with this mix, the benchmark has been set pretty high.
Download MP3 from bbz.ru
Morning Coffee vol.29 mixed by BETA (blog entry / tracklist / cuefile) (if you want to download the MP3 from that page, you have to click on the link that’s a Russian word. The one that says Download will just give you a cuefile.)
Categories: Recommendations //
Tags: beta, epic, mix, progressive breaks
I’m delighted to welcome a very special guest to my Void Radio show on Brap FM next Monday who goes by the name of DIGITAL FIST. He and I met at Glade this year, and discovered that our tastes in epic triptronica were uncommonly well-aligned.
Digital Fist is a missionary for the music he loves, with infectious passion and a deep sense of the aesthetics of mixing for journeying, which has clearly been well honed by his years on the Welsh party scene.
He describes his chosen specialisms as “elaborate percussion, wall-destroying basslines, and darkly atmospheric precision machine-funk”. Some other words that spring readily to my mind are: brooding, hypnotic, glitchy, metallic, wonky, evolving, deep and dubby, dark shadows and delicate beauty… and of course, epic.
Expect synergy.
Tune in to Void Radio with Quextal b2b Digital Fist from 8pm UK time this coming Monday 7th Sept. Sign up for a reminder, you don’t want to miss this one. Trust.
NB NB NB! The URL for the Brap FM stream has recently changed. If you are using a pre-saved link, please update it to the first one of these that works for you (try them in this order): http://stream.brap.fm / http://87.117.250.5:9120/listen.pls / http://87.117.250.5:9120/.
The chatroom hasn’t changed.
I’ll give the final words to my guest:
Music is mathematics. Keep it polyhedral.
Categories: News, Radio Shows //
Tags: brapfm, breaks, digital fist, glitch, mix, radio show, techno, void radio
Well that was a most enjoyable way to round off a wicked weekend! We kicked off with a load of chunky ‘n’ squelchy techno, tech-house and progressive, before moving into breaks of the phat, techy and progressive flavours for the second hour, and finishing on some phar-out psybreaks. Special shouts to mike, jels and tomski in the chat for all the positive vibes, glad you enjoyed it and hopefully see you again 🙂
Next show: Monday 1st June, 8pm BST, Brap FM – it’s Quextal’s Birthday Bonanza so expect something extra special 😀
Download (162MB 192k MP3 118’01”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_brap_fm_2009-05-04.mp3)] downloads
- Robosapiens – Cold Sweat
- Fractal – Oceanography (Toby Emerson rx)
- Synchronized – Awakening (Nicholas Van Orton rx)
- Gai Barone – Lilith (Jerome Isma-ae’s Brainfuck rx)
- Umek – You Might Hear Nothing
- Yotopia – Sheer Mayhem
- Hybrid – Gravastar
- Monaque – Solaris
- Far Too Loud – All Is Machine
- Hedflux – Non Stop
- Hironimus Bosch – Gamma (Robosapiens rx)
- DJ Mutiny ft Dii Gii – Dreams Come True
- SL2 – Way In My Brain 2009
- J*O*K*R – Dr Oetker (Quadrat Beat rx)
- IITone – Crush
- Dascyllus – Odessa Keys
- 4Kuba – Spacebuggy (BETA rx)
- J*O*K*R – Salad Shaker (Groovediggerz rx)
- Journeyman & Barrcode – Crush Groovin’
- Rex – Evil Buddha Comb
- Solar Chrome – Cellular Automaton
- Scorb – Ipso Fvcto
Download (162MB 192k MP3 118’01”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_brap_fm_2009-05-04.mp3)] downloads
Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives //
Tags: brapfm, breaks, chunky, mix, psybreaks, Radio Shows, techno
Progressive breaks, techno, psy-prog. Innit.
Download MP3 (111MB 128k 120’46”) [downloadcounter(live_on_brap_fm_20080804)] downloads
- Flack Su – T-Break
- Blim & Rennie Pilgrem – Two Freaks
- Koma & Bones – Morpheus
- BETA – Beat Funk
- Plastic Shell – Gutbucket
- Plastic Shell – Conestuck
- Uncless – Shinkanzen 2008 (Sonority Break rx)
- ZB – Felicidad (Mavann rx)
- Mauro Picotto – Greens (Riccardo Ferri live mix)
- Josh Millstone – As The Day Fades (Phunk Investigation Ghost mix)
- Andre Bastos – Ipod Smoking
- Lutzenkirchen – Casa Cadabra
- Freq – Away
- Symphonix – Music Prostitue (Duca rx)
- Coburn – Razorblade (S-Boyz rx)
- Duke Walker – Worm (Brainbug rx)
- Lunacy Sound Division – Suburban Zombie (Prime edit)
- Tocadisco – Morumbi
- D-Pen – Moroi (Presslaboys rx)
- Jet Project – Saber Force
- Matador – Satires (Lutzenkirchen rx)
- Mauro Picotto – Contaminate (Meganite mix)
- Beauty School – Suicide (The Scientifics rx)
- Oliver Huntemann – Sao Paulo
Download MP3 (111MB 128k 120’46”) [downloadcounter(live_on_brap_fm_20080804)] downloads
Next show: Monday 1st September 8-10pm BST. Sign up to my Facebook fan page for a reminder nearer the time…
Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives, Radio Shows //
Tags: brapfm, breaks, mix, progressive, Radio Shows, techno
