Various - Balance 015: Will Saul

EQ Recordings: 2009

Won't deny, I had low thoughts about this one when I first saw it advertised a decade ago. I generally liked the Balance series to that point, but Joris Voorn's contribution had me wondering whether things were taking a turn for the over-indulgent, hipster-baiting path. Glancing at the tracklist didn't allay my suspicions either, what with inclusions from Ricardo Villalobos' Minimoonstar, Hercules & Love Affair, Seth 'he so crazy!' Troxler, and that new-fangled 'dubstep' the kids wouldn't shut up about, b'gar. Throw in a cover shot that has Mr. Saul looking like he's posing for Craft Beers Monthly (“This Issue, The 20 Best New IPAs From Mercer Island You MUST Try!”), and yeah, my totally sad first impression wasn't good.

But Will Saul's 3CD set for Balance is good. Real damn good. Ignore what Late 2009 Sykonee thinks. He was getting disillusioned about things anyway.

Besides, my ignorant thoughts were mostly due to ignorance of who Will Saul is. I assume he's a fairly big deal in the UK, though I hadn't heard of him before, and haven't heard much of him since. Has a couple labels behind his belt. Recently released his second album. Look, I've limited word count here, and I'd rather spend it discussing these CDs over Mr. Saul's biography.

And what a lovely assortment of CDs we have here. We're deep in Balance's 'No Genres Off Limits!' era, and with three discs to indulge himself, Will indulges himself indeed. Instead of making each CD strict genre exercises though, Mr. Saul works a general theme while dedicating significant chunks of his sets to specific styles. CD1 gets in on that deep house and space disco vibe, with a tasty acid and Chicago closer. CD2 is the more (then) conventional set of the three, sticking to trendy, minimalist tech-house before taking a slight detour into Detroit's back alleys. Then, in a total tonal shift, Will finishes the set out with future garage (still called 'dubstep' back then). Yeah, that's probably just as trendy, but I like this stuff, so it coo'.

Opening CD3 with reggae dub though? Oh... oh my! Who in the history of Balance has done that? Okay, Jimmy Van M, kinda', but that was just one song, whereas Will spends eight. Some of it is modern 'reggae dub', sure (re: dubstep that actually honours its Jamaican roots), but as found elsewhere across Balance 015, he mixes these (then) contemporary styles with vintage stuff quite nicely. Things move on from there into funk and soul (old and new, including Wolf + Lamb), plus garage and house, with mostly (then) new stuff trying to sound like way old stuff. The retro was in full swing by the late '00s, absolutely.

So yeah, I quite like Will Saul's CD3 here, and even enjoy CD1 despite not having quite as much to say about it. CD2 feels quite of its time though, but is fine for what it offers. Plus, very little of Minimoonstar was used. I LOL'd.

Various - Balance 014: Joris Voorn (Original TC Review)

EQ Recordings: 2009

(2020 Update:
Probably the Most Important release in the Balance series, and I don't claim that with snark, believe me. There had already been critically lauded releases before, but none of them got everyone buzzing quite like this one did. And despite Balance carrying on to this day, there hasn't been another grabbing the same level of attention as Voorn's contribution did. In fact, after a run of releases that served as a sort of Trilogy in DJs showing off the extreme side of genre eclecticism... well, I'll get to that when I get to it. Ultimately though, 014 was pretty much the peak of Balance being regarded as the premiere DJ mix series lauded by music journalists.

Can't say I've come back to this much. It was fine re-listening to it again, favoring CD2 over CD1 a little more now. Voorn's set still feels too reliant on the gimmick over the track selection though, and if I'm gonna' indulge in one of these massive mix-n-mash ultra-sets, I'd sooner throw on Magda's She's A Dancing Machine - it's 'funner'! (yes, I had to get that name-drop in there as another obligatory 'it's been done' snipe)).


IN BRIEF: A trainspotter’s wet-dream.

Whether it be paid journalists, obsessive bloggers, or casual commentators, this is the kind of release such folk eagerly anticipate adding their two cents about. With a track list this big and eclectic [102 in all], Joris Voorn’s contribution to the Balance series screams for opinions, and plenty of people were ready to cast judgment on his mix sound unheard. Commercial DJ sets, after all, are traditionally done as a means of providing new music for the home listener or to promote said DJ to a potential wider audience, and you only need around ten to twenty-five tracks on a CD to accomplish this (dependent on the style of music, of course). To do something more, however, tags the mix with a bright neon “Artistic Statement” sign, from which folks will debate the merits of such a statement well before it’s even released.

Mind, Balance has long been an outlet for DJs to indulge themselves with concept mixes. EQ Recordings practically encourages it, and it’s certainly paid off for the label, in that it’s established itself as one of the premier DJ mix series – fans now tend to come away somewhat underwhelmed if the chosen jock(s) doesn’t do something unique. So, the fact Voorn seems to have willfully dove into a concept mix of this sort got all the commentators giddy. After all, here was once again an opportunity to discuss the merits of commercial DJ mixes as a something uniquely artistic which, in this age of podcasts and radio sets aplenty, does seem to be a dying artform; and this was the same reason commentators feared tackling Balance 014 as well.

Voorn’s tracklist seems to gleefully taunt any kind of criticism. Indeed, how can one be critical of something that has apparently been crafted with such passion and care? To say anything negative about Balance 014 automatically paints such a critic as someone who doesn’t appreciate artistic endeavors, thus rendering their opinions on such matters moot. Forget whether the music is actually good or not, it must be praised on concept alone.

Maybe I’d be willing to fall sway to this massive tracklist like so many others have if I thought there was something truly uniquely clever going on here. Yes, for a series that typically caters to the progressive house sect (whatever sound ‘prog’ currently represents), a CD1 with fifty-plus tracks does look impressive. But it’s not like Voorn’s playing all these as individual songs; rather, he’s cherry-picked bits and pieces to create a collage of dubby tech-house that plays out quite like a traditional prog set (re: atmospheric lead, groovy build, mid-set peak, indulgent third-act, climax/outro). On one hand, this does make it somewhat more impressive than Richie Hawtin’s DE9 mix (and indeed, Voorn’s own Fuse, a similar technical showcase), as there is ample amount of actual melody involved that creates a definite narrative. Yet compared to the wild-yet-cohesive ‘cut’n’paste’ antics of turntablists like Coldcut, Z-Trip, and DJ Shadow, Voorn’s effort here seems timid.

“Enough,” you say, “just fucking tell me if this is worth my pennies or not, f’er crissakes!” The Mizuiro disc most definitely is. As mentioned, it flows seamlessly from beginning to end, taking your ears on a lovely little journey through various atmospheres, pleasing melodies, groovy passages, and sinister soundscapes. Although the ketamine-murk of the second half may not be everyone’s cup of chamomile, Voorn ends the disc on a lovely bit of psychedelic ambiance from an obscure Alter Ego side-project, making it worth your while to let the whole disc play out – after all, such tranquility is only enhanced by the menace that comes before. The only quibble to be had is the lead into this ambient outro, as it makes use of a mild tease of a build, suggesting a more vigorous climax to Mizuiro. All is forgiven once you realize where Voorn aims to take you instead, mind, but a tease it remains.

The Midori Mix, on the other hand, comes across as a mish-mash of leftover ideas. It opens strongly with bright house beats and fresh funk, but quickly drops back into the k-hole with dark, dubby minimal-tech. This of itself is nifty head music, yet comes off redundant if you’ve just listened to Mizuiro; and makes the vigorous beginning of CD2 seem rather pointless, especially so since Voorn keeps lowering the tempo until we’re floating in beatless lounge-chill mid-way through. From there, Midori keeps jumping all over the place: disco-funk makes a return, then is promptly dropped again in favor of ambient; some jazzy-soul passages come by, yet don’t seem to relate to the rest of the mix in any way. Of course, the actual music is perfectly fine –the lack of a cohesive narrative to it all is what holds CD2 down in terms of an endearing listen.

I’m sure you’ve noticed I haven’t really been highlighting titles Voorn as used. Truthfully, there’s very little point in doing so, in that his mix isn’t about individual tracks. And to be perfectly honest, the music works better the less familiar you are with the tunes he’s used – you’ll end up just letting yourself go with the flow of his set rather than endlessly trainspotting the bits and pieces he’s used. Frankly, I found myself distracted by playing too much “I See What You Did There” with the tracks I was most familiar with. Example: Leftfield’s Rino’s Prayer: I kept waiting for the beats of the original to drop, and felt hanging when he instead just looped the dub-throb effect of the original. I’m sure there are a number of similar examples others could point out with their listening experience of this. Granted, some folks thoroughly enjoy doing so. Much like Boards Of Canada fans love hunting for sonic easter eggs, or Star Wars Prequel fans love scouring the background of Lucus’ effects-laden scenes, some could spend hours dissecting what Voorn has done with what during the course of his sets (spoiler alert: if you go to his website, you can watch a Flash animation that lays it out for you). Yet, in doing so, we’re praising production gimmickry, not musical merit.

In that regard, I cannot in good conscience give Balance 014 the super-high marks others have given it. Yes, the technical aspects are awesome, but I’m here to judge the final musical product, not studio tricks. And Voorn’s mix is musically good, not great. While I can’t fault the ambition that went into this, it unfortunately comes across as needlessly overcooked across two discs. And ultimately, were I to throw on a hour-long mix with forty-plus tracks, I’d sooner grab a Soulwax set – it may be messier, but it’s definitely more fun.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009. All rights reserved.

Various - Balance 013: SOS

EQ Recordings: 2008

Thirteen volumes deep, and the Balance series came full circle. Or looped around. Reached into its past. Had its first instance of a returning DJ, is what I'm getting at. This time though, he's with two other chaps as a super-group (before being in a super-group was cool). In a more subtle sense, Balance 013 brings in Omid '16B' Nourizadeh for the first time. You might recall I've come into contact with him via his Changing Shape alias, the track Keep It On opening Bill Hamel's contribution to the Nokturnel Mix Sessions series. And Bill Hamel did the third volume of the Balance series! Which means... which means... I could really go for a side of bacon in my next breakfast.

The inlay blurb (and Discogs entry) has quite the lengthy spiel of positive hyperbole regarding Omid, Desyn, and Demi's impact upon the clubbing scene. As I look back upon those heady years of the late '00s, however, I fail recalling anything of the collective called SOS. Maybe it was mostly in the UK and Europe they did their damage, the cross-Atlantic markets denied their tours. Still, as with Deysen's own career, SOS seemed to have disappeared from the Discoggian archives as the 2010s took hold. Not that there was much prior either, but when clubbing culture became all about the super-group DJ squads, I can't imagine SOS stood out from the pack as much anymore.

Still, compared to some of the Balance sets of the period (*cough-012-cough*), this has held up quite well. It's not a brilliant 3CD set by any stretch, and would likely be poo-poo'd out of Very Important critical discussion compared to the series' follow-ups. Very little feels dated though, tunes that knew exactly what they were aiming for, with DJs deploying them in an efficient manner.

Well, maybe not so much CD1. Clearly meant to be the 'chill-out' set, this one's too scattershot to accomplish its goal. Yeah, I like hearing Speedy J's De-Orbit and Bryan Ferry's Don't Stop The Dance, but in cramming the variety they do with competing visions, it comes off rather aimless and jumbled. Stick to the dancefloors, mates.

So they do, CDs two and three riding things out with acid house, Balearic prog, spacey disco, beefy breakbeats, and Aeroplane. Someone in SOS sure loves them some Aeroplane. About the only time things go super hands-in-the-air is with Michael Cassette's Shadow's Movement, but their retro sounds are charming enough for an anthem, so I'll allow it.

As much as I grooved to these sets though, I can't say they often got me excited either. It could just be the three-disc format making it difficult to take in all at once, but then other 3CDers in this series don't have that problem. For better or worse, I know what each set sounded like in other Balances, whereas they blended together here. Still not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but for certain, it is a thing.

ACE TRACKS: December 2019 / Janurary2020

It's funny how you can work for years building towards something, do everything to put yourself into a position where a goal is within your grasp, hype yourself to the Right People such that you should be a shoo-in for the switch-up... Only to take a look at the situation just before it's Go Time and think, “Mm, nah. I'm better off where I'm at.” Could it have been cold feet? A little, though I can't say the circumstances were completely in my favour either. The one or two uncertainties reared their head, which would have led to a frustrated, disgruntled, not-very happy Sykonee in the short term, I just know. Nay, better to keep rockin' and killin' where I'm currently at, with a less stressful, more fun opportunity presenting itself in the near future. As I say, funny how that works out.


Thank you for this month's performing rendition of Vague Bloggin'! Now, here are the ACE TRACKS from *checks notes* the past two months!


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Balance 008: Desyn Masiello
Various - Balance 007: Chris Fortier
Various - Back To Mine: Faithless

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 10%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Out Of Range by Swollen Members, maybe.

No surprise Gas dominates this playlist, what with having covered the Nah Und Fern box-set. Aside from that though, there's a remarkable amount of diversity in here, if rather slight. Nothing like several 'casual listening' collections to spice the selection up.

Various - Balance Issue N. 12: Lee Burridge

EQ Recordings: 2007

Lee Burridge's adamant he's not prog-house DJ, that he only got roped into that demarcation due to his associations with Sasha's inner circle. Even when he was tapped for the Global Underground offshoot Nubreed series, he went out of his way to include tunes outside the traditional prog-house scope (Deep house! Tech-house! Breakbeats!) And as his career progressed (har, har), he gained a reputation as that 'progressive DJ' you'd go to see if you wanted to hear a varied, eclectic set of tunes, especially on the techno side of things. Cool beans, yo', and now he's tasked with a Balance 3CD set, where previous jocks had worked outside the borders of traditional mix CDs, showcasing eclectic tastes, leftfield genres-

It's minimal. All the way through. *sigh* It is 2007, I guess, the nadir of this trend with prog circles.

I'd be fine with just one disc of the stuff - play it, conclude it's rubbish, never play it again. To dedicate all three to the sound though, with nary a bone thrown to any other genre in existence...

Supposedly Lee wanted this set to represent what you'd hear at a night out him performing, but with dance music as useless to dance to as this, I'd just as soon hang outside with the smokers all night. Maybe wander off for a street kebab before returning to hear if things have gotten better. Nope, still monotonous *thup-thup*.

This isn't even the oft' derided plinky-plonk minimal, but the much worse 'blippy-blomp' strain that 'prog' DJs typically rinsed out. No momentum in the rhythms, tracks perfunctorily played one after the other, utterly devoid of hooks, and all too inwardly fascinated by random sounds and effects. It's the sort of wibble-wankery that psy-trance gets mocked for, but at least psy has some energy to it, what with a rolling bassline cranked to 140bpm and all. No surprise one of 'mnml's biggest acts came from the prog-psy camps.

Mind, there are differences in each CD. Disc one (Orange) is the slower and moodier of the three, and at least has some atmosphere to it thanks to sporadic pads. It also kinda' builds like a traditional prog-house set (breakdowns!), though we're talking the height of a street curb here. CD2 (Red) is the most tedious of the lot, somehow getting slower as it moves along, with no track feeding off the last. CD3 (Green) at first had me thinking Lee was gonna' step things up a notch, some actual beef in the beats of opener Dubbel Problematik from Tomas Andersson. We're still a couple years before the Berghain sound came to dominate though, so it's right back into blippty-bloopy minimal. Still, the tracks in Green do maintain a fun, skippity rhythm.

If nothing else, Balance 012 provides a suitable snapshot of a clubbing scene completely devoted to the bandwagon it'd jumped upon. For a time, this was the sound many were certain would carry them into the future. None of them would ever play this way again.

Various - Balance 010: Jimmy Van M (Original TC Review)

EQ Recordings: 2006

(2020 Update:
Wow, doing 2020 updates now... that's crazy. Ahem..

Jimmy and Chris Fortier were pretty much my favorite 2nd tier prog house/trance jocks, so it's funny that their triple-CD offerings for the Balance series ended up having opposite effects on me. Whereas I only liked and returned to CD3 of Fortier's set, I've never returned to CD3 of Jimmy's set (and vice-versa with the other discs). However, whereas I've come around to Fortier's other mixes, re-listening to CD3 here only reaffirms just how much these prog-house guys struggled finding their way in the wave of minimal's trendy dominance.

Still, credit due to Mr. van M, paving the way for all those future Balance releases where eclecticism was celebrated. True, it got a little out of hand, such that the series felt obligated to return to more traditional DJ mix CD outings, but... eh, we'll get there when we get there. For now, I'll simply admit having serious bias to these mixes over the others, in that half the track selection here could have come from my own collection of music.)

IN BRIEF: A mix for electronic music fans by an electronic music fan.

Jimmy Van M is one of those DJs who, despite being in the business for several years, never quite moved beyond underground darling status. While often tapped by Sasha and Digweed to be their warm-up act on tours, his profile has consistently remained stuck in the trenches of clubland while the superstars grab the spotlight.

Still, Jimmy earned him a loyal following that has given him the freedom to explore DJing avenues some would consider counter-productive to creating a larger profile. Take his first official DJ mix. When Ministry Of Sound tapped him for the debut American version of their popular Trance Nation series, ol’ M delivered to them a trance set that was a far cry from the style UK runner Ferry Corsten was compiling. It was, as the old schoolers of the time termed it, “proper trance”, a prog trance set that could have given the heavyweights a run for their money. Of course, for a series known for its epic anthems, this just wouldn’t do and it wasn’t the best way to make a first impression on the masses. Small surprise the follow-up Trance Nation America featured Corsten clone George Acosta and Top 40 favorite ATB.

Perhaps going against the grain was the point though. Jimmy’s style hints at being a music lover first and a DJ second, and the constraint often imposed on DJs by major labels would definitely be unappealing. It seems the Balance series has come along and offered him the freedom of a mix he desires.

So what we have here is an eclectic collection of music spanning nearly two decades, all arranged into three differing discs. Anyone with a passing familiarity with electronic music should recognize a number of these tracks - heck, even steady readers of this website will notice a few (Bill Laswell, Boards Of Canada, Peter Benisch, and others scattered about). Given the amount of time covered, Balance 010 may look like a Back To Mine or Choice collection rather than a current DJ mix, but Jimmy’s arrangement is silky smooth. Tracks sometimes separated by a decade flow together with remarkable skill. As for the details of each disc, they display very unique personalities which fit their tempos.

The most diverse of the lot is the Downtempo Mix. Sets like this one are tricky to pull off, in that the listener’s attention can easily wander when listening to chill music. And even if the strength of individual tracks keeps it from becoming wallpaper muzak, a downtempo set can still lack cohesion if one tries to compile it like a typical dance set; this is music meant to chill out to. So what Jimmy has done here is created a set that dwells on one style for a bit, then moves onto a different style through a bridging bit of ambiance. Dubby world music, psychedelic chill, loungy acid jazz, and avant garde pop all have moments to hold the stage. Because each segment typically runs for only a couple tracks before an ambient interlude leaves it behind, the tempos on this disc wildly vary, which greatly helps keep your attention to see where the mix will take you next. Listening to M’s arrangement of these songs is like floating along a dreamy river where, just when you feel like you’ve gotten a handle on the scenery around you, the landscape morphs into something unexpected yet fits with what came before.

In case the loose nature of the Downtempo Mix has you fearing the others are going to be like that, worry not: the Midtempo Mix tightens things up considerably.

Oh, not all at once, mind you. The opening bit of the second disc displays the same amount of genre-jumping as the first, going from Miles Tilmann’s intelligent techno offerings into something more ethereal and organic for a couple tracks afterwards (including the haunting oldie Blue Bell Knoll from Cocteau Twins - now there’s something unexpected in a ‘dance’ mix!). Jimmy returns us to the intelligent techno after this diversion, although it isn’t the glitchy noise-fest the term IDM has become associated with. Most of it is the mellow grooving sort that would often be found on plenty of ambient techno compilations from the early '90s. Heck, Aphex Twin’s Delphium was on such compilations. There’s a fair deal of newer material within this lot though, including some super-rare material from Adam Johnson: the bottom-heavy track Kriegspiel is definitely a highlight here.

Towards the end of the Midtempo Mix, Jimmy smoothly moves us from the techno into territory he’s more known for: prog house. There’s only a few tracks to gorge on here, but each easily fits the within the mix’s dark, groovy futuristic theme. Also, one might find playing the full fifteen minutes of Underworld’s remix of Cool Kids Of Death cheeky, but given the fact the track manages to hold your interest for the duration is a testament to that group’s songcraft prowess.

And now the third disc. The Uptempo Mix... well, uptempo when compared to the other two. The BPM doesn’t get much higher than the mid-130s, which, for a DJ known mostly for prog house, is about par for the course.

Here, Jimmy keeps things current. Every track is from the year 2006 and not a moment earlier. Because this is more of a representation of what you might hear at a club rather than something for at home, this mix doesn’t display anywhere near the diversity of the other two. The quick and easy lump term for it would probably be (cringe) ‘minimal,’ but aside from a few early tracks, M remains within tech house’s territory... and prog house, I guess, since that genre’s been borrowing elements of tech and minimal lately. Ah, hell. Since there’s generous influences from many other styles of music lurking in this tech house mix (trance, tribal, acid, electro), let’s just call this style “...Except-The-Kitchen-Sink House.” Or, like so many others, minimal tech-house. Argh! I’m going bleary eyed with all these adjectives! Anyhow, this is mostly tech house with prog influences, and despite having the Uptempo header, is quite low-key in its delivery. Things do groove along nicely for the most part and there’s a good acid peak-out moments in the middle courtesy of Tom Pooks’ Docker, but as with much of this kind of music, it makes better sense on the dancefloor or while doing something active than sitting back at home.

The particulars out of the way, I suppose I should answer the big question: is this edition of the Balance series worth your money if you happen to own a number of these tracks elsewhere. The strength of Jimmy’s mix (any good DJ’s, really) is in taking tracks dedicated trainspotters are familiar with and putting them into a set where they can take on a new context. Hell, I never would have imagined Delphium would have worked as a perfect segue into prog house, yet M pulls it off with ease here (as just one example of many available). However, the Uptempo Mix doesn’t quite live up the expectations set out by the first two, so Balance 010 doesn’t get the super high marks a top notch DJ mix would normally earn.

In spite of this, Jimmy’s offering for the Balance series is a worthy pick up for electronic music lovers. The first two discs will easily remind you why you fell in love with this music in the first place, and the third is a decent bonus to groove on.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic, 2006. All rights reserved.

Various - Balance 008: Desyn Masiello

EQ Recordings: 2005

Before getting into Desyn Masiello's contribution to the Balance series, I feel it necessary to confirm that, yes, I don't have James Holden's edition. For sure I've heard it, and I thought to myself, “Gosh, if it ever comes down in price, I may pick that up.” It never did, growing more pricey as the years went on. Not some of those other Balance mixes though!

Straight up, I don't know much about Mr. Masiello, and to be fair, neither does the modern internet. Chap apparently had quite the run of success within prog-house circles at the start of the '00s, often name-dropped among the Next Generation of DJs leading that scene into the future. Except he didn't, nearly any records of solo output drying up from Discoggian archives following this release, retreating into the DJ conglomerate SOS thereafter. No follow-up DJ mixes, no big singles, and no in-demand remixes. For all intents, Desyn peaked out with Balance 008, then decided the fame of having a 'Best of 2005' set out on the market was all the taste of the limelight he needed. Time to get back behind the decks, with two other guys running photo interference.

By the by, when I saw Discoggian posts claiming Balance 008 got a 'Best Of 2005' honour, I had a hard time figuring out from who. Like, DJ Mag, or Mixmag? Surely not Resident Advisor, but lo', when I checked, there it was! I couldn't believe they would have considered a set such as this among the best releases of that year, but then, RA was still in the habit of dishing out 3.5/5's to the likes of Ferry Corsten and Armin van Buuren. Ah, your older shame will never be wiped away, RA.

Right, the music. It definitely isn't 'prog' in any traditional sense, that's for sure. I've seen the word electro bandied about for Desyn's selection, but coming off Chris Fortier's proper electro exercise in Balance 007, that just won't do either. Still, there's definitely something of an '80s space disco vibe going on with CD1, with occasional Moroder basslines sprinkled about the retro synths. Even when Desyn tries steering things into traditional prog and anthem house territory for the finish, there's still that space disco feeling lingering in the air.

Chris Lake's piano anthem Changes ends CD1 on a pretty big high, almost impossible to follow upon in CD2. So Mr. Masiello doesn't even try, instead getting a little indulgent by opening with Orbital's Halcyon Anonanon. Okay, sure, not my favourite Orbital tune, but I'm sure has plenty of personal feels for Desyn. This set's a bit all over the place though, running through loopy disco house, funky synthy house, Hed Kandi anthem house (thanks, Joey Negro), and deeper tech-house. Some good tunes in there, but not as cohesive as CD1 was. Ah well, at least there was no sign of the dreaded 'mnml' bug in here. The Balance series wasn't gonna' hold that off for much longer though.

Various - Balance 007: Chris Fortier

EQ Recordings: 2005

Balance? What is this? I recall that Bill Hamel guy was involved, but when the DJ mix market was flooded with serviceable prog sets with interesting photographic cover art, you'll forgive me for passing on the series' early editions. Tell me that Chris by-God Fortier has been tapped for a whopping 3CD set, however, and you've got my attention! Dude had twice kept my prog faith alive by that point, the previous year's Audiotour all but cementing my notion he could do no wrong. And now he was unleashing a triple-discer of the stuff? Who cares if I have to import it from Australia, there's no way this could go wrong!

Balance 007 became my least played release from Mr. Fortier, some of the CDs un-played since I first threw them on fifteen years ago. Oh... oh no! How did that happen?

It didn't take long to remember the sinking feeling with CD1. With an early run of trendy minimal tech-haus, it was my first indication that the prog bandwagon jump into that genre wasn't going to be pretty. Hell, the tunes from Alex Smoke and 2 Doller Egg aren't even that bad compared to what was to come, but stacked against the deep proggy vibes of Chris' previous mix CD, it was a serious letdown. Shame on me too, because the back-half of CD1 features some mint Soma Quality Recordings techno. My brain just wasn't ready to accept it from a Fortier set, I guess.

Even worse, I was so checked out on what Fortier was doing with Balance 007 that I barely registered he supplied the prog I was craving in CD2. To be fair, the start of this disc is somewhat misleading, getting in on a little menacing robot music action. Plus, Vector Lovers is here! Oh man, hearing one of my favourite electro producers was so unexpected and enjoyed, nothing better could follow it, despite coming so early in the set. Have I mentioned I never realized there's some mighty fine deep, dubby prog in the back-half of CD2, that I only realized just now, after revisiting Balance 007 all these years later?

Honestly though, the main reason the first two discs of this triple-discer faded from my memory is because of CD3, a surprising bonus outing of proper electro from the Fade Records founder (plus a little Floridian and prog-breaks action towards the end). And when I say proper, I mean proper, Mr. Fortier firmly declaring the lamented appropriation of the word for obnoxious acid-fart house music an injustice to the roots of robot-funk music. Aw, man... brother, I feels you so hard in the year 2005, I do. *fist taps the heart* For sure, anytime I grabbed Balance 007, it was always CD3 played first and only. Such a breath of fresh air then, and still holds up remarkably well now. As do the other discs too, even if it took me this long to accept it.

Gas - Nah Und Fern: Pop

Mille Plateaux/Kompakt: 2000/2008

(a Patreon Request from Omskbird)

One of some dozen ambient albums you're supposed to have, particularly if you're not a fan of ambient music. Naturally, as someone who considers himself a connoisseur of the genre, such a consensus had me a little skeptical of Pop's adulation. It's no small task in paring a scene as long lasting and expansive as this one down to a select few Must Haves, the standouts demanding something truly unique to stand out from the glut of releases.

So when I gave Pop a whirl, I thought to myself, yeah, there's some nice sounding tones, looping samples into an otherworldly atmosphere one can easily lose their headspace in. Isn't this a style already covered by the likes of Zoviet France and Rapoon though? Maybe so, but I'm sure folks checking out the fourth Gas album on the basis of a glowing Pitchfork recommendation weren't the sort to have delved into industrial ambient's back catalogue. Still, I couldn't help but wonder why it was Wolfgang Voigt's project that got such attention from the indie sect, and I could only surmise it being out on Mille Plateaux, a label already gaining hipster cred from its clicks 'n' cuts series of glitch releases. Throw in the cheeky concept of this being a 'pop' album, so named from the choice of orchestral samples being on the lighter side of the music, and you've crafted quite the cocktail of indie swoon.

Such knee-jerk dismissals on my part should have no bearing on how this album holds up though, with plenty of time and distance from initial reactions. To which I say, for the most part, I enjoy this, and even manages to stand distinct from countless other ambient records released since that emulate the otherworldly warmth crafted here (and believe me, there's been plenty). I could leave the first two tracks off Pop, in that those clicky-hissy noises that serve as a pseudo-rhythm do nothing but grate on my senses, almost token throw-away glitch sounds required of a Mille Plateaux release. What are those anyway, money counting machines pitched way up? Just lay the layers of looping drone on me like a warm blanket, Wolf-mang!

Or hey, offer up some of those dubbed-out rhythms, though I'm glad to hear Mr. Voigt found a way to change those up some too, having grown a tad stale by Königsforst. Thus Pop IV features a looping rhythm that cheerfully bounces with an echoing bell tone. Elsewhere, we have the 'classic' Gas dub techno rhythm for the final fifteen-minute closer, lending the track a surprisingly grand atmosphere following all that drone. Pop music indeed.

Could I recommend other ambient albums over this? Yeah, probably, but if you're just getting your feet wet, Pop is as good of an entry point as any for getting a feel of the genre's myriad styles. I have no contention in seeing this appear on 'Best Of' lists. Just, y'know, don't act surprised when I don't include it my own mythical 'Best Of' list.

Gas - Nah Und Fern: Königsforst

Mille Plateaux/Kompakt: 1998/2008

(a Patreon Request fro Omskbird)

I must admit, when I got this Gas box-set, my initial plan wasn't to review these CDs in chronological order. Nay, I thought it'd be cheeky fun to do the original request first, Königsforst, then come back to the rest in my usual alphabetical order. For sure I'd make it clear these review copies came from Nah Und Fern, but my OCD wouldn't allow me to do it in any other order. Or something.

When I threw Königsforst on for the first time, however, I came to the quick conclusion that I was gonna' have to hear the rest of the Gas catalogue for context. Yeah, I'd heard Pop in the past, but something led me to suspect that wasn't enough. And if I'm to play through Nah Und Fern for 'studying' purposes, I may as well get those reviews done while I'm at it too.

As an aside of quirky factoids, when I ripped the CDs to my harddrive, they all did so as part of Nah Und Fern, except this one. I get why that would have happened with Gas, significantly different compared to the Mille Plateaux version as it is. Zauberberg did have a slight change too, one of its tracks extended compared to the original, but surely the digital version included this change as well. Like, I'm assuming that's why Königsforst defaulted to stand-alone info rather than the box-set, and that re-reissue is more current than Zauberberg's. Ah, I'm dawdling.

I guess it's clear my thoughts and feelings over Königsforst are lukewarm at best. I thought it at least interesting upon first playthrough, with Königsforst V being a definite highlight in invoking some actual emotion out of my brain. Plus, those stereo-pan kicks in Königsforst II did a remarkable job of keeping me entranced while all those dronescapes droned on. Unfortunately, I couldn't shake the sense I was listening to music as concept over music as engagement. Par for the course with experimental music, especially on a label like Mille Plateaux, but given the endless adulation Wolfgang Voigt's project has generated over the years, I wondered if I was missing something (not the first time I've had an issue with Gas).

Yet, I found those older albums more interesting than this. The raw exploration of Gas and the conceptual journey of Zauberberg simply struck my cerebellum better, whereas Königsforst just felt like Wolfgang going through the motions. Here are more orchestral samples stretched and layered into dronescapes, here are more dubbed-out beats emanating from the deepest parts of the forest. This album certainly encompasses all the elements you'd expect out of a Gas record, and does occasionally reach the lofty heights the project's decades-long praise has generated. Still, it's mostly carried by One Neat Trick. A rather clever one but at three albums deep now, not showing much in the way of evolution. Not that it needs to either, just I need to hear something more from the project get more invested in it.