(Renaissance/Stomp)

Dave Seaman has been one of my favourite DJs for quite a few years now.  I own many of his mixes and have seen him live as often as any other international DJ.  His mix CD’s are always excellent, and he has been involved in the production of some of my all-time favourite tracks.  In short, I feel like I know him. Luke Chable on the other hand is a complete mystery to me.  I have never heard a mix by him, either on CD or online, and I have never seen him play live.  I had a vague feeling that he played breaks, but that’s about it. Anyway, I decided I wanted to review the disc – after all, with Dave Seaman mixing CD1, what could possibly go wrong?

The Dave Seaman mix starts off in a very predictable manner.  The first track is quite a standard set opener and the second carries on in much the same vein.  Sure there is a build in-tempo, and there are some interesting breakdowns in the second track, but it was pretty much what I expected.  Then about 30 seconds into track three, “Silicone Souls” by Les Nocturnes, I was floored by one of the best bass riffs I have heard in a long time.  I was absolutely smitten! From there, Dave presents a tech-filled masterpiece called “Drifting out of sight” by Mellow.  Don’t be fooled by the artist’s name, this track is nothing of the sort.  It is, however, one of the real highlights of this CD.  It has evil little build-ups and every time I hear them I just want to bounce off the walls!

In contrast, on first listen “Come with me” by Holden and Thompson is the ultimate party pooper.  It’s a far slower track than the previous two and it lacks real energy.  It sounds to me like the music played by James Holden on the Balance 05 compilation. As he is one of the producers responsible for this track, this comes as no surprise.  After listening to the CD a few times, however, I realise that this track is actually a very interesting piece of music.  It also serves as a break in the tempo of the mix, giving enough space to build the tempo progressively over the remainder of the mix, without going over the top. Please keep an ear out for the Killahurtz mixes of Tilt’s “New Day” and “Finding Time” by Stel. They are both absolute barnstormers and contain those fantastic up-tempo bass lines that seem to be infused throughout this mix. 

I have listened to CD 1 many times since it arrived and I cannot get enough of it.  It has everything that I look for in mix.  A fresh and interesting sound, real peaks and troughs, fantastic mixing, a variety of genres included, and enough energy in the mix to power a medium sized community for a year!  Added to that, there isn’t a boring track amongst the lot.  To me, this is musical perfection.  This is Dave Seaman at his absolute best.  I wish that there were two discs of this sort of music.  Rush out and grab yourself a copy of this mix yesterday if not sooner!

Next up is the Luke Chable mix. The first time I listened to this disc I was horrified.  I thought this mix was one of the worst ever to bear the Renaissance name.  Now this has nothing to do with the ability of the DJ, track selection, or any other criticism that I would normally level at a mix.  No, my main complaint was that this is a breaks CD.  Not progressive breaks, just breaks.

I know very little about breaks and my lack of knowledge is deliberate.  I have never understood the genre and usually go to great lengths to avoid it.  Whenever I do hear it, it only reinforces my decision.  In order to review a CD, however, I have to listen to it first.

So I decided to apply an old technique to the problem: if you take an initial dislike to a piece of music, listen to it at least three times, and you should start to hear things that you didn’t hear the first time.  Familiarity is a powerful ally.  You know what to expect, so you can actually concentrate on the music, rather than wondering what is coming next.  This allows me to get past my initial dislike and actually listen to what is being played. 

The first track is an excellent tune. Well, until the back end that is, when it goes into some form of bleep theory.  But that’s only for a short period and the more I hear it, the more I like it.  Luke then leads us to a great track with a fantastic vocal called “Fragile” by Rene Amesz.  I’m not sure that I would actually like the track all that much if there wasn’t a vocal through it; luckily the vocal carries the track very well. 

The next two tracks are, in my opinion, the real low point of Luke’s mix.  I have listened to them repeatedly, and I just don’t like them.  The first time, they were enough to make me turn the CD off, and each successive play has only brought marginal improvement.  They are mixed well, however, and I’m the first to admit that other people will probably love them.

If the previous two tracks were a disappointment then the next two tracks more than make up for it, especially “Return to Saturn” by Daniel Bonnici. From here the pattern is repeated.  There are two tracks that I don’t like, followed by two that I do.  “Parallel Realities” and “Pickadollen” seem to be bogged down and going nowhere and they just bleep repeatedly like some Casio calculator searching for an answer which never arrives. It’s a shame really, as the rest of the mix is excellent, with a particular highlight being Luke’s own mix of a track he helped produce in the first place, called “Tokyo”. 

Looking back, my first listen wasn’t a success but now I like quite a bit of this mix.  So who knows – another few listens and I get the feeling that I’m going to enjoy this mix every bit as much as the Dave Seaman one.  I may not have known anything about Luke Chable before inthemix sent me this CD, but now that I have, I feel I want to know more.  When it’s all said and done, that’s the ultimate compliment isn’t it?