Various Artists - Mixology 11, mixed by Bexta and Sophie Sugar

Australia’s darling of trance music Bexta has released the 11th installment in her revered Mixology series. For the first time for the mix compilation series, Bexta has collaborated with another DJ, UK’s #1 trance femme fatale Sophie Sugar. Sophie is one of the rising stars of the global trance scene and is signed to Armin Van Buuren’s revered Armada label. Sophie and BeXta met while on a tour of Indonesia last year, and their common love of trance led them to stay in touch and eventually come up with the idea to collaborate on Mixology 11. And for the first time the compilation is an international release, an exciting development for the series.

Bexta takes the reins on Disc 1 and kicks things off with the chunky tech trancer Dominator by Mr. Sam vs. Human Resource. The tech trance continues in the early stanzas of the mix with Alex M.O.R.P.H.’s Walk the Edge, another early highlight. Armin, Ronski Speed and Simon Patterson are just some of the trance superstars and all are featured with selections on the first disc.

Patterson’s is the pick of the trio and easily the best track of the mix with his immortal trance single Smack. One of the biggest trance album of the past 12 months, this explosive uplifting trancer brings the peak of the mix as we near the end of the first disc. Bexta signs off on the mix by closing with Barry Jay’s Accelerate, which features the vocals used in Bexta’s seminal trance classic Make It Phunkee.

With Bexta done and dusted it’s time for Sophie Sugar to impress on debut and give a unique international flavour to the Mixology series. While Bexta’s mix was predominately chunky tech trance, Sugar immediately ups the tempo and opens her mix brilliantly with Cosmic Gate’s latest single A Day That Fades. This big room trancer, featuring vocals by Roxanne Emery, lays the platform and tempo for the rest of the mix, which is uplifting, euphoric and packed with energy.

Sugar’s mix flows effortlessly through the middle and peaks with the latest (and much overdue!) release from trance’s super-producer Plastic Boy with Rise Up. With all the hallmarks of a typical Plastic Boy release, It’s his signature big-room uplifting trance sound. Sugar hits a purple patch straight after with The System with Inertia and Technology by Sebastian Brandt, making it a hat-trick of top shelf trancers.

As this ultra impressive mix continues, there’s time for Sugar to display her production prowess with two stunning selections Redemption and Fallen Too Far. The latter is the penultimate track on the album and is easily the pick of the two. Last year it became a worldwide smash hit after being signed to Armada, with the track receiving heavy support from the world’s A-list trance DJs and featuring in top 10 charts on numerous dance music download websites. As the mix draws near to a close, Sugar signs off in style with Aurora by Temple One. And with that, we are done.

In summary, this album will be a welcome addition to a trance fan’s album collection. Any notion that Bexta will be upstaged on her own compilation series by her international counterpart is thrown out the door with this stunning endorsement of her personal talents on the first disc. While Sugar’s mix is of the highest possible ilk, it’s Bexta’s that’ll be burning a whole in your stereo speakers for the longest.

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