Renaissance welcomes back with adoring arms Danny Howells, who serves up two huge discs for the latest edition in the esteemed Mix Collection series. Following the previous releases form the likes of Sasha & Digweed was never going to be easy, but don’t underestimate the man most revered by the underground faithful.

If you’ve seen Howells live in action DJing at a major club night or festival, you’d most likely have seen him punching out a chugging uptempo set of all things prog, tech, electro and downright general goodness. If you thought or hoped that this album would be much of the same, then you’ll be disappointed; as Howells explores a fresh new sound on a much, much more downtempo tip. In his own words, Howells describes his selections on both discs of the album as the “kind of house music (that) he’s digging at the moment” which is “very laid-back, and also melodic and warm”. Couldn’t have described it better myself.

From the opening notes of disc one there is a strong theme that will stay true for the duration of the album, melody. Melody, melodic and all things ambient come to mind. Howells tucks into his work and puts on a fresh new sound that most in a club environment wouldn’t have seen before. While some might think Howells is stepping out of his comfort zone in an exploratory move to widen his musical boundaries, you could well be right; but if you thought this move would limit Howells capacity to entertain, you’d be wrong. Howells crunches this new sound with absolute aplomb and reinforces why he is so highly revered by not only global dance music fans, but by his own peers in the industry.

From the opening notes of disc one it is clearly apparent that this will be, as Howells himself stated, a laidback mix that is melodic and warm. La La Li is a gorgeous intro and sets the scene with a simple and elegant sound from shakers and sparse piano keys. With the ocean crashing in the background you could be forgiven for thinking this is an Ibiza chill-out compilation.

The first twenty minutes are much of the same as Danny lays a thick ambient platform for which to launch the rest of his mix. The first sign of the mix starting to wake up hits when Danny’s lays out his first original tune in sometime with Laid Out. This bomb takes the mix up a few gears and brings the audience from laidback on the beach to firmly on the dancefloor. With a booming bassline and addictive melody, this one had me rocking out big time. As the mix continues and each tune passes, Howells masterfully and seamlessly blends each track into the next, putting up on display his gargantuan skills. From start to finish the mix is exceptionally put together and very heavy on memorable melodies, in short it’s a Howells masterclass.

Disc two and it’s a fresh new sound. While Howells picks up where he left off on disc one, its immediate impact is shown with a more uptempo pace to the mix, lending itself more to the dancefloor sound that you’d expect from Howells from a club or festival DJ set. He opens with two of his own productions, Laid Back and The Shining. While Howells played both of these tracks on the laid-back first disc, the contrast couldn’t be more different as these new mixes immediately reinforce the more up-tempo nature of disc two.

The feel is more polished, more natural and more seamless, as Howells slips into a tempo more accustomed to playing out. Through the middle of the mix it continues to build until Howells drops Sunshine Jone´s fantastic If You Wouldn´t Mind, which has been reworked by Tiger Stripes who chop up the vocals to great effect. Following this is an exceptional remix of Joris Voorn´s The Deep. These two back to back really bring the disc to peak time power and further demonstrate Howells deft ear at mixing, and as the mix draws nearer to a close, Howells keeps things moving with some deep sounds that only someone of the ilk of Howells can deliver. Overall it’s another display of Howell’s amazing talent.

While some have said it was hard to pick a favourite between the two, I’ve gone for disc two. Just because I like music that moves me and its dancefloor friendly tempo holds one over the master-class programming and seamlessly ambient mixing of disc one. If you didn’t know who Danny Howells was before now, but this album and see what the fuss is all about. One of the albums of the year.