Satoshi Tomiie’s previous Master Series for Renaissance was a brilliant piece of understated progressive music programming that quickly established itself as one of my favourite mixes of 2008. So when I saw that the Japanese house master was releasing another mix, I grabbed it with both hands and I’ve been listening to nothing else ever since. The appeal of this mix wasn’t immediate, however. In fact, on my first listen I actually fell asleep. OK, so it was the morning and I was on he train… but I’d just finished drinking a triple shot coffee. Asleep is the last state I should have been in! But once I began to tune in and pay proper attention, I slowly fell in love with it.

The mix opens with ‘chill out’ house tunes that remind me of the sea lapping at the shoreline. If you turn the sound down low, the first four tracks sound like the sort of music you’d hear in a beachside café on a Sunday morning. Yet if you increase the volume considerably then the true nature of it shines through: deep melodic music that is beautiful to listen to if you give it a chance. However, as soon as Satoshi drops in On the streets, the deliciously dark, warm bass lines start to shudder, warning you that things are changing and heading in an all together more sinister direction.

Then just when you think Satoshi is delving into a world of utter darkness, he swerves back into my favourite part of the first mix with the almost lively and quite brilliant Rubber Man, which is followed immediately by the hauntingly beautiful Moving Forward. With the exception of the Layo & Bushwacka track that almost stops the mix stone cold dead, the back end of the first disc is all about nearly imperceptible progressions in the tempo. The more you listen to this mix, the more sense it makes and the more you come to understand just how brilliantly it’s programmed and put together. Every listen just gets better and better and better… here I am, gushing completely and I still haven’t got to the second disc yet!

Some compilations have two completely separate mixes that bear little resemblance to one another. But that’s certainly not the case here. Mix two is very much a continuation of the first. But in spite of the similarities, Satoshi still has the ability to catch the listener off guard by throwing the odd curve ball. This is How it Goes seems a little out of place with its haunting vocal arrangement, but it also brings a welcome breath of freshness to the proceedings. This track aside, Satoshi’s programming is all about the constant, unrelenting slow build of ultra deep progressive tunes – until the mid way point of the second mix where he decides to change tack entirely.

In the past, when a progressive house DJ reached the point where they had exhausted their options with house music, the preferred option was trance. These days it’s been replaced by ultra-dark grinding minimalistic techno. Music that is as much about staring into the abyss as trance was about shooting for the stars! Much of the second half of Satoshi’s mix sounds like a tribe from Papua New Guinea have been employed as plumbers to fit a new water feature in the elephants’ graveyard. Yes – it’s a bizarre, dark, bubbling monotone that is utterly frustrating and seemingly pointless until you’ve listened to it repeatedly. Then, all of a sudden, you just “get it”.

If you haven’t yet reached that point, please do yourself a favour and persist. For the rest of you, reach back, stare into the abyss and open your soul to the downright dirty darkness that envelops you. This music is not for the faint hearted – it’s far more interesting than that!