Free Your Mind
On the chilled, progressive and tech side of Deep House.
I suggest grabbing a book or setting yourself on a task and let the music take you through its ebbs and flows.
“Free Your Mind” is a nice chilled cerebral journey with a thinly disguised oniric dimension. The best I can describe it is: “ this is a nice little tight package”.
It took a while to get the level of consistency I felt it deserved but I finally achieved telling the musical story I wanted to share. It may not be perfect but from my point of view, it has a lot of internal logic.
There are many original tunes in the set, which like the “I Wish You Were Here” previous mix are from producers and artists I did not know before.
I entice you to grab a decent pair of headphones or listen on a good Hi-FI system. The production, mastering and layering of all those tracks is simply superb.
Free Your Mind and take the jounrey..
Playlist:
Highlights:
I chose to headline the set with this soundcloud remix of Aaliiyah's “If Your Girl Only Knew” from Nikos Kalogerias a DJ from Zakyntos (Greece) to give him a shout.
https://soundcloud.com/dj-nikos-kalogerias
Check his soundcloud page. Nikos gets his talented fingers on big tunes and the result is ALWAYS high quality.
“You’re so High” fitted perfectly in the “Free Your Mind” spirit, I love the vocalist and have discovered Ellis & Fur. I will be following them from now on.
“Bakerboy” from Gunjah great chilled deep track with an amazing production, inspired pads and begging for a mash-up with Buena Vista Park.. Please someone out there with talent pick it up and do it!
“I Want It” a cookie french little number which reminds me of a nursery rhyme fititng snuggly in the oniric dimension of the set. Listen to the driving bassline and the superb production.
"Out of Reach" Jody Wisternoff feat. Jonathan Mendelsohn. I have sat on this track for almost a year. I think the main reason for the delay was the fact that I knew Mendelsohn from "King of My Castle" fame and expected another anthem track.. But the atmosphere of the track, the clinical beats, the ever present synth pads and the overlayed melodies should have made me realize this track is well worth a listen by a wider audience..
"Fading Nights" Parra for Cuva feat Anna Naklab ..Whoah.. distorted bassline, clever beats, multi-layered production. Not sure if I know if this is house, indie even maybe trance. But I know you needs immense talent to produce such a complex track with no real melody and pass my melodic centric internal test..
"Micro Man" from Jelly for The Babies.. Instrumental deep and progressive gem, which may not have needed the Xtian vocal edit.. but you have to admit it was begging..
"I Wish You Were Here" from John Creamer, Stephane K, John Creamer & Stephane K feat. Nkemdi.. Just the credit reads like the House Hall of Fame.. John creamer AND Stephane K!!! I have used this tune in a previous mix but I LOVE this remix, deep but bouncy with a discrete key riff which sweetens what is effectively a techie number and those bongoes in the background.. Pure Inspiration! Not even mentioning the chill out rainforest sample driving into the break.. House heaven as commented on my podcast..
"Sunrise Collective" from Appa Glas.. another indie/prog tunes with a bouncy house undertone.. The tempo of the set was picking up and those two cuts dropped like they were jsut made to be there.. Ebbs and Flows.. exactly what I was looking for.. Again amazing production and massive bassline.. This is clever house at its very best..
"The Monster" from SourDen feat Veela. Is it Trip House or is it Trance? I have no idea but but perfectely fitted for this foray.. Complex track with no defined melody and every oniric journey needs a "Monster"..
"The Nighttime" from Manu Riga is the point in the set when I crossed the rubicon and went into Trance.. ( I so want to do a new trance set but can't find enough new quality tunes").. I love this kind of Trance and if you call it Progressive House well let me dream and call it Trouse..
Trippin’ from Redondo... One of the three gems of this set. DO NOT MISS IT! You all know the original but this is a tease track and any DJ worth his salt should have it in its bag.. Any set could start with this and take the punters straight into stratosphere.. let alone that Trippin' and a "Free Your Mind" set were a a no brainer.. ( thank you the added categories Cour and Subtext..).
Finally "Free Your Mind" from Eli and Fur. Believe it or not the track came as an after thought.. I had used the splinter in your mind and aura samples and then thought to add the second Ellis and Fur track once I had chopped the original mix and had another 5 minutes to go.. A deep and progressive little number so logical as and end tune and still with magnificient production.
OK enough.. I visibly like this one.. I hope you will as well..
Enjoy.
Next one hopefully a happy trancy trouse one..
Xtian
P.S.:
I will go on a little tangent reflecting on the creative process, answering a message from Umich Iasking me how do I select tunes for a set.
I actually have no idea how others do it but here is the sequence of my not-so-creative process.
All my music collection is categorized between genres and sub-genres, then sorted by keys and bpm. Nothing unusual!
The one thing I do, which others may not is to I include 2 extra categories:
- One is “Colour” … do not ask me how I chose and what I mean for I could not articulate it but I will say that the tunes you hear in “Free Your Mind” were in the dark blue category.
- The other category is “Subtext”, which is what the vocals tune are about ( Political, Love. Happiness, Sex, etc..) or if instrumental track how it makes me feel. This set Subtext was Sadness and Mind.
Once I have decided on a soundscape (for this one I wanted dark, brainy), I make a simple query with tight constraints (usually no more than 8 bpm difference, sometimes only 3 to 4 harmonized keys and a “date added” constraints to keep the set current and a rating of 4 to 5.
I lthen peruse the results of the query, keep 18/20 tracks and try to build in my head a start, core and end. This structure I owe to my Gallic schooling upbringing The French education system is very, very big on writing plans.. Execution is not quite as much of a focus!
The first draft is done in one go on Traktor. I just get into it and mix for 2 hours. This one took 4 versions for I deleted some tunes which were too “happy” and played around with the order to achieve maximum consistency.
The rest is just “tweaking and adding effects. If anyone is interested what you are listening to is V.4z (most of the edits to cut it down to a CD format).. I usually do not allow myself to go beyond z.. If I need the Greek alphabet for the set to be uploadable, it is time to shelve it to the dark recesses of my HD!
Here is your answer UMich!
