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James Zabiela enters the fold of Balance's compilation selectors. His unfeasibly intricate approach to DJing shines through on this sprawling two-parter, created through a back-and-forth process between his Pioneer DDJ-RZ and Ableton and featuring two exclusive new productions from the man himself. Act One begins with gentle electronica like B12's "Untold" that brings to mind Sasha & Digweed's classic Northern Exposure series, building to the mesmerizing piano crescendos of Grandbrothers' "Bloodflow". Sad City's "Steady Jam", reminiscent of classic Balearic mixes lead you into a section of whirring machinery and sensual acid via Pye Corner Audio's "Dead Ends" fusing with HOLOVR's "Into Light". Second Story & Appleblim's rework of Debussy's majestic "Reverie 68" offers organic tones, with Oddhoody's "The Deep" switching the rhythm into a taut breakbeat under Kraftwerkian synths. The epic melodies continue as Merrin Karras's "Void" swells over the metallic percussion of Pev & Kowton's "Junked" and in the sparse riffs of Davis's "Plenitude". The mix takes on a haunting tone with Ozel AB's "Positronic Dreams" and Courser's sorrowful "Distances", before Zabiela stuns with an exclusive new production, "Vines", created largely with Teenage Engineering's OP-1 synth. AAAA and ARCHITECTURAL take the mix to a satisfying climax before a sudden halt. Act Two mirrors the experience of one of Zabiela's club sets, layered with the additional levels of detail. The sorrowful, bubbling chime arpeggios and indecipherable vocal FX of Goldmund's "Thread" and Earlham Mystics' "Waters" set you off in elegiac fashion, but the rave-y stabs of KiNK's "Radio Slave" remix will lead you to the dancefloor. It's a dizzying mix with myriad styles and moods: Elastic acid via another exclusive track from Zabiela, "X-Ray"; the taut metallic breakbeat of Lanark Artefax's "Touch Absence"; raw '90s house from Redlight's "City Jams"; the ethereal techno of ROD's "Pull"; and a maddening crescendo of warehouse-grade bangers. The mix ends in blissful territory with the dreamy tones of Paper Dollhouse's "Crayons" and J.Mono's Model 500-channeling "Sspses". Also features Sapphire Slows, Kornél Kovács, Barry Lynn, VC-118A, Talaboman, Francisco Branda, Ecco Foul, Island People, OOBE, Steve Hauschildt, Avalon Emerson, Mak & Pasteman, Pisetzky, John Beltran, Lawrence, Lake People, Solitary Dancer, Chambray, Silas & Snare, Truncate, Christina, Plant43, Sinfol, Barbara Ford, Steve Parker, Fabrizio Lapiana, SHDW & Obscure Shape, Ryan James Ford, Benjamin Damage, Mark Henning, Special Request, Wata Igarashi, A Sagittariun, Anthony Linell, Hans Berg, and Sine Sleeper.
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