At a certain juncture of electronic music fetishism, control freakishness reigns. Whose track is it? Which remix is it? Fandom becomes curatorship and curatorship becomes gatekeeper pretention. Which brings us to mix discs. Everything we love started with the mix—we're trusting the DJ, in his finite wisdom, to take us someplace we don't necessarily know but we hope we'll like. Paradoxically, the DJ got us into this in the first place, but we no longer take his word for it, thinking ourselves superior pickers for our own lives' soundtracks. In this era of personalized playlists, a mix executed wrongly can be an affront to the long tail. Sonic fascism even. What's so easy in the club context—just listening—becomes an ego-banishment exercise on headphones.
But goddamn, M.A.N.D.Y. can select 'em. Better than you or me, guaranteed. Whether it's a Body Language cut, their Fabric 38 or M.A.N.D.Y. at the Controls, Berlin heads Patrick Bodmer and Philipp Jung bring a sense of maturity, smarts and cohesion to the mix that is rare these days. Renaissance is no exception.
Divided into two halves of the same theoretical night out—Upside Down and Downside Up—the set showcases names and tracks you probably know, being used in ways you might not expect. Disc one rides Bodycode's "Immune" to a soft and thoughtful study in keys—knocking the sinister edge right off the original. Bomb the Bass's excellent "Black River" shows up as remixed by Gui Boratto, keeping things funky and wistful for a night drive. Overall, it's a mix that stays in the middle tempo, leans heavily on conventional piano and guitar, evoking words like "diffuse," "mysterious" and "understated." And maybe also "Zima."
Downside Up is the arrival. The beats are crunchier and—though still downtempo—a little more white-guy dance friendly. A deep bass-heavy drop from Isolee shows up, as does the immortal "Bonafied Lovin'" by Chromeo. Clearly we're getting down to business. In general, the BPM goes up, the percussion features more prominently and Patrick and Philipp's synths don't sound afraid to jitter and glitch. Words evoked: angular, sturdy, galvanic. And perhaps "roller derby."
The transitions are seamless and to be honest, even with tracklist in hand I had some trouble picking out cuts I knew by heart after they'd been chopped in M.A.N.D.Y.'s blender. To some degree, that's what a good mix is about—letting go of the control freak in you and letting someone else's taste wash over you. Like any tour bus ride, there are landmarks and stops you like more than others. But for someone (me) that usually finds mix albums uniquely infuriating and out of focus, this one's a deep grooving winner. I'll be jumping back in line to ride it again soon.
Published /
Mon, 09 Nov 2009
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Tracklist: M.A.N.D.Y. - Renaissance: The Mix Collection
CD1: Upside Down
 01. Shed – Waved Mind
02. dOP – Nature Boy
03. Toby Deschamps – Sit Down Relax
04. Ryan Crosson – Under The Willow
05. M.A.N.D.Y. – Full Off...
06. Wareika – Ascending Descending
07. Crowdpleaser & Ly Sander – Walking Home
08. Bodycode – Immune
09. Chica And The Folder – Perfect Day (Sometimes) (Pikaya Mix)
10. Lopazz – Perfume Lab
11. Sebastien Tellier – La Ballade Du Georges
12. Holger Zilske – To Them To Me
13. Bronnt Industries Kapital – Threnody For The Victims Of Lucio Fulci
14. Bomb The Bass Feat. Mark Langan – Black River (Gui Boratto Remix)
15. Claude Vonstroke & Christian Martin – Groundhog Day
16. 51 Days – Paper Moon
17. Schneider TM & Kpt. Michi.gan – The Light 3000
CD2: Downside Up
01. Kenny Larkin – Gimme
02. Glimpse & Alex Jones – Cambria
03. Isolée – October c/w Induceve – Time To Begin (Ragapella)
[M.A.N.D.Y.’s Cut-up Re-edit]
04. Peter Kruder – After The Dawn
05. Tedd Patterson – Shattered (Beat Pharmacy Dub)
06. Blagger – Strange Behaviour (DJ Koze AKA Swahimi Remix)
07. Kuniyuki Takahashi – Dear African Sky
08. Chromeo – Bonafied Lovin (Jori Hulkkonen Remix) [Instrumental Edit]
09. Kenny Leaven – Odyssey (dOP Remix)
10. Microworld – Disco Version*
11. Martin Buttrich – Stoned Autopilot (C2 Version) c/w Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen (Shower Scene)*
12. Dapayk Solo – Geheimtipp 01-B*
13. Ben Watt – Guinea Pig (M.A.N.D.Y. & Smallboy Musical Variation)*
14. Gang Gang Dance – Bebey
15. Zombie Disco Squad – The Cursed
16. Terry Toner – Eat The Positive
17. Dominik Eulberg & Gabriel Ananda – Eucalypse Now!
18. Robag Wruhme – Fufo2
19. Dynamix II – Bass Generator
20. Lopazz – Parau Api
21. DJ Koze – Mrs. Bojangels
22. The Black Dog – Virtual
23. DJ Hell – The DJ Feat. P Diddy (Radio Slave Remix) [Piano Acapella Edit]
Bonus Track: Junior Boys – What It's For
* Denotes track includes vocal parts of Ellen Allien - Lover | 
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