Luke Fair - Balance 011

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  • Once the ugly stepsister of progressive mix compilations, there was a time when the most likely place you’d find a ‘Balance’ mix was in the sales bin. Bill Hamel ‘Balance 003’, anyone? That all changed when James Holden’s ‘Balance 005’ came out. It became a classic, and EQ Grey have been hitting the target ever since. And as GU and Renaissance have grown solid yet unspectacular over the years, the Balance series continues to go from strength to strength by ignoring the superstar DJs and looking to margins to provide the spark. Case in point is installment number eleven on which EQ bet on Luke Fair, a slightly off-the-radar name from Toronto known for mixing electro and proper house in his progressive blender. From the get go, the first disc lulls you into a peppermint tea coma, but by about song four, you’ll feel like dropping a couple of Zoloft in your cup to spice things up. Too many tracks here are overburdened with cinematic strings and sweeping pads, and the effect is a bit of a bedtime soundtrack at a retirement home. Tiger Stripes’ ‘Amphytrion’ is a slight reprieve, but the timidity continues until late in the set. Finally towards the end, the heartrate gets above flatline with Heroes for Hire’s ‘Our House Music’ flowing into the jumped up neo-disco of ‘The Getaway’ by Nightriders, before the Balearic summertime sounds of Tom Novy’s ‘Unexpected’ nicely closes an overall somewhat ho-hum mix. Scan the names on the cover of the second disc - Ian Pooley, Francois K and Akabu – you might be forgiven for expecting an Azuli-Fan-in-a-Convertible type sound, but surprisingly, it doesn’t come. The mix begins dreamily, refreshingly free of any worn-out vocals or Latin percussion, and only later does a hint of cheese creep in when Schwab’s ‘DJs In a Row’ and Lissat And Voltax’s ‘Footlovers’ drop in the middle of the mix. Those two exceptions aside, the music on this second disc is a floating, synth-heavy journey that sounds like the soundtrack to a nice Sunday afternoon, with Humate’s ‘Curious’, all the way back from 1993, being a gorgeous finisher to the set. While not dissimilar to the first disc in style, this has a lot more oomph. Like his ‘OS.0_3’ on Bedrock, here Fair takes a varied approach to house, with sub-genre smatterings woven throughout. Unfortunately this new mix sometimes lacks energy, especially on the first disc. ‘Balance 011’ won’t make the cut for a pre-club ‘let’s get drunk and party’ session, but it beats the hell out of any of those Chill-Out-Vol.X CDs for a summertime beer on the verandah.
  • Tracklist
      Disc 1 1. Voom Voom - Vampire Song 2. Rich Medina Feat. Sy Smith - Can't Hold Back (King Britt mix) 3. Bioground - Smooth Summer Nights 4. Wamdue Project - Home Planet 5. Hypnos - Red Light 6. Mitsu - Serene 7. Acca - Rain (Gravity dub) 8. Delgui - Highlights (Charles Webster remix) 9. Julien Jabre – War 10. Tiger Stripes - Amphytrion 11. Kinka - Burnin' 12. Robag Wruhme – K.T.B. (Ruhig Brauner remix) 13. Vernell Long and Hebegebe - I Go Now (Awaaz mix) 14. David Holmes - 69 Police (The New Aluminists Soisante-Neuf Dub) 15. Heroes For Hire - Our House Music 16. Nightriders – Gateway 17. Tom Novy - Unexpected (Dub Mix) Disc 2 1. Alexander Kowalski ft. Joris Voorn - She's Worth It 2. Francois K - Time And Space 3. Tamarra's World - Trampoline (Akabu Dub Exploration mix) 4. Timewriter - Booty Song (Ian Pooley mix) 5. Dusk ‘n’ Prayd - Playing With Fire (Elextroworld Mix) 6. Elektrochemie LK - Lay Here 7. KLMNT - Zouin (Tiger Stripes mix) 8. Schwab - DJ's In A Row (Tom Middleton Cosmos Dub) 9. Lissat and Voltax - Footlover (Da Fresh Remix) 10. 16 Bit Lolitas - Difficult If Not Impossible 11. Jordan Rivera and Ferry Nice - Africando (Shik Stylko mix) 12. Klement Bonelli - Ethna (12th Floor mix) 13. Marnix – FIRE! (Jamie Anderson Remix) 14. Subtech - A Beat Like This 15. Michell - Need To Know 16. Humate - Curious
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