Very first mix in 2020, and we still couldn't wrap our heads, to make everything run smooth. We had some "I told You so" moments, we lost 4TB of music and documents, including reviews and a lot of new music, but, then came The Wizard Archetype, with his beautiful-crafted mix of underground dance into the rescue. We will try to write new reviews of some music we already wrote reviews, and it would be interesting to see, has that music survived "the hype".
So here is something for 2020, and here are the words of The Wizard himself, about the mix:
"Several years ago I started creating playlist with selected tracks from my ever-growing music collection. I guess it was the simplest way to put my favorite tracks in one place, so I can give them a proper listen. That playlist kept on growing and evolving into more playlists: hours and hours of strange electronic music, old and new tracks, various genres - yet all somehow connected by some incomprehensible, intangible idea. What was it? While listening to those playlists, I decided to explore and understand that idea.
While searching for the answer, I kept on getting myself caught in thoughts about a time of the early 2000s, a time when I actually stopped visiting raves in my hometown. I was in my early twenties back then, and from a perspective of a person that young, I had all the reasons to do so: something had changed on the scene in that time, as the “old-school” energy waned. Everything I loved about raves faded away so fast. Different people appeared, brought different music and different overall concept. Not of my liking. Not for me... so I walked away. But a dream remained - the dream of a perfect rave, where people like myself would come, share their love for music, make friendships and relationships, dance and have fun. The dream never came true - it lingered on for a while, then faded away into apparent oblivion...
In the end, I started mixing Psytrance, organizing Psy parties, loving it, though never as much as I have loved “the old school”. As the years went by (and the age of broadband Internet came), I drifted away from the Psy scene and started to explore other genres. That eventually gave birth to the abovementioned Playlists. As more years went by, I felt the urge to revisit the local party scene, which I did, albeit not expecting much.
So, I kinda returned to the scene which I had left some decade-and-a-half ago. I wasn’t surprised by the most things I’ve found. But something did surprise me: it was the presence of something new, yet so old, and so strangely familiar. Was it... could it be...? It definitely felt like the spirit of the long-lost old scene. I felt its energy circulating among the new people that I’ve met as if they were rebuilding its material foundations. And, at the same time, more and more NEW music was filling my Playlists...
Then it hit me. I realized what are those playlists actually, and what is the basic idea that is keeping all those tracks together like an invisible glue. Right there in front of me was the soundtrack for my long lost dream of a perfect rave. It was the music for the party scene from a parallel universe, one that had evolved somewhere in the background of my consciousness. What made me realize that? Was it the old spirit returning, the one that never died, but kept on living inside the rare souls, waiting for a new chance and a new life?? I don’t know...
All I knew was that I HAVE to start mixing tracks from those playlists. Our old mixing equipment was broken beyond repair, so I had to reach for digital mixing, and face my own prejudices about it (the same prejudices that, I guess, every old DJ has). I bought a laptop and a controller, and after only a few days of working on them, all of my prejudices disappeared, just as the darkness of ignorance disappears when illuminated by the pure light of the reason. I stepped with awe into the fascinating world of harmonic mixing, sampling, looping, effects, live remixing... and I started recording my mixes (you are, hopefully, listening to one of those mixes right now). And you can definitely expect more mixes, as well as more parties! Thanks for listening!"
Solstice Eve
01 Fluke - Expo
02 Simmetune - Rampage
03 Neikka RPM - I Ride The Flames (Brainclaw Pyrotransporter Remix)
04 Empirion - Red Noise
05 Implant - Oxynoxe (Karl Hefner & Hugh Lagerfeld Remix)
06 RadicalG - Love ain't Fashion (Demia E.Clash remix)
07 VNV Nation - Aeroscope
08 Empirion - I Am Electronic (Olowex Remix)
09 Implant - The City (Aesthetische Remix)
10 mind.in.a.box - Supremacy
11 Anne Clark - Wallies (Night of the Hunter Remix by Juno Reactor)
12 Phase Fatale - Reverse Fall
13 Xtigma - Crash City
14 Peryl - Der Sturm Das Leben
15 Boy Harsher - Come Closer
16 Rude 66 - The 1000 Year Storm
17 Talla 2XLC - Back To The Roots
