Mixes Highlights: Summer Swells
Who is feeling the Summer of Love 2021?
Henry Ivry is back with a quality bunch of mix picks, highlighting some of the best recordings from the last couple months that ride the positive wave of summer reopenings and the enthrilling party energy that is steamrolling the dancefloors in the last weeks.
It's been awhile since I've had a chance to grace these fair shores with my mixes, but I'm back with a selection of some sweltering summer tunes good enough that you'll want to mute "Delta Variant" on Twitter. And I don't know. Maybe it's the sun. Maybe it's that second dose of Pfizer gold running through my veins. Maybe it's the fact that I recently heard music being played outside of my living room. Whatever it is, I've found myself gravitating back towards dancey mixes. And it feels like I'm not alone. As much as we all appreciated "home listening" and reading about mixes that "explore dance music outside of club settings," I think we're all ready to sweat next to strangers and make terrible decisions in restroom cubicles. The mixes I've chosen here represent this cautious optimism and are a much needed dose of Vitamin D.
Butter Side Up with Sugar Free and Hamish Cole - 30 June 2021
There aren't too many DJs tipped as much as Sugar Free has been in the past couple of years. The rising Spanish DJ (and occasional producer) has been turning heads for a hot minute whether through her Ghostcast or her best-in-class Mudd Show selection. And more than just the endless crates of feel good 90s house, her success is also down to her pacing. As she shows on the first half of the Butter Side Up Rinse show, she can build an absolute VIBE in just a short hour (I mean, I would listen to this mix endlessly just to catch that song at 49-minutes). While Hamish Cole will always be one of the top selectors out there, I think he made the right decision to opt for all new tracks after this masterclass in digging from Sugar Free.
NSP010 - Jade Seatle
How often do we get a proper poddy from one half of Night Moves, Jade Seatle? Well, according to her SoundCloud page, it's been over three years since she turned in a proper mix and this one for the lads at North South Records delivers everything you might want. It is a perfect cocktail of unhurried summertime house spritzed up with the occasional bubbly break. It is, as to be expected, mixed to perfection with enough swing to keep you swaying all July long in your hammock.
Sundowner. Mix #03 "Befriended Luminaires" - Two Phase U
Uruguayan godfather, Two Phase U, wasn't a DJ before the pandemic. He focused solely on productions. But, thanks to the extra time at home (and some new roommates), he's learned his way around a mixer and a few decks. Stepping up for Berlin party Sundowner, he shows off some of the most exciting sounds coming out of the Montevideo underground. What I find most impressive about this mix is that the productions are exceptionally varied. It's a reminder that there isn't a singular Montevideo sound, but rather a vibrant scene pushing out some of the best house, techno, and electro on the globe.
Ludwig A.F. - EOS RADIO #2 25 June 2021
The hashtag description of this mix reads "Power Ambient." It's not a bad coinage either. Ludwig A.F. has been creating his own brand of tripped out trance meets new age for quite some time and this mix translates and contextualizes this sound. What is most striking about this mix is the fact that just about every song could be one of his own productions (and, for that matter, may well be!). This just speaks to how singular his aesthetic is. Watch Beatport for a nascent Power Ambient chart.
QUIRKS 09 - Barbara Preisinger
Barbara Preisinger is one of those DJs we may take for granted. In a world based solely on merit, she should be headlining as many Ibiza parties as Ricardo, but, instead, she remains a hero of those that know. My own entrance into the Church of Preisinger was when I saw her play an early morning set at a day party for ReSolute during Movement Weekend. I certainly hadn't bought my ticket to see her that morning, but I can't even remember who else was on the bill if I'm honest. This mix should see more than a few new converts. If "classy" and "timeless" have become cliches to describe house music, this mix for Quirks gives them new meaning - not a single dud in here.
Bside Incoming Cleymoore
Pluie/Noir and Rings of Neptune boss and all around dance music lifer, Cleymoore, steps up for the Bside series. We've featured the Bside mix series here before and rightly so. The series not only asks DJs to think creatively about their collections, but also asks them to play Radio Host (with a capital "R" and "H"), walking us through their selections and providing a bit of history about their records. Listening to Cleymoore explore IDM, electro, drum & bass, and a bit of everything else, I can't tell if I like the songs or just listening to him talk more. Regardless, it's 3 hours of occasional ASMR-inducing bliss.
Radio Pager Episode 25 - Trajano
Sao Paulo-based Trajano helms the deck for Frankfurt upstarts, Pager Records. It's an exceptionally party-ready mix - from the word "go" Trajano takes aim at making sure that leather office chair you're grooving in is squeaking. Depending on where you are in the world, it can be the perfect pre-party mix or something to keep your Zoom calls a bit more exciting. This is the ideal punch bowl of acid-spike house, both new and old.
The Rye Wax Show on Noods w/ Patrisha
It's a bit tricky to pick one mix from Patrisha to include on this list. The Balamii resident is quickly becoming one of my favorites. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of dance music, from the outer reaches of 2-step and minimal all the way to the most patchouli-scented trance. Her mix for The Rye Wax show leans into the latter a bit more, moving through both new and contemporary trance-flecked tunes before shifting into some more contemporary minimal (the new Anderson track in there is a particular killer) and then ending with some vintage rave. What I also love about Patrisha is that she always responds to SoundCloud comments. Maybe it's just me, but when I hear a track I like, I can't help but slide onto that Timeline with an emoji or two. Always nice to know you aren't typing out into the void.
Sonder #120 - Julian Alexander
I am tempted to say that 2021 may be the year of "tech house." The genre that was once the butt of all dance music jokes (thanks to tank-topped bros and face-painted dancers) has been finding itself front-row-center for the dance music intelligentsia lately. Need a primer to the latest iteration of this sound? Slap on SlapFunk boss Julian Alexander's mix for London squad Sonder. At turns bright and opulent, at others dark and sinister, it's everything good and funky about tech house new and old.
Words by: Henry Ivry
