- This time another Australian in Luke Chable joins Dave Seaman for Volume 2 of the Renaissance Therapy Sessions. After Phil K opened the series with his mix alongside Dave, it is now up to DJ and Producer Luke Chable to help push the series forward, and he tries to do so with a unique mix that compliments the usual stylings of Dave Seaman.
It is the Dave Seaman disc that gets proceedings underway, and he starts with some pretty good highlights early on such as ‘Little Soul’ by Stel & Good Newz. It is the first half of the mix that impresses the most with good solid house cuts like the 2020 mix of Da Glass and the very seductive smooth house grooves of ‘Les Nocturnes’ by Silicone Soul. The tough FC Kahuna mix of Mellow kicks the disc into gear and some may feel Dave peaks a little too early with the very epic ‘Come With Me’ by Holden & Thompson. It is the middle section where Dave loses it a bit for me with the Killahurtz mix of ‘New Day’, Tonedepth’s ‘To the Moon’ and the BIR remix of Tears for Fears really not offering anything of great note. Killahurtz improve with their remix of Stel and the mix ends on a pretty nice note with the driving quirky sounds of ‘The Search’ by Paul Jackson, a track that has Seaman stamped all over it, and a track that ends the mix off in a pretty emotive way.
Luke Chable begins very well, first with the very tasty Andy Page and his ‘Skin Up’, but then again did you expect any different from Page? ‘Fragile’ for me is perhaps the highlight of the entire release, with some fantastic beat patterns and an all round chunk to it that really sets the disc on fire early. The disc is quite gritty here with ‘Little Snitch’ by Dan Mangan doing good things, but it is the Uberzone inclusions that just fail to hit the nail on the head. ‘Return To Saturn’ by Danny Bonnici tries to return some musical elements to the mix and this is then followed by another highlight in Habersham’s remix of Kling & Charles. The following two tracks again fail to deliver, while Mannel’s Dub of ‘Cruel Summer’ introduces some nice elements, somewhat bringing the mix to a nice building stage towards the final chapters. ‘Tokyo’ sees the melodies come back into the mix while ‘Bloc Rock’ by Luke Fair, although quite a good track, doesn’t quite belong where it’s placed. Chable closes the mix off nicely with his very own track in ‘Skyline Road’
Unfortunately this release suffers in parts due to poor track selection for me. Dave Seaman characteristically delivers a mix that is good in parts and average in others while Luke Chable really unleashes some great tracks, but lets his mix down by drifting to unusual places in parts of his mix. There are some great moments let me tell you, but unfortunately there are some moments that you wish were left out. The good though, just outweighs the bad and as such this may be a worthwhile mix to check out.