- Adam Beyer mix CDs have always caused quite a stir, not least due to Beyer’s immaculate mixing and unquestionable track selection. But mostly, people love him for his intensity: More than most, the tall Swede has always managed to drill into his sets a sense of perpetual motion and undwindling fury. Certainly a lot of mix CDs can be guilty of too much showboating or, in contrast, of trying to play it safe under the scary microscope of home listening, where poor mixing, lost moments and risky (unbankable) tracks can cost more through repeated playing than a single bad moment in a live set. But you will find no inflated ego, no mistakes and no bad moments here. For his latest mix for Belgium’s Fuse club and the Music Man label, Beyer once again proves to be the undefeated champion, checking in with a mix of heavyweight minimal that simply rocks from open to close.
Like his previous outings for Fabric and Turbo, the core of the mix is built around Swedish producers such as Joel Mull, Christian Smith, Braincell (Cari Lekebusch) and Patrik Skoog. Beyer´s self promotion is limited to only one track, his pastoral and beautiful closing remix of Mathew Jonson’s ‘Marionette’, as well as a couple of upcoming cuts from his own Drumcode and Truesoul labels. The rest of the tracks feature a broader geographical spread of producers culled from the stables of Plus 8, Treibstoff and Wagon Repair amongst others.
The choice of labels is thus the best hint of where Fuse departs from past Beyer efforts. Here the emphasis is more on the hypnotic repetition and the cleaner, intricate melodies of minimal and less on the dirtier electro hammer of the past. But Beyer never gets weighed down in the intellectual pretensions of minimal and sticks to his roots, driving straight for the more high octane banging side, all without sacrificing the melodic complexities of the individual tracks. This is in fact where the genius of Beyer´s mix lies: The prismic manner in which he burns the EQ spraying around the melodic and percussive accents is truly master class, even more so because of the high tempo he maintains.
The mix opens with the slightly glitchy and ultimately pulverising tribalism of Patrick Skoog´s ‘Jack is Back’, which slowly opens up the throttle, thickens the bass and adds layer upon layer of percussive depth. By the time Beyer layers over Joel Mull´s magnificent ‘Coconest’ the tempo and intensity are locked in, and from then on they don’t recede. Danish producer Martinez threatens to come down several times during the propulsive bass jive of ‘Expander’, but it’s all just a tease, whereas LEM´s debut on the Wordless label does bottom out, but doesn’t stay long. The first real change in pace and mood is marked much later, well over 30 minutes in, by the fade in of Joel Mull´s remix of Dustin Zahn´s ‘Anti-Gray’. Meanwhile, intervening tracks by Braincell and an unreleased Christian Smith´s collaboration with John Selway provide some of the most intense four to the floor of the set and are also the exception to the short duration of most tracks, both being allowed to run over the five minute mark. This is indeed heady stuff.
Although hardly downbeat, the change in mentality after ‘Anti-Gray’ is noticeable. Whereas the preceding half drives ruthlessly and relentlessly to a tightly knit, claustrophobic peak, after ‘Anti-Gray’ Beyer steers the mix towards a less anchored and free floating conclusion. The tracks and mixing weave in and out of perception more noticeably and restlessly, such as on Kyle Geiger’s ‘Identity Crisis’ and D’julz’s ‘Just So you Know’. Schneider and Galluzzi’s ‘Albertino’ burns brightly, but seems to have no bottom and is somehow endlessly dizzy and plastic, while Patrik Skoog’s remix of Acid Circus’s ‘Reduxtion’ distorts things out of all proportion momentarily. It is only Maetrik’s ‘Choose your System’ that truly breaks the trance with the shock of intelligible vocals, but falling towards the end, it doesn’t detract from the whole, which is pure sonic liberation.
This is truly a journeyman set, a voyage for dancefloor heads without time or space for pretension. If you haven’t seen Beyer in a club setting, this is the next best thing and certainly a strong reason to do so. Inspirational stuff indeed.
Tracklist01 Patrik Skoog - Jack is Back
02 Joel Mull - Coconest
03 Mauro Picotto - Flashing
04 Mute - Glitch Yourself (Man-d.a Goldseries Reprise)
05 Martinez - Expander
06 Lem - Wordless
07 Braincell - Absorb (Grindvik Remix)
08 Christian Smith & John Selway - Total Departure (exclusive)
09 Zahn - Anti-Gray (Joel Mull's White Mix)
10 Schneider & Galluzzi - Albertino
11 Anton Pieete - New Wave Mothers
12 76-79 - Six Ten
13 Museum - She Was Asking For It (exclusive)
14 Kyle Geiger - Identity Crisis (exclusive)
15 Jackmate - Boots
16 Pedro Trotz - Soller
17 Paco Osuna - Orbeat
18 D'Julz - Just So You Know (2000 & One Remix)
19 Acid Circus - Reduxtion (Agaric Remix)
20 Maetrik - Choose Your System
21 Patrik Skoog - Good Machine
22 Mathew Jonson - Marionette (Adam Beyer Remix)(exclusive)