Recession 6

The sixth mix I posted (2001), with a full walkthrough

The audio links below point at the original djrecess.co.uk file host from years ago, and the RealAudio (.ram/.rm) format itself has been obsolete for a long time. I can't verify any of these still resolve — treat them as historical reference until they've been checked and, where possible, re-hosted.

Download Recession 6 (MP3, ~100MB)

The first three tracks here are the same as the closing tracks of Recession 4 — I wanted a "best of" style CD version of the Recession mixes, and this pairing worked well enough that it made sense to reuse it as the opening of a full 72-minute mix.

Tracklist

1. Vangelis — Blade Runner
2. Art of Trance — Kaleidoscope
3. Space Manoeuvres — Stage One
4. Paul van Dyk — Words
5. Paul van Dyk — Alive
6. Amanda Ghost — Filthy Mind
7. Skip Raiders — Another Day
8. Amoeba Assassin — Speedway Revisited
9. Giorgio Moroder — The Chase
10. Coma Aroma — In Aura
11. Underworld — Cowgirl
12. BT — Believer

1) Vangelis — Blade Runner

Pressed start.

2) Blade Runner into Art of Trance

Listen closely and you'll hear the vinyl crackle give away the transition before the music does — the bass hum under the Blade Runner sample and the key of Kaleidoscope are close but not identical. Handled by killing the bass on Kaleidoscope as it came in, then swapping the bass EQs over as it became dominant. The timing against Ford's "give me a hard copy right there" line landing on a cymbal hit was, honestly, mostly luck — it lands right more often than not, but not every time.

3) Art of Trance — Stage One

Possibly my favourite mix I've ever done live. Art of Trance runs its long breakdown, comes back in, then hits a short refrain where a particular hook still gives me goosebumps. Started Stage One right there, from the very beginning, bass down as low as it could go while still being audible enough to beatmatch by.

Used both the channel fader and crossfader together here: channel fader at 0, crossfader centred, Stage One's bass killed hard. Brought the fader up gradually until just a hint of kick was audible, with a few of Stage One's vocal samples ("in deep space... abandoned...") audible underneath. After roughly 16 bars, brought Stage One's fader to full and nudged the crossfader slightly toward it, along with a touch more bass. Another 16 bars later, as Art of Trance signalled the end of its pattern with a drum roll into its closing refrain, cut Art of Trance's bass to about a quarter, nudged the crossfader further, and brought Stage One's bass in fully. From there it was just a matter of moving the crossfader the rest of the way as a vocal cue hit, cutting cleanly into the second part of Stage One right on the beat.

4) Stage One into Words

Worked hard on this one — picked the tune up that same morning and loved this particular mix of it. What I like about this transition is that it isn't trying to be perfectly seamless: after three tracks that flowed smoothly into each other, a slightly more noticeable change of pace felt like the right move.

Structurally simple: Stage One hits its final breakdown, and 16 (or possibly 32) bars later, Words starts from the beginning with the bass fully killed — the hi-hat pattern alone is enough to beatmatch against. In the final eight bars of the transition, raised Words in volume and bass while cutting its hi-hats, using the DJM-600's flanger (set to a long cycle) on Stage One's hi-hats to fade them out gradually as Words' hi-hat pattern took over. Words then comes in fully at the end of that eight-bar flange.

5) Words into Alive

By the time this mix was recorded I'd started to go off Alive a little (mostly the vocal hook, not the tune itself) — which is partly why two copies of an eight-minute tune get cut down to around two and a half minutes here.

Timed so Alive's main section landed as Words hit its closing refrain. Started Alive well ahead of any fader movement to make sure it was solidly in time before adding sampler tricks. At the transition point, looped two bars of Words into the sampler, running quietly underneath, then increased the sampler's level while reducing the live vinyl as the actual cut approached. On the beat, did a single-beat backspin on Words while cutting the crossfader across in one move, keeping the sampled loop of Words running for one more bar as Alive kicked in. The two copies of Alive were then heavily chopped through its intro and breakdown to skip most of the vocal and keep only the instrumental sections I liked.

6) Alive into Amanda Ghost

Started Amanda Ghost 16 bars into Alive's breakdown, bass low enough to keep the vocal present without clashing with Alive's still-playing bass. Ran it underneath for an eight-bar drum intro before Amanda Ghost's vocal became audible over it. At the 16-bar mark, swapped the basses fully and moved the crossfader roughly two-thirds toward Amanda Ghost, closing it over completely eight bars later on a vocal cue.

7) Amanda Ghost into Skip Raiders

A simple mix, elevated by the DJM-600's filter effect. Started Skip Raiders from the beginning as Amanda Ghost's vocal dropped out near the end of the tune, running with the bass killed and the crossfader centred. Brought the channel fader up to around three-quarters after four bars, then fully swapped fader levels and bass EQ (leaving a little bass in Amanda Ghost to keep its hook some depth) at the next refrain. A final filter sweep on the last refrain, timed over exactly half a cycle, coincided with closing the crossfader fully onto Skip Raiders.

8) Skip Raiders into Amoeba Assassin

The simplest mix in the set. Skip Raiders drops to just beats roughly 24 bars after its final small breakdown; Amoeba Assassin has an eight-bar drum intro before its bassline enters. Started Amoeba Assassin 16 bars after Skip Raiders' breakdown, so its bassline landed exactly as Skip Raiders ended. EQ'd out the hi-hats over the closing eight bars while easing the crossfader across in time with them.

This is also the one mix on the whole set I think I fluffed slightly — the final fade-out happens a touch too abruptly. Fine live, more noticeable on a recording.

9) Amoeba Assassin into The Chase

Same approach as the Skip Raiders transition — another eight-bar intro before the bass melody proper. Worked out where Amoeba Assassin's closing refrain would land, then started The Chase eight bars ahead of it with the crossfader centred and channel fader at zero. As the refrain hit and The Chase's bassline entered, brought its channel fader to full, killed most of Amoeba Assassin's bass, and nudged the crossfader in its favour. The remaining eight bars were mostly EQ cleanup, closing the crossfader out on a melodic cue in The Chase.

10) The Chase into Coma Aroma

I've said elsewhere on this site that some tunes just don't want to mix together, and shouldn't be forced — and then went and did exactly that here. The previous three tracks built a long, repetitive, musical groove rather than a hook-driven one, and it needed a clean break before it went stale. Coma Aroma was the right choice energetically, but its key clashes with The Chase's ending, and a straight mix sounded rough.

The fix: sampled The Chase's big mid-track breakdown, then played it back during the transition to reinforce a fairly weak ending. Coma Aroma's long intro finally settles into solid beats after roughly 16+ bars; started it as soon as The Chase dropped to just bassline and drums. Eight bars later, as The Chase dropped its bass melody entirely (cue: trigger the sampled breakdown), Coma Aroma does a reverse-effect on its own bassline signalling the end of its intro. Brought Coma Aroma in fully there with no bass kills on either track, sliding the crossfader across over one bar as Coma Aroma's main tune kicked in, and cutting the sampler at the same time.

11) Coma Aroma into Cowgirl

Loved for its shifting energy — a frantic, filled-out intro that drops out almost entirely before returning transformed. Started Underworld (Cowgirl) as Coma Aroma hit a long vocal refrain, bass and highs both cut back so it read as background texture rather than a mix in progress. Sixteen bars later, as Coma Aroma hit its final main hook, brought the crossfader to centre, raised Underworld to 75% with its bassline audible, and pulled Coma Aroma back to a similar level with its bass killed — deliberately avoiding both tracks sitting at full volume together. Coma Aroma's refrain repeats for a long stretch, giving room to gradually fade it out toward Cowgirl's own extended breakdown.

12) Cowgirl into BT

This closing track was an unmarked white label for years — only worked out it was BT after recognising it from the film Go, which BT scored. The tune has an unusually tricky intro to mix into cleanly, so I waited until roughly 16 bars in, once a clap pattern establishes, and started it as Cowgirl hit its own closing refrain. Brought the level up over the following eight bars as Underworld faded to nothing, gradually EQ'ing it out while nudging the crossfader across on alternating hi-hats. For the actual cut into the main tune, rather than a plain fade, added a short scratch on the incoming track — the one and only bit of scratching in the whole mix.

Other mixes on the site

• Recession 7 (2007)
• Recession 5 (2000)
• Recession 4 (1999)
• Recession 3 (1998)
• Recession 1 and 2 didn't survive various site migrations over the years.