Balance 005

Balance 005

ASIN: B0000TAZGK

Track Listings

1. The MFA – The Difference It Makes (Original Mix)

2. Meta.83 –Antrieb

3. Jake Fairley – Oshawa

4. Zeta Reticula – Tool 1

5. Petter – All Together

6. Baby Ford & The Ifach Collective – Bad Friday

7. Zeta Reticula – Tool 3

8. Avus – Real

9. DJ ESP –No Future (Soundburnt Mix)

10. Jase From Outta Space– Do What You Want (Infusion's Sky Mix)

11. Nathan Fake – Outhouse (Fluffy Mix)

12. Nathan Fake – Outhouse (Original Mix)

13. FortDax – Fortune Telling Fish, Curled to Suggest ‘Home'

14. PQM – You Are Sleeping (PQM Meets Luke Chable Vocal Pass)

15. Petter – These Days (Instrumental)

16. Herrmann & Kleine – Leaving You Behind

17. Meek – Happy (Original Mix)

18. Meerkat – Colours (JH Re-Edit)

19. Avus – Your Body (Original Mix)

20. Scape One – PFX Tokyo

See all 30 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
In the last few years James Holden has quickly established himself as one of the dance music community's pillars, having an impact of which many an older producer and DJ can but dream.

Holden first shot to fame when Way Out West DJ Nick Warren charted the then-unknown 19-year-old's "Horizons" on CDR for three months. Warren's good taste was affirmed as the track went on to be a Pete Tong Essential new tune, was picked up by Sony's dance label offshoot Incredible, and named one of UK dance bible Mixmag's Top 100 dance records of all-time. Further singles along with various side projects for Hope Recordings, Bedrock and Loaded have compounded the young producer's reputation, as he gradually evolved his own unique sound. His consistently beautiful and futuristic tracks and equally stunning remixes are always a mainstay of the major league DJ's sets, from Sasha, Digweed and Nick Warren to Pete Tong, Oakenfold and Tiesto, with Sasha even asking him to collaborate on a track ("Bloodlock") for his Airdrawndagger album. James Holden offers EQ's Balance series the most innovative selection of music to date. Showcasing his vast taste for left of center material matched with dance-floor sensibilities, James has compiled an eclectic mix of house, techno, melodies, and ambient moments, all fused with a progressive attitude, that will definitely capture the attention and imagination of clubbers and music connoisseurs alike.

Features tracks and remixes from the likes of FC Kahuna, Holden, Infusion, Carl A. Finlow, FortDax, Zeta Reticula, Petter, Meta.83, Baby Ford & The Ifach Collective, Luke Chable & more...

Balance 005,James Holden,E.Q. (Studio),Club/Dance,Dance,Dance Music,House,Pop,Progressive House,Techno

Average customer rating:

Whispers of Talent Waiting to be Unleashed

Balance In Stasis

Outstanding

The mix you have been waiting for

Not much words can describe this whole journey

Balance 005
James Holden
Manufacturer: E.Q.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
General | Techno | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
House | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Balance 008

At The Controls

Balance 007

Balance 006

Balance 010

ASIN: B0000TAZGK
Release Date: 2004-01-06

Tracks:

The MFA The Difference It Makes (Original Mix)
Meta.83 Antrieb
Jake Fairley Oshawa
Zeta Reticula Tool 1
Petter All Together
Baby Ford & The Ifach Collective Bad Friday
Zeta Reticula Tool 3
Avus Real
DJ ESP No Future (Soundburnt Mix)
Jase From Outta Space Do What You Want (Infusions Sky Mix)
Nathan Fake Outhouse (Fluffy Mix)
Nathan Fake Outhouse (Original Mix)
FortDax Fortune Telling Fish, Curled to Suggest Home
PQM You Are Sleeping (PQM Meets Luke Chable Vocal Pass)
Petter These Days (Instrumental)
Herrmann & Kleine Leaving You Behind
Meek Happy (Original Mix)
Meerkat Colours (JH Re-Edit)
Avus Your Body (Original Mix)
Scape One PFX Tokyo
FC Kahuna Hayling (Kosmas Epsilon Mix)
Holden The Wheel (Pass 1)
Kotai + Mo Black Acid pt 1
Epsilon 9 Lifeformation (Infirnal Machine Mix)
Carl A. Finlow Ghetto Server
Gill Norris Forme
Ficta Eli
Petter Tonediary
Form & Function Wonderland (Original Mix)
Meta.83 Metalgroove EP: End Titles

Album Description

In the last few years James Holden has quickly established himself as one of the dance music community's pillars, having an impact of which many an older producer and DJ can but dream.

Features tracks and remixes from the likes of FC Kahuna, Holden, Infusion, Carl A. Finlow, FortDax, Zeta Reticula, Petter, Meta.83, Baby Ford & The Ifach Collective, Luke Chable & more...

Customer Reviews:

Whispers of Talent Waiting to be Unleashed.......2007-04-16

It is ironic that Nick Warren apparently turned James Holden from unknown to known by featuring one of Holden's own early tracks in his sets. Or is it?

A repeated thought came to my mind at various times while I first listened to Balance 005 (and still does). The album overall, has a likeness to Warren's own Global Underground 024: Reykjavic. Not a clone by any means, and not as impressive, but very good nonetheless.

This is not a high energy, rapid tempo compilation. Instead, Holden attempts to take the listener on a journey. A journey that one can access through his careful track selection and smooth mixing of this hypnotic album. Nicely done.

Disc 1 is spectactular and would have been near perfect without the inclusion of "You Are Sleeping" by PQM. I really hate that track.

Disc 2 can lose your attention a little with a couple of mediocre tracks scattered throughout, but is still very listenable.

Disc 1 gets 4.5/5 stars while disc 2 4/5 stars.

Balance In Stasis.......2007-02-14

All truly great electronic dance music (and I use that as a blanket term to cover a wider array of genres -- trance, house, techno, you get the idea) can be defined by the risks it takes. Artists may do good work moving through realms of relative safety, but it is when they guide their craft to the edge, when they perch on unexplored precipices without toppling, that is when they are at their most glorious. In a milieu that is as rich with possibilities (and yet still as infamously redundant) as electronica, finding this kind of masterful friction is a rare treat. If this music is a cliff face worn smooth by dull routine, Holden is one of those people (a prodigy, really, if you take his age into account) who has found the hidden handholds and is climbing up, higher and higher.

In this album, however, Holden appears to have stopped climbing in order to enjoy the view. The view's not bad -- it's a nice trance-scape from one end of the horizon to the other -- but it doesn't do much, doesn't go anywhere. Holden's talent at music selection, his preference for tracks that run way beyond mainstream and into the melodically obscure, is in fine form here. In that respect, the album is a nice tapestry of an aurally avant-garde art, but taken as a whole, the collection is stunted.

The prevalent atmosphere is one of warm-n-cool trance, but the elements of the album encompass much more than that, I'll grant it. Holden's horizon (his view, to torture my metaphor) isn't one big flatland. He's added mountain ranges of deep house, sparkling lakes of ambient techno, and fuzzy pine groves of industrial-tinted hot box synth.

In some ways it's stunning, actually. There are patches in the discs where Holden achieves a brilliant harmonic energy that is expressed as much in the notes and sounds as it is in the way those notes and sounds are strung together. The breakbeats and electro-nudges found in the trio of Fairley, Zeta Reticula, and Petter early on in the first disc make up one of those patches, a sparkling wash of black-lit sound smoke. Another good example is the Fake "Outhouse" couplet, which is reminiscent of the gorgeous indie-tronica of Ulrich Schnauss with an infusion of blinding gear-head energy.

The second disc has some good moments, too. It features meta-synth beats dirty dancing with wicked wood-block rhythms on Avus's "Your Body." Holden also pulls unforseen structure out of lush bolts of static in "Hayling" and "The Wheel," and weaves high-tech, soft-hearted luminosity in "Forme," a song that sounds like goosebumps put to music. There are chunks of spicy nu jazz ("Wonderland"), retro-techno ("Metalgroove"), and even creep-crunk breakbeats mixed with orchestral string-simulations ("Ghetto Server").

There are only two things keeping both discs -- the mellower one and the grittier other -- from rising above "Okay" status. One problem is the standard (and, in some cases, sub-standard) melding of tracks, and the other problem is the long hauls where the discs stagnate.

Holden is capable of better musical meshing than can be seen here. There are a lot of cases where beats are just matched up like slots in a card, and the segue from one mode to another is left to ride on the rails of the rhythm. There are no tonal blends, no chromatic smears, just songs dovetailing into each other. It works, that's true, but it's nothing your average DJ with a metronome couldn't pull off.

And just as the art of piecing together these disparate styles and songs has been put on auto-pilot, many of the songs themselves hit a plateau and coast for so long that the mood dulls and the energy fades. All senses are susceptible to over-exposure; attenuation of the ears spells death for any electronic record. Even some of the points where the discs are sublimely sweet turn sour when they are left to churn themselves out endlessly.

Add this to the fact that Holden marries modal qualities that are sometimes far too similar and you've got a set that fails to flow even as it transcends genres. Perhaps its a testament to Holden's skill that he can still make mediocrity sound good, that he can craft tender trance out of the tonal equivalent of a pause button, that he makes a fine mosaic out of motionlessness. Still, here's hoping the future finds Holden not just higher up on that mountain, but moving steadily skyward. Key word: moving.

Outstanding.......2007-01-31

This is the best and most original 'dj mix' album I have heard in many years and I've been listening to electronic music for a long long time. I think James Holden is as good as some of the legends like Andy Weatherall when he was at his best.

The mix you have been waiting for.......2006-08-10

First off I apologize for any typos. It is like 3 am so.... like... Moving on though..

This compilation is almost three years old now and it still holds regular residencies on my CD player/ipod/laptop. I have given these mix some thought and in my humble opinion, this is the most innovative mix compilation I have ever come across.
This mix caught me at an interest point in my life. Before this mix, I had several inaccurate preconceptions. A few of them were:
Music needs to have a solid groove and kick drum to trash a dance floor

You can't mix ambience. Nobody will notice and it may sound boring.

The politics of the music don't matter. It is the melody, groove and pace people are interested in.

You can't make a mix too diverse; it makes it feel too sporadic.

Hah! Boy was I wrong. After listening to this mix for the first time (took me ten hours and fourteen or so minutes by the way) I was completely disoriented. I mean this mix explores so many styles and blends genres so often it is not even funny. What a dark mix! The ambient sound effects make the tracks feel studio polished while somehow maintaining their otherworldly feel. The applications of peaks and valleys and the tension release formula are enough to squeeze tears out of your track. The breakdowns? Intense without being loud. Check out the final ambient breakdown of Petter's sci-fish All together if you don't believe me. It happens around almost at the very end of that track. The bill hicks sample on Avus's track gives you a glimpse of this DJ/producer/record label owner's mentality and is very inspired. It is never tedious, always oriented but never narrow-minded. It has some of my favorite tracks of all time and one of the most amazing mixing. I mean you should get a glimpse of how he mixes DJ ESP's drum and bass monster into the jasse from outta space's do what you want. Or how he mixes Hayling into the wheel (magic track) into black acid ( another great track) into the melodic prog house primordial Life formation. I could go on about this mix forever but I would rather you unwrapped this masterpiece yourself. If you don't like it I am sure your individual opinion matters. But in this dark, cerebral world of this mix... YOU ARE SLEEPING!

Over-enthusiastically recommended

Not much words can describe this whole journey.......2006-07-18

I'm not really trying to write a review, this is a big thank you to James Holden for creating such a masterpiece. I can only say that this one of the most perfect albums ever recorded. Even if your not really into dance/electronic music, you will stoy enjoy this album, it has one of those vibes that feel like a big deja-vu. This is a journey, the mixing here sounds so perfect and everything blends so well it sounds like everything is one big song without being repetitive. Thanks James Holden for making this, it brings a smile to my face everytime I put this in my cd player. This album has insprired me a whole lot up. Cant wait to see Holden live december 1st along with Petter.

Album Review:

Album Review

Album Review