{"id":3280,"date":"2017-11-17T23:44:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T14:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thankyouforthehorse.com\/?p=3280"},"modified":"2017-11-17T23:44:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T14:44:51","slug":"shimotsukei-alek-szahala-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/?p=3280","title":{"rendered":"Shimotsukei &#8211; Alek Szahala Mix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/347381539&amp;color=%232f3842&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Although it goes without saying that Shimotsukei&#8217;s SoundCloud (and especially the recent artist mix series) should be a regular destination for all Horsers these days, I couldn&#8217;t let this one pass by without comment. The difficulty of mixing Alek Szahala&#8217;s tracks together might be one reason for so few Alek-only sets over the years, but this two-hour epic is a mighty impressive effort.<\/p>\n<p>As with many of Shimotsukei&#8217;s streamed sets this was put together with very little planning, which immediately gives it an extra dose of &#8216;live&#8217; energy. The drawback of that approach is fewer standout transitions &#8211; a shame as that&#8217;s something I was really looking forward to in a set of this importance. That&#8217;s not to there aren&#8217;t any, mind, and the set&#8217;s atmosphere is shifted around very skilfully from start to finish.<\/p>\n<p>Nine out of ten freeform DJs would recommend starting an Alek set with <em>Tigris<\/em>, and why not? It&#8217;s still one of the very best intros of all time, with enough darkness and melody to link nicely with a variety of other tracks. Here it&#8217;s <em>Invitation<\/em> &#8211; a solid transition to start, but it&#8217;s not until <em>Ihme Juttu &#8211; Ziggurat<\/em> that the mixing really picks up. That&#8217;s quickly followed by what might be the transition of the set, as <em>Mermaid <\/em>unexpectedly moves into <em>Ngarnuuk<\/em> in one of those high bpm mixes that Shimotsukei is so good at.<\/p>\n<p>From that point it&#8217;s more about the excellent selection than anything else. There are a few wobbles here and there, as <em>Heaven N Hell <\/em>and <em>Comet Catcher <\/em>clash, while the following melodic tracks aren&#8217;t always comfortable mixing into each other. Much better is the <em>Lagash &#8211; Chimaera <\/em>combo, an effective transition that doesn&#8217;t overdo things while nicely altering the atmosphere. Things are really rock solid from that point &#8211; <em>Last of the Mohicans<\/em> into <em>Icy Clouds <\/em>is one I enjoyed, before the manic finale that you surely knew was coming.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of omissions aside, this is a wonderful set that covers all era of Alek in a very different style to his own live PAs, and (as if you needed one) a great primer on Alek&#8217;s sound.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll hijack the post before I go &#8211; it&#8217;s actually been in the back of my mind for a while to do a new Alek mix (my second, strictly speaking, as my first-ever recorded freeform set in 2006 was Alek-only), and this might be the kick I need to finally give one a go next year&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although it goes without saying that Shimotsukei&#8217;s SoundCloud (and especially the recent artist mix series) should be a regular destination for all Horsers these days, I couldn&#8217;t let this one pass by without comment. The difficulty of mixing Alek Szahala&#8217;s tracks together might be one reason for so few Alek-only sets over the years, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finnish","category-mixes","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3306,"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3280\/revisions\/3306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}