{"id":3923,"date":"2019-09-10T21:44:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T12:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thankyouforthehorse.com\/?p=3923"},"modified":"2019-09-10T21:44:36","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T12:44:36","slug":"melancholia-lucky-lotus-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/?p=3923","title":{"rendered":"Melancholia &#8211; Lucky Lotus 8"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/640720749&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>With barely 120 SoundCloud listens so far, Melancholia\u2019s rather special Lucky Lotus set remains slept on by too many. Whether a post on the dusty pages of TYFTH will make much difference is doubtful, but either way I\u2019d like to pay proper tribute to one of the finest sets I\u2019ve heard for years.<\/p>\n<p>Although I\u2019ve been familiar with Melancholia\u2019s sample-heavy mixing style for quite a while, this time around the tracklist couldn\u2019t get much closer to the TYFTH ideal. Add in to that some pretty inspiring mixing, and you\u2019ll understand why I was so excited about this one.<\/p>\n<p>Self Extortion is obviously a good start (with bonus points for some great work on the intro), and one that gets even better thanks to an impressive harmonic mix into Aurora. That super smooth Sylph into Byrgius transition is a standout, while the way Eternity Has Passed mixes in next, underneath Byrgius\u2019 filters, is a sign of Melancholia\u2019s technical flexibility. A combination that could have sounded very messy is instead nicely aggressive, with some voice samples papering over any of the gaps that are left.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll notice a lot of trademark sample usage here and there, including some fantastic use of the Self Extortion vocals. Others are less effective to my ears &#8211; Aryx\u2019s melancholy breakdowns are probably vocal-less for reason, after all, but on the whole they\u2019re both well selected and well timed. There\u2019s generally a nice line being walked between the po-faced samples you often hear in Finnish tracks and the nudge-and-a-wink semi-comedy style of some UK freeform (\u2018At ease, listen up!\u2019 is one of my favourites here).<\/p>\n<p>Hearing Eternity Has Passed at 175ish makes me realise how much I like it, and it\u2019s probably somewhere in my top 5 Betwixt tunes when played at this speed. It\u2019s a reminder of how, when Betwixt was really feeling the inspiration, even Nomic or Alek would struggle to match him. What I\u2019d give to hear a modern freeform bootleg or two.<\/p>\n<p>The samples appear again as the set moves into Axiomatic System, giving some listening landmarks that are so effective that I might do some experimenting of my own in this style. As for Lost Soul, I\u2019ve surely lamented before that there are an awful lot of tracks that have some fantastic moments but never quite live up to the atmosphere I\u2019m expecting. Here Melancholia\u2019s solution is to combine an effective snippet of the track with the ever-reliable Iron Squid. Ephexis\u2019 Destination Entheogen remix is right up there with their best, and here makes for a surprising but effective finale. With the shortened use of Axiomatic System I\u2019d prefer DE to be given more time &#8211; as the first four tracks had longer play it would help greatly with the flow of the second half of the set. That\u2019s tricky to balance in a 22-minute mix though, and a minor weak spot in a massively impressive piece of work.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m biased thanks to the track selection, but this would still be a must-listen thanks to the technical quality on show. If you\u2019ve been feeling a bit stuck in a mixing rut then this could well give you some new ideas, and those non-DJs who stick to listening will probably end up making this their TYFTH-style go-to for a long while.<\/p>\n<p>01. Betwixt &amp; Between &#8211; Self Extortion<br \/>\n02. Aryx &#8211; Aurora<br \/>\n03. Aryx &#8211; Sylph<br \/>\n04. Aryx &amp; Alek Sz\u00e1hala &#8211; Byrgius<br \/>\n05. Betwixt &amp; Between &#8211; Eternity Has Passed<br \/>\n06. Lost Soul &#8211; Axiomatic System<br \/>\n07. Alek Sz\u00e1hala &#8211; Iron Squid<br \/>\n08. Alias A.K.A. &amp; Johan Floss &#8211; Destination Entheogen (Ephexis Remix)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With barely 120 SoundCloud listens so far, Melancholia\u2019s rather special Lucky Lotus set remains slept on by too many. Whether a post on the dusty pages of TYFTH will make much difference is doubtful, but either way I\u2019d like to pay proper tribute to one of the finest sets I\u2019ve heard for years. Although I\u2019ve [&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":[10,5,4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finnish","category-japanese","category-mixes","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923","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=3923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3924,"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923\/revisions\/3924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thankyouforthehorse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}