Mat Zo's - Essential Mix (09/02/2013)


Aza

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Despite his newer projects and sounds, I've also been a fan of Mat Zo.

Having now managed to catch up on some audio of recent times, I checked out Prydz's Essential Mix followed by Zo's which was the week after.

Having checked out the tracklist, I was initially a little dissapointed that the sounds I guess most of us grew to like him for were left out... In my opinion that proved the cliché of book and cover...

If you listen to his reasoning in the opening statement and introduction for the mix:

“All the music in the (essential) mix is stuff that has inspired me or stuff that is hardwired into my brain from listening to it so much! There are also new tracks that give me hope in the music industry,”

”I started laying down tracks and seeing where the mix would go and it was a really experimental process in a lot of ways. I chose tracks that wouldn’t necessarily would go together in a club set, but would work as something you would listen to on a day-to-day basis.”

When I put together the A-Z mix of my career, I used a similar approach, but kept it dance/trance orientated. What Zo has done here is - by the looks of it - used his entire life's experience - across all genres! It's like a fusion of everything mixed, expertly structured and geniusly compiled. I think Zo has likened it to a journey through his cosmos of music and having studied Physics myself, (only after seeing past the cross between an electronic James Earl-Jones and The Saw Movie voice) resonated with the opening statements backed by luscious chords - quoting Carl Sagen:

“There once was a time before television, before motion pictures, before radio, before books. The greatest part of human existence was spent in such a time. And then, over the dying embers of the campfire, on a moonless night, we watched the stars.”

Throughout the mix Zo would then go on to countlessly quote the famous astronomer/cosmologist - often at times dropping each statement between transitioning from midtempo, disco, house, dubstep and trance.

Here is the entire offering - 70 tracks in two hours!

Tracklist:

01. Andrew Bayer – Let’s Hear That B Section Again [Anjunabeats]

02. The M Machine – Tiny Anthem [Owsla]

03. Birdy Nam Nam – Defiant Order [Owsla]

04. DJ Falcon – Honeymoon [Roulé]

05. Justice – Helix (Gesaffelstein’s ‘Vision’ Remix) [Ed Banger]

06. Mat Zo feat. Rachel Collier – Only For You (Album Mix) [Anjunabeats]

07. Spirit Catcher – Rendez-vous [Z Records]

08. Kill Paris – Baby Come Back

09. Oliver – MYB [Fool's Gold]

10. The Paradise – In Love With You [Vulture]

11. Gill Norris – Forme (Guy J PM Mix) [subtract]

12. Burial & Four Tet – Moth [Text]

13. Duke Dumont – The Giver [Turbo]

14. Daft Punk – Burnin’ [Virgin]

15. Mat Zo – Giving It All Up [Anjunabeats]

16. Filterheadz – The Game [1605]

17. Boys Noize – Ich R U (Jacques Lu Cont Remix) [boysnoize]

18. Ilan Bluestone – Sinai [Anjunabeats]

19. The M Machine – Luma [Owsla]

20. Mat Zo feat. Chuck D – Pyramid Scheme (Club Mix) [Anjunabeats]

21. Depeche Mode – The Darkest Star (James Holden Remix) [Mute]

22. Bungle – Astral Travel [soul:R]

23. Netsky – I Refuse [spearhead]

24. Enei – Movin’ Fast (June Miller Remix) [Critical]

25. Reso – Axion (KOAN Sound Remix) [Civil]

26. Mat Zo – Caller ID [Anjunabeats]

27. Airwave – Trilogique (Mat Zo Essential Edit)

28. Oliver – Mechanical [Fool's Gold]

29. Stoneface & Terminal – Blueprint [Euphonic]

30. John Dish – Karmma [Flamingo]

31. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike – Wakanda [Axtone]

32. Darryl Green & Xendo – Oh Yeah! [big & Dirty]

33. Fedde Le Grand – Put Your Hands Up For Detroit

34. Sander Van Doorn – Dozer [Doorn] w/ Fedde Le Grand – Put Your Hands Up for Detroit

35. Markus Schulz feat. Departure – Without You Near (Gabriel & Dresden Remix) [Coldharbour]

36. Felix Cartal feat. Maja Ivarsson – Tonight (Botnek Remix) [Dim Mak]

37. Ferry Corsten feat. Maria Nayler – We Belong [Flashover]

38. Chicane – Offshore [Xtravaganza]

39. James Holden – A Break In The Clouds [border Community]

40. Mark Knight feat. Skin – Nothing Matters [Toolroom]

41. Andrea Doria & LXR – Beauty Of Silence (Inpetto Remix) [Roxy Records]

42. Marco V – Song In My Head (Revixed Mix) [in Charge]

43. Zedd – Slam The Door [Owsla]

44. Tommy Trash – Monkey See Monkey Do (Re-Edit) [Rising]

45. Sander Van Doorn feat. MC Pryme – By Any Demand [Nebula]

46. Meck feat. Dino – Feels Like Home (Marco V Dub) [Yoshitoshi]

47. Cid Inc. – Refrost [LowBit]

48. Roul & Doors – Melody In Harmony [Flamingo]

49. Sander van Doorn – The Bass

50. Mat Zo – Sorrow (Theme from The Gladiator)

51. Noisia – Could This Be [Mau5trap]

52. Stoneface & Terminal – Leaving Earth [Euphonic]

53. Mord Fustang – Taito [Plasmapool] w/ Dajai – Every Day of My Life (Acapella)

54. Crookers – Dushi (SlapIn The Bass Remix) [southern Fried]

55. John Dahlbäck feat. Terri B! – Flirt (Club Mix) w/ Your First Time (Acapella)

56. Mat Zo – Frequency Flyer [Anjunabeats]

57. Mat Zo & Porter Robinson – Easy [Ministry Of Sound]

58. Mat Zo – Easy (Reprise) [Anjunabeats]

59. Daft Punk – Aerodynamic [Virgin] w/ Eric Prydz & Andreas Postl – Mighty Love (Instrumental) [Virgin]

60. Boys Noize & Daft Punk – What You Want (Nozeita Remix) w/ Daft Punk – Aerodynamic [Virgin]

61. Sasha – Xpander (12″ Remastered Version) [Deconstruction]

62. Noisia – Lilith’s Club [Division]

63. Alex Kenji – The Funk [Hotfingers]

64. Wink – Higher State of Conciousness (Marco V Remix) [strictly Rhythm]

65. Pig & Dan – On Edge [Tronic]

66. Norin & Rad – Bird Is The Word [Anjunabeats] w/ Fatboy Slim – Rockafella Skank (Acapella)

67. Junior Jack – E Samba [Defected]

68. Andrew Bayer – A Brief Interlude [Anjunabeats]

69. Mat Zo feat. Eyes That Lie – Hurricane (Album Mix) [Anjunabeats]

70. Mat Zo feat. Pete Josef – Fall Into Dreams (Album Mix) [Anjunabeats]

Edited by Aza
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As I'm sure it is known I've really not been a fan of what Mat has been doing musically over the past few years and I really generally dislike megamix style sets but I have to hand it to him in that he understands what the Essential Mix is about and he went out of his way to craft something personal and utterly unique.

It makes a huge change to see someone put some actual effort in! Half the producers (no longer DJs I'm afraid) who are given this prestigious honour these days just stick 20-odd tracks together in any order and don't differentiate at all from one of the myriad of online radio shows one could download so hats off to Mat!

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Echo that, too.

I know what you mean, Chrissie, and second time round it's awesome. The first time I listened I was actually more surprised since my initial hunch after checking the tracklisting was it's a megamix, but it's far far from it!

It really is his full effort in throwing down all the music he loves and really treating the Essential Mix with the respect a lot of us hold for it all those years ago - from where a DJ would do something really special.

I'm on my third listen of this set now. The voice overlays are insane, extremely philosophical albeit in that Jigsaw like voice!

Glad you enjoyed it :)

Prydz's set the week before Zo's was also sublime!

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You can see from this page what Mat stated about 'Lucky Strike':

With this one I was going for a more uptempo trance tune than anything I had done before. I went for a combination of tech-y influences and big euphoric moments.... the last pure breed trance tune I did, before experimenting with other sounds.

It's one of my favourite tunes and kudos to him in that he has the ability to produce such a track and also focus and create other sounds.

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Might as well chime in, as cleverly executed as it is, this kinda of thin does not interest me, too many tracks used, if I want to hear tracks that influenced someone or whatever fpr longer than a couple of minutes I would rather listen to the 6 Mix, far better.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Mat zo for me has always produced nothing but rubbish but this mix looks to be quite an eclectic mix of styles. Kudos for that at least.

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[

Mat zo for me has always produced nothing but rubbish.

It's your opinion of course, but tracks like '24 Hours', 'Lucky Strike' & his remix of Signalrunners 'Recoil' for me at least are absolute trance beauties. 'Superman' was also good but was bit less tempo than the aforementioned, although a sweet track imo too..

Might as well chime in, as cleverly executed as it is, this kinda of thin does not interest me, too many tracks used, if I want to hear tracks that influenced someone or whatever fpr longer than a couple of minutes I would rather listen to the 6 Mix, far better.

..

Can see what you mean, as I really wanted to hear more of 'Blueprint' for example, but forgive the short ride for the brilliance on creativity, structuring and layering. The mix being littered with great philosophic quotes tying in with all the various genres was genius too.

.

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If I ever listen to this I may end up actually liking it and appreciate how creative it is, but just on 'paper' the tracklist does not interest me.

A side rant, always annoys me that every drum and bass dj essential mix or even commercial released mix cds contains a million tracks, , I'd rather hear 3-4 minutes of some tracks rather than like a minute and then otherwise in the mix with another track, I kow there is creativiity playing bits of the right tracks over others but a whole hour of it gets tiresome quickly

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Jason: have you heard ShyFX's emix from '05? https://soundcloud.com/tmcn808/essential-mix-641-2005-12-11

It's one of those mixes that captured the DnB scene at that specific time perfectly.

There is some really well crafted mixes and twotrackers/bootlegs in there. It's personally one of my favorite emixes from "newer" time.

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If I ever listen to this I may end up actually liking it and appreciate how creative it is, but just on 'paper' the tracklist does not interest me.

I would insist you do, Jason'age... Book by its cover and all that, you know ;-)

Give me a shout and I'll put it on my SkyDrive for you...

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