Tremor

I have both those tunes on vinyl and they are also 2 of my favourite tunes from this set. Deeper Love the gizeh mix in particular because it took me ages to track down this version. The rubbish release that came out about a year after this set just has the cheesy vocal mixes.

Aza: Aza’s mix overall wins hardest mix of the bunch. It really brings the energy from the offset with Silio Ecomo’s Uprising – catchy and bangin at the same time. For those used to listening to Aza’s usual trance classics mixes, I think we get to see his darker side here with a definite focus on bangin beats, twisted synths and basslines. There is not a vocal or airy fairy breakdown in sight and I love it! There are lots of tunes here that I’d never heard. At a guess I’d say the tunes probably came out between 2002-2004 when I was much less on the ball with new stuff. Highlights for me were Boca – Play With Me – just love the tune. Also the mix from Land of Drum into Rectifier and then on to Signum’s what you got 4 me is a really good section which flows very nicely. Mixing here is superb. Great work Aza! There is also a great pace chance from "Fingers Burnt" into "Dark By Design" with a very good mix between the 2. I love the way the mix comes down to purely beats which are all broken beats sitting very nicely together. Then this leads nicely to the eventual drop of the hard-beat of Dark by Design taking the mix to an even harder level towards the end. Coretex - Out There is also a great track - almost feels like a gabber tune with all those nasty sounds.

Moonman: This was a great set mate. Apart from the very first track which I just find annoying (sorry) the rest is superb. I am usually Trance through and through but this serves as a great review of 2009. I also went to see Laidback Luke on New Year’s day in Manchester and got to see how some of this type of music works in a live club set. It absolutely went off so it was great to hear “Hey” in this mix. I also played a similar style in Derby last weekend for the first of 2 sets I played (2nd being Trance Classics). The mixing is flawless on this mix as well mate and I really like the way it builds and transitions into the Trance in the 2nd half. There are some great choices in that section too. Big thumbs up from me mate.

haha I've been slowly working through these and have nearly listened to all of them. Here's a couple of reviews I wrote whilst listening to the sets. I was going to compile them all in one post but still need to write the rest so will kick off with 2. Ian K: This was a superb mix, as Aza said, a proper trance set with a great structure to it. It builds nicely through the first 4 or 5 tracks and there are some really nice “bass led” tunes in there which I liked. Then it starts to hit the main room trance peak with JOC’s Out of nowhere, setting the pace for the rest of the set. Sun Decade and Tingle follow on very nicely and of course it all concludes with the huge JVD remix of RAMsterdam. Very well mixed and put together. I thoroughly enjoyed this mix. N2F: I really enjoyed this mix as the tunes on it are so well chosen and laid out in the set. It was a good bit of education also as there were a few tunes I’d never heard before and others which sum up exactly the sort of classics I love (bocaccio life, Cygnus X, Pulser and Energy 52 for example – btw loved hearing the original kid paul mix). Rather childishly though the highlight for me must have been the last track, Seb – Sugarshack. Being a big Happy Hardcore fan it was a nice surprise to hear that in there and I had not heard it before but it’s instantly catchy. Great stuff!

Hi mate, Sorry I've not really given you a proper detailed feedback yet... I know its a bit annoying when people dont do that.. I think I need to take another listen to the whole mix but I am just listening around those areas you mention. The mixing is certainly flawless in that it's tight and everything fits well together. I must admit the first time around I didn't especially notice the looping and the way in which you mixed these sections but that is because I didn't know the tunes. There is perhaps only 1 or 2 tracks off your mix I actually own (one being tiesto - lethal industry) which means I have no concept of mixing the tunes for myself and don't know them well enough to realise the looping is going on etc. One of the things I loved about you mix though was that for me it was great to hear some tunes which are obviously big influences to you but they are new to me giving something fresh. It's also a style I really like - a bit harder and techier. Anyway I'm glad you pointed these sections out and explained what you'd done because I can tell when listening back now that you've done those things and I can see it really works. I'm sorry wasn't able to notice it for myself due to a lack of knowledge of the tunes. I think with the techier trance stuff its easy not to notice the looping etc because it could easily be the way the tune was made originally but this is a good thing because it shows you have used the looping and effects well to make mixing flow really nicely. It is better to do that than do something that sounds really blatant and where a small mistake in the loop points or something would sound rubbish - this is the mistake Jules makes when he starts playing with the loops etc after too many vodkas! Top set anyway mate and I will listen again to it all properly - just been a bit busy this week. Keep it up

Cheers for the reviews Aza and thanks again for co-ordinating this year's efforts. I have to agree the standard of the mixes was great this year. Still got a couple to listen to and I will try to give feedback to those I havn't done yet before too long.

yes I love that tune (Dave the Drummer) and you have reminded me I really should try and get a copy of it.

Ahhh ok nice one thanks for clearing that up. In that case I'm guessing the last track by Seb is the same Seb that made "Rainbow Islands"? It certainly sounds in the same style. Might have to track that one down for myself

Ayla has to be played at about -4% at least to mix with standard '99 trance. I started it off at about that or maybe even -5. Andy & The Lamboy? - is that the last tune? I don't see it in your tracklist. I have always wandered what it was after previous times you've mentioned it. Anyways I like that last tune regardless - it's almost happy hardcore

Hehe thanks N2. I really wanted to use Ayla first as it's got the really long intro. Your mix has just taken 2 and a half hours to download as my internet is screwed but it was worth it already just to hear playin with knives as the first track. Brilliant. Didn't expect it to be the original "oldskool" version used as I didn't think it would mix with house/trance but it works well. I look forward to the rest of the mix. Still got 3 or 4 to download but I might wait til I sort my internet out! *edit* - Pulser - Cloudwalking - not heard this in years

Don't worry Lynnie I'm slowly working through them. My internet connection is really slow the last few days for some reason. No comments on mine yet either but hopefully people will eventually get round to listening to all of em. Will get on to yours next!

Liking Matt's mix - a solid effort - Loved hearing the Porn Kings!. Got 2 more on the download now. Will continue to comment at the week goes on.

hehe I love those obscure techy tunes Jules played alot of back in late 2000/early 2001. His sets from Sankys soap and Gods Kitchen in late 2000 are great example of that type of stuff.

Ah how exciting time to check out all the other mixes... I've been a tad busy over the weekend but I did go and see Laidback Luke so wasn't all work. Got some time now to check some of these out. Nice work everyone, the tracklists look great. Aza your mix is superb mate - proper bangin stuff on there.

Ah man I totally missed the completion of the 2nd mix as Ive been away most of the summer. That tracklist looks amazing though. Top effort all round and especially Briggsy... well done for doing this and coming up with the whole concept. This is going straight on the iPod as Ive got a fair bit of driving to do this weekend.. good times.

Niiiiiiiiicely!! I look forward to that one when I get back from Ibiza... off out there tomorrow!

Wicked stuff this.. Cheers Briggsy. Really enjoyed this. Glad you managed to get it done mate... was worth the wait. I trust my bit will come in part 2 which I very much look forward to as well. Nice one mate.

Ive used Audiojelly, DJ Download, Beatport, Trackitdown I think DJ download is the best for price and rewarding the customer. Never really had any issues. Audiojelly have been fine for customer service when I've had the occasional corrupt file or something. They are a little pricey though Trackitdown another good one in my experience. The website is a bit of a faff sometimes though - I hate that when u browse the new releases, if you click on a track to view its details and then press back in the browser, it always goes back to page 1 even if you were on page 3 before or something.. very tedious. Beatport - had a bad experience with a random charge of £20 taken from my account when I was using some loyalty token or something and they basically charged me when it should have been free. Customer service was useless and did nothing about it. I only recently started using them again but will only use paypal from now on... dont trust them with my card details on record.

Yeah its both sad and surprising that Jules claims not to have copies of his old tunes. I realise he has thousands of vinyls in storage somewhere (or at least was the case a few years ago) and that these were not organised according to his old diary entries. However you would think that there would be one shelf somewhere in his house with all his personal productions on. Certainly thats what I would have done. If he had every single production he'd done on vinyl that still wouldn't take up tooo much space. I can understand all the thousands of other tunes he's been sent over the years taking up far too much space to keep now but his own work I am surprised he has presumably lost or whatever in with the rest.

yes indeed. I realise Jules and masterson must have had copies made as this was way pre-CD but you know what I mean... it never even saw limited promo release I wouldn't have thought. So it's possible by now some of the tunes dont survive at all. I remember meeting Jules a couple of years back and getting him to sign some of his old vinyls including Floorgasm - Have a Nice Day... he was so surprised to see a copy as he claims he doesn't even have a copy himself now on vinyl, mp3 anything. I did rip it and send it to him actually but not sure he's played it since. I suspect only Masteron might still have some of the original work but who knows

That Hi-Gate - Unknown track is really cool... very similar to Caned & Unable but I remember really liking it when I'd listen to this tape in my walkman on the school bus! Shame some of these tunes never made it to vinyl.

8. Hi-Gate - Martha Arthur ID'd from the Durham University set. So yeah another shelved Hi-Gate production I guess.. pretty sure this never got released.

Corrections 10. Blaze feat. Palmer Brown - 'My Beat' (Jan Driver Vocal Mix) [black & Blue] 11. Tomba Vira - The Sound of Oh Yeah track 11 can only just be made out as the set is chopped up a bit... we loose most of the tune - I'm not sure which version or what label it's on as its not a tune I have myself.. just one I remember.

Hmmm track 8 sounds very familiar but I dont know what it is yet. Could be also on some of the University sets as this was broadcast very soon after them? worth checking

ooh nice one! Downloading now.. Intrigued to hear track 8 Fuzzy. It's not that Masterplan tune is it? I'll find out in a little while I guess