Although it goes without saying that Shimotsukei’s SoundCloud (and especially the recent artist mix series) should be a regular destination for all Horsers these days, I couldn’t let this one pass by without comment. The difficulty of mixing Alek Szahala’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.
As with many of Shimotsukei’s streamed sets this was put together with very little planning, which immediately gives it an extra dose of ‘live’ energy. The drawback of that approach is fewer standout transitions – a shame as that’s something I was really looking forward to in a set of this importance. That’s not to there aren’t any, mind, and the set’s atmosphere is shifted around very skilfully from start to finish.
Nine out of ten freeform DJs would recommend starting an Alek set with Tigris, and why not? It’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’s Invitation – a solid transition to start, but it’s not until Ihme Juttu – Ziggurat that the mixing really picks up. That’s quickly followed by what might be the transition of the set, as Mermaid unexpectedly moves into Ngarnuuk in one of those high bpm mixes that Shimotsukei is so good at.
From that point it’s more about the excellent selection than anything else. There are a few wobbles here and there, as Heaven N Hell and Comet Catcher clash, while the following melodic tracks aren’t always comfortable mixing into each other. Much better is the Lagash – Chimaera combo, an effective transition that doesn’t overdo things while nicely altering the atmosphere. Things are really rock solid from that point – Last of the Mohicans into Icy Clouds is one I enjoyed, before the manic finale that you surely knew was coming.
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’s sound.
I’ll hijack the post before I go – it’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…
Thanks for this! I kind of figured that mermaid/ngarnuuk and mohican/icy combos would be favorite of your’s as they were two of mine. Heaven N Hell and Comet Catcher I recall screwing up the timing of or something and I think Desagoon was a bit out of key. One thing that I could have been a bit more creative with is the mashup, but I wanted people to hear the majority of it so opted for a bit less interesting mixing with it. Most difficult part about doing these live is probably the chat as it’s quite easy to get distracted keeping up with people.
My basis for the mixes has been keeping it around 2 hours max, no retakes, and trying to keep it different from the artists’ own mixes. So I’ve been trying to make the transitions more creative with the artist mixes after the initial nomic one, but with the circumstances… Alek’s stuff is intimidating even when familiar with the tracks, but I’d never actually mixed like half the tracks in the mix(same goes with most the artist mixes I’ve done) before so I decided to play it safe.
It has been a really fun way to rediscover old tracks I’d forgotten about and not listened to in ages. I’ve also come up with some really interesting transitions I can make use of it in future sets. Some which I didn’t quite get right in these artist mixes, but ones I know will work.
I was expecting you to play most of Megabyrgium – after all you’d already put in the work on that one and would end up with some pretty meta mixing if the transitions went on for too long.
Right, all the unexpected choices like Desagoon was something else I was meaning to mention. It shows how well you cope with chat and all the other twitch stuff that it’s genuinely hard to tell these artist sets were mixed live with little-to-no prep 🙂