Resident Advisor Deadbeat Review

"How does this sound? Deadbeat's Radio Rothko : Scion's Arrange and Process Basic Channel Tracks :: Richie Hawtin's Decks, EFX & 909 : Jeff Mills's Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo. Easy enough, right? Yet it isn't, not least because the circumstances this one comes out into are so different.

The comparisons are between classic mix CDs and a later one with a similar template and aim. At a time when Soundcloud will absorb us all, there's something special about (weird to type this) the old-fashioned mix CD. So many mixes abound online, at so many different skill levels, that it's easier than ever to appreciate the kind of work that goes into licensing (even handshake deals take time), selecting and whittling down a fully legal mix CD. Going those extra steps tends to mean more thinking about it along the way, a refining process crucial to a mix of this scope.

What Deadbeat sets out is a kind of Whitman's Sampler of dub, techno and minimal's intertwining paths, heavy on the Basic Channel family, with dabs from debtors like Pendle Coven and 2562. The mix takes its sweet, patient time establishing itself, a radically minimalist gesture in any era; the build-up is sweetly agitating, and the way it blossoms in different directions is clearly pre-meditated, without seeming clinical." - Michaelangelo Matos

Full review here