Buzzin Electronic Music

Renaissance: The Masters Series - James Zabiela

Renaissance – The Masters Series
DJ mix by James Zabiela

The latest Renaissance – Masters Series release come courtesy of James Zabiela.

A 2 CD release James Zabiela takes up through a mix of darker, moodier shapes and minimal sounds on CD1 entitled Down, including a fantastic lead into my favourite Trentemoller track, Always Something Better.

James Zabiela’s Down mix is something special for those with a discerning taste, including the likes of Plaid & Boards of Canada.

Down is what James Zabiela describes as an ‘audio travelogue’, an intricately produced collage of beautiful electronica over-laid with his own ‘field recordings’, a suite of ambient sounds and spoken word that represent both his journeys on the road and in the air, and time and thoughts between gigs.

As DJ mixes go, this is more challenging, like the pitcher throwing a curve ball.  I found myself immersed in a great mix from the very intro. Though towards the end somehow Zabiela managed to spoil it for me with a real glossy pop track – Chasing A Feeling by Quivver.  This didn’t work for me at all.

With CD2 Up, James Zabiela is back in the more conventional surroundings of a club environment where he builds it up with minimal but pumping tracks. Zabiela includes two new original productions, his own Darkness 2, a version of 2008’s Dark By Design and a brand new Luke Dzierzek remix of James Zabiela’s Perseverance.

James Zabiela’s use of a more eclectic tracklist featuring the likes of Trentemoller, Modeselektor, Boards Of Canada, Plaid, Apparat and Extrawelt help to make this a very interesting and absorbing DJ mix. The mood of the Down & Up mixes are different but compliment each other perfectly.

Another great release from the Renaissance Maters Series.

Renaissance: The Masters Series – James Zabiela is due for release on 23rd February in the UK and 31st March 2009 in North America.