Coldharbour Sessions 2005 [Import]

Starting out with the Intro track, Blue Tubes, the pace of this CD takes right off and never comes back down again, through all 24 tracks. I must start by saying this is a much better mix and track selection than his last effort, Coldharbour Sessions. I skipped many tracks on that set, and the pace and theme wasn't steady enough to keep my attention. On Miami, out of the 24 tracks, I am lucky if I choose to skip 2 tracks; that's it!

While Coldharbour Sessions was very melodic, slower, and somewhat spacey electro dreariness in some parts, this mix serves up some of the hottest sounding, fast, pulsating progressive trance currently on offer. Yes, there are a few tracks duplicated from Armin's far inferior, State of Trance 2005, but Schulz's mix is much better. The track I Know You're Gone on Miami does not have the melody from the previous track hovering in the background when the vocals kick in, as it does on Armin's CD.

Electro Hairspray, the only track of his own, is a very cool jazzed up trance track (the current trend) with a swooshing effect that definitely sounds like one is pressing an old aerosol can of hair spray (now defunct due to the ozone)! Markus has an excellent new female vocal track out now, First Time, which is questionably missing from these discs. It appears on Armin's State of Trance 2005 though. Weird.

An absolute must have trance mix for '05. VERY FEW 2 disc sets in recent years can keep your attention through them both, but this one has certainly passed the test.

Before Markus Schulz became Markus Schulz, he was a local DJ working late Fridays and Saturdays on his own radio show called the Edge Factor in Phoenix, Arizona. He would spin all kind of records that would classify himself as unique and groundbreaking during his time. You name the genre, he would gladly play it for you. Progressive, house, trance, breakbeat, jungle, you name it. He was good too..

Fast-forward to 2005. More than half a decade later, after, of course, taking little trips to England and Miami where he would hone his exceptional skills and of course, break new ground once more offering new albums such as the earlier masterpiece release Couldharbour Session 04' and again, truly original music you can hear sunday nights on his radio show Global Broadcast DJ in Miami.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not bias to give this album an excellent ration because I've listen to his music for a long time. I will because it is truly, an almost perfect album. The sound of the first cd is nostalgic, mixing a great array of mixes all put together. From it's very progressive-trance beginnings to its jungle to its electro records you'll hear in the middle to the exceptional house mix by Max Graham ending the first cd.. The second cd is still quite good, mixing 80's electro and the usual sound of Markus Schulz you hope to except. Dark, hypnotic, and uplifting pieces of work you won't hear anywhere else.

In this latest release from Markus Schulz, Miami 05', this trance/progressive house DJ and producer puts together two CD's that develop, dip, twist and turn through an elaborate spectrum agressive and melodic trance. To categorize the general type of music one should anticipate from this release, on both CD's, I would generally describe it as melodic trance with some integrated elements of progressive house (the break-downs don't last too long, the bass-lines are ascribed with more movement, etc.) The overall end result of this particular release is one which provides the user with an intense journey through some of the best tracks recently released.

The mixing, track selection, and track placement are of excellent quality, and executed with massive skill by Markus Schulz, who constructs this mix in such a way that each individual track seamlessly merges into each other, with each track building up, and leading into, each other.

The first CD begins with the introductory track "Blue Tubes", by Hydroid, which is a beautifully constructed melodic track with some occasional lulls that develop the melody in the appropriate direction with some very nice bass-lines. With having established the premise from which Markus Schulz wants to direct the rest of the mix, he gently mixes into Harry Lemon's remix of "I Found You", which is a more subdued remix of the dance-floor hit that was quite pervasive within the mixes of some of the major DJ's in 2004 (and still is in early 2005). With this track, the pacing slows down slightly in order to provide more dream-like atmospheric textures.

The pacing picks up slightly with one of the best tracks on the entire CD, Kalafut and Fygle's beautifully melodic "3579 KM". The general framework of this track resembles that of the melodic trance type of track, with a developing melody which comes to its essential materialization during an extended breakdown that culminates with an agressive climax. But as mentioned earlier, there are many elements of progressive house integrated into these tracks, with "3579 KM" having a vibrant bass line, and somewhat house-like high-hats. This is a very welcomed synthesis of genres, which ultimately results in some very memorable tracks.

After the atmospheric textures and melodies has been created by the first three tracks, the CD completely takes off with "Baltic Sea", an intense track that sets an agressive pace until the pacing is once again reduced, as the mix transitions into Noel Sanger's remix of "Close Enough", which is a nice vocal track that retains a type of style that persists for three more tracks. At this point, Markus Schulz has taken us from moderately paced atmospheric, meloedic tracks to intense, thumpingly intense trance, and then back down to more subdued vocal trance set against pulsating basslines.

The pacing picks up once again with the awesome "Free Yourself", where the drumlines and basslines become more intense, with a developing melody that kicks off the rest of the CD with a fast-paced theme that ends in the melancholical "I Know You're Gone", produced by Max Graham and Justine Jacobs, which ends the first CD on a less-intense, emotional note.

The second CD starts out on a note similar to the first, with a beautiful introductory track that has a tremendous melody integrated into it (although the melody does not develop very much). The pacing begins to pick up much faster in the second CD than in the first, with the next track being Steve May's "Sublimate". This fast-paced theme is sustained by Sundawner's "Sorrow" that builds up to the massive track "Eighties", with its intense melody, which leads into the atmospheric "A Dream Came Through". At this point, the mix reaches is mid-point, and the pacing begins to grow dramatically different with track six, which is a breakbeat track. However, this is also the point in the CD in which the quality of the track selection, in my perspective, becomes quite different.

The next tracks in the mix, tracks six through eight, have a more experimentally sounding feel to them, and I suspect they will appeal to a comparatively narrow audience segment. However, while I am not particularly fond of these tracks, they are quite compatible with the thematic pacing Markus Schulz has established at this particular point, and therefore, the presence of these tracks has an important functional role in the structure of the mix as a whole.

After track eight, Markus Schulz pulls us right out of the dip in the midpoint of the mix by significantly enhancing the intensity with Santiago Nino's remix of Ozgur Can's "Connected", that leads into one of the major highlights of the mix "Space Guitar", which slows down the pacing ever so slightly in order to make room for its beautiful melody. The intensity builds up through the next track to the final track on the CD "Language", which is set to fast pace, but somewhat slower than the previous two tracks, but has some throbbing basslines that deliver an agressive feel.

As you may have noticed at this point, I have devoted a considerable extent of this particular review providing commentary concerning the pacing of the CD. The pacing in a DJ mix significantly contributes to the overall experience of having embarked upon a journey through the music, and Markus Schulz projects an absolutely masterful command of the pacing on both CD's. He selects the right tracks and the right times that take the user from intense, fast-paced peaks, to slower, more atmospheric dips, and blasts the user out of those dips and again into some intense tracks. The results are two CD's that consist of a tremendous journey through some amazing tracks.

What is also effective about this release is, as mentioned earlier, the types of tracks Markus Schulz selects for this release. These tracks produce a sound that really feels like an amalgam between melodic trance and progressive house. Genres are continuously being meshed into each other in the world of current Electronic Dance Music today, and this release genuinely reflects some of the current themes and developments currently taking place in this type of music today, and where it is likely to head in the future. Miami 05' has just the right ingredients for being an excellent mix of this type mix, and I highly recommend it.

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