Ranking Lift

I've had DJ Dan's latest release, Lift, for about a month now, so I figure it's about time I give a review of it. Actually, I'm going to review the first CD, as I haven't really listened to the second one much. The second CD is going to take a little warming up to. It sounds like Dan was trying to go a bit harder on it, and I'm not really into how he did that. For my tastes, if you're going to spin funky house, it should either be fluffy, techy, or funky funky. Peak hour funky house (think Release, by JJ Flores and Steve Smooth) is good as well, but that's not quite the kind of hard I'm talking about. I mean hard in the way that funky breaks are hard. Dan's roots are in funky breaks (and acid house, of course), and I think he was trying to bring back some of that flavor. Unfortunately I'm not really into it. I may be later, but for now I'll pass.

The first CD on the other hand.... incredible. The first two-thirds of it is exactly the kind of funky house that I'm into. It's probably the best collection of its kind, largely because that kind of funky house isn't mainstream popular right now. It seems like funky tech house is starting to get big, which is fine by me because funky tech house is one of my favorite styles (see A Tale of Two Tracks). Still, it doesn't quite compare to the laid-back, uplifting, filtered sound that's featured on the first CD of Lift.

I read an interview with DJ Dan where he said he was supporting Blow Media with this release, so it should come as no surprise that the filtered appears so much. For those that don't know, Blow Media is Hatiras's label. Hatiras is one of my favorite producers and is a champion of the filtered sound. He's put out a number of killer tracks in the past - Light Speed (on Roundtrip Disc 2), The Anthem (a little trancy, but still one of my all-time favs), Rokstar (collab w/ Bad Boy Bill) - and the tracks on Lift are no exception. Baked From Scratch, Cuban Cigar, and Illectrolingus (Macca remix) all are Blow Media tracks, all have Hatiras's fingerprints all over them, and all are amazing tracks. (Macca's Ride Me Baby, on the second CD, is another Blow Media track and may be the best of the bunch, but it's on the second CD so I'm not going to say much about it). Baked From Scratch is my favorite of the bunch. I am definitely getting that track when it's released. Past those, there are a number of great supporting tracks as well. Dan tossed in his token Antoine Clamaran track, which is solid (as expected), and a Dave Armstrong track. And how can you not love a track by a guy named "Jacque Bauer"? Pretty much tracks 2 through 10 are great. The last couple of tracks seem to lose focus with what the rest of the CD was themed with - they're good tracks, but kind-of out of place.

So, the real question is, "How does this DJ Dan set compare to his others?" For me, Roundtrip Disc 2 and Mixed Live are the two top sets, Accelerate is a bit below, and Roundtrip Disc 1 and In Stereo are somewhere below it. Starting from the bottom, Lift Disc 1 is better than Rountrip Disc 1 and In Stereo. No question about that one. Next comes Accelerate. Accelerate is a great set, however it lacks the "all time favorite track" element. Roundtrip Disc 2 has a number of those (Vitalian House, Percucion, Remember When?). So does Mixed Live (Release, That Phone Track, The Ride). Accelerate actually does have one of those tracks - Feel It - but it's buried at the very end of the set, meaning I have to listen to the entire set before I get to it. Lift has two - Baked From Scratch and Illectrolingus - and they're spaced perfectly in the set - third and eighth, respectively. Accelerate also has a few weak lag points - What Is Funk and Can't Hide Now, Baby! just aren't that interesting, and Red Hot never should have been included in the set. Lift has a few lag points, but they're at the beginning (the first track really isn't that good - Dan, you never spin vocal house, and I think there's a good reason for that. Why start now?) and the very end, meaning everything in-between stays together pretty well. So, with all of that said, I'm putting Lift Disc 1 above Accelerate.

Now comes the comparison with the tops. I'll start with Roundtrip Disc 2. Honestly, it's not really fair for me to compare any set to Roundtrip Disc 2. Rountrip Disc 2 is my DJ set equivalent of a first love. It was the set that made me love house. So, besides it being an absolutely amazing set, I have a very heavy bias towards it. If a set is going to be considered better than it, that set would have to be very obviously better, otherwise Roundtrip Disc 2 wins out. (And for the record, there is only one set in my library that I consider to be better than Roundtrip Disc 2 - DJ Rap's Touching Bass breaks set). Now, with all of that said, I don't think Lift Disc 1 stands up, even with my bias towards Roundtrip Disc 2 removed. Roundtrip Disc 2 is just too good. Next up is Mixed Live. Mixed Live is a better set to compare it to, as it's funky house (rather than the progressive/tribal sound of Roundtrip Disc 2). For a while I was thinking that I might put Lift Disc 1 above Mixed Live (albeit barely above). Then today I listened to Mixed Live again, this time with an ear towards hearing the set like I did back when I first started listening to it. Why? Because I listened to Mixed Live a ton. Back in the day there a few sets that were acceptable dancing music: Mixed Live, Roundtrip Disc 2, Touching Bass breaks, Baby Anne's Mixed Live, I'm About to Break, and In Stereo. And really, when I had my choice I listened to the first three probably 80% of the time. I didn't start picking up new sets until the very end of my senior year. That means I listened to those sets over, and over, and over, and over. The fact that I still love all three of those sets after listening to them all over 100 times is a testament to how good they are. I may enjoy Lift Disc 1 more than Mixed Live right now, but I don't think it would stand up quite as well after 100 listens. So, it's a close one, but I have to put Mixed Live above it.

Final thought: Sometimes I wonder if it was just a coincidence, and an incredibly lucky break, that Mixed Live, Roundtrip Disc 2, and Touching Bass breaks were some of the first sets available to me when I began my electronic music phase, or if those three sets were the reason my electronic music phase really took off.