“Nothing seems to be more prominent about human life than its wanting to understand all and put everything together.” - Buckminster Fuller

This quote circles the edge of the disc that remains, in my mind, the best set that I’ve ever recorded.  To understand why I still like it so much I think you need to understand a bit about a DJ’s goals, and what we are trying to accomplish when putting together a mixed set of music.  I’ve talked about this some on my page, but when I put together a set, live or recorded, my goals are twofold:

1. To play great songs (and if live, great songs that make people wanna dance.)
2. To take my listening audience on musical journey;  to lead them from one place to another; to tell an aural story with a beginning, middle and an end, and to fill that tale with intrigue, romance, drama, tension, and ultimately resolution.

And like any good storyteller I like the plot to unwind smoothly, have the flow of the narrative come naturally, progress effortlessly from one chapter to the next.  Well, with Searching I believe I achieved these with better success than in any of my sets, before or since.

I think all the songs are fantastic*, the mixes (transitions from one part of the story to the next) range from good outstanding**, and the entire set, at least to me, has a wonderful flow: It starts off slow and dark, moves into intrigue, followed by bliss and a hint of romance, before diving into the drama and conflict.  The tension is ultimately resolved and it’s all kisses and snuggles as the story ends.

Bringing it back to the quote, as Bucky spells out I think we, all people, are all are constantly striving for understanding; searching for our place in this often crazy and mysterious world.  To me this set is a story of such a journey.  I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.

DJ Jay - “Searching” - 2002 (right click and “Save as…” to download)

And as a special bonus, as we did with Octane, I have the individual tracks cut up, tagged, zipped and ready to be downloaded (right click and “Save as..” to download).  They’re in full 320 kb/s too, so bump it as loud as ya like!!

* It happens almost every mix: I come back and listen to it three or six months later and there’s invariably one song that I can no longer stand and I think “What on earth were you thinking putting that song in there??”.  Another reason I’m so enamored with this set, not a single one of those “whoops” tracks.

** Cor and I talk about this all the time: it’s really hard to have EVERY mix be great in a longer set.  We often run into the situation were we’ll have some great mixes in the beginning and line up of solid tracks in the end, but bridging the gap can prove very frustrating.  Incredibly here everything fell perfectly into place.

Tracklist and more after the jump!

1. “Apollo Vibes” - Pole Forter & CP

2. “Solitude” - Reza - Jondi & Spesh Remix

3. “Eastern Promise” - Decepticons

4. “Aphrodite” - Paris & Sharp

5. “First Light” - Ogenki Clinic (James Holden & Gwill Morris)*

6. “Travelogue” - Loafer

7. “Faith” - Starecase - Loafer Remix

8. “Heavy Fluid” - Yum Yum - Main Element Remix

9. “Sacred Cycles” - Pete Lazonby - Quivver Remix**

10. “Into The Dawn” - Arcadia - James Holden Remix*

11. “All Because of You” - Universal State of Mind - Sunday Club Mix

12. “Home Page” - Brittany

* Here are those two James Holden songs I mentioned in his So You Think You Can BUMP post.  It’s amazing how much better they sound in context, “First Light” so warm and pretty as we’re getting warmed up and “Into the Dawn” the climax of the entire set.

** “Sacred Cycles” is one of my favorite trance songs of all time.  The original is OOOOLD, 1994 I believe, and Quivver’s remix nothing short of brilliant, and absolute clinic on how to build a progressive trance song that’s equally dancy and immaculately produced.

My favorite part: Quivver builds up all the parts throughout the song until they’re all in during the breakdown at 4:50 (if you’ve downloaded the individual tracks, 56:40 on the continuous mix).  He then drops the track to beat and you’re thinking “man, it’s one of THOSE tracks, the ones that never give you all the parts AND the beat together *frown*”.  But wait!  At 5:34 (57:22) he brings back!  All the parts together, with the beat, for one last glorious hurrah!  And then *poof* it’s gone… Kinda like when you turn around to get one last look at that really cute girl (or guy) who you shared a smile with, and it just so happens that she’s glancing back at you the very same instant!  Your eyes meet, you smile again, then *poof*… it’s over.