Customer Reviews

Balance 005

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'd like to start off by saying that this is my first review. I've heard plenty of great mixes from S&D to Tenaglia, Sander to Deep Dish, but you wouldn't need any convincing to know that those guys are great. After listening to this mix, i felt that it was essential that you should know just how crazy this mix is.

I've always been a bit stubborn sticking with deep, progressive house, and though it is the foundation of this mix, Holden does a great job at mixing so many other elements and sounds that you'd be a fool to try and categorize this as anything other than brilliant.

At just 22 years old, it's scary to think that this guy is just getting started. The only other album that had this much of an effect on me was Sasha & Digweed's Northern Exposure. If you can relate, then this CD is a must have. I understand if you're still skeptical, He's not as big a name as others, and the audio samples on this page don't really give away much at all. But I just hope you don't make the same mistake I did and hold off another year before getting your hands on this. What an unbelievable talent.

I grant this mix to be the most important release in the past few years. The fuzzyness and uncertanty of many opinions about this music will hopefuly be a little cleared up with this cd. It collects everything we always wish for in our music: beautiful melodies carved out of well-processed' sounds, intelligent percussion, even minimalism, full-filling beats, melodic basslines. Every part of this album seems to work with any other part. Be it the MFAs' "Difference it makes' or Petters'"Tonediary" everything seems to transform itself into another movement.
The devoted listeners will agree that technically in the past few years our music has been getting more and more complex, I think that it is the reason of the decline in the more trancy approach now that musicians are focusing a lot more on the different changes that this music brings to the brain. Before, the atmosphere around you seemed to be the main focus of the dance music. Now the atmosphere of the mind seems to be taking hold.
James Holden brought one of the first results of these experiments into light with his Balance. It is very techno-friendly with the lightness of Holdens style showing through. It is dreamy, and yet it makes me feel very strange, something that has been boiling inside, that feeling that a lot of electronic music brings has been magnified.
The bottom line, the mainline;) of this review is that this music brings undescribable pleasure and a view of the future.

brilliant

Disc 1 is a masterpiece, feels like the end of a beautiful movie by the end of track 16, Disc 2 is more club orientated w/ tracks like FC Kahuna - Hayling, but a very good choice to get feet moving. Keep it up James

Since the trance/house/breakbeat explosion hit the mainstream market around 98/99 the world gasped in awe as electronic music revealed itself not only as disco and dance music confined to clubs, but throbbing beats and melodies that enhance epic movie scenes and rush the mind with panoptic frequencies, flooding the cerebral cortex with dopamine and serotonin.
Ever since mainstream explosion, (and subsequent increases in funding) Dj's have flourished, some as residents in clubs, some as producers and actual production specialists. In that time Dj's, and their growing base of listeners realized what was now capable, with Einsteins theories on Electron behavior and Mozart's revolutionary theory in his symphonies. Someone and something needed to put the two together.

Enter James Holden, feeding the parched ears and watering mouths that have longed for the most extreme use of mathematics in beat, ambient echoes in song, and musical theory in melody.

James Holden Joins the upper echelon of electronic masters with this CD released in a series of other Balance CD's. (Phil Kieran, 04, Anthony Pappa 06, Kacey Taylor 03, etc.)
In Balance 05 the term progressive (which some ignorants view as to mean monotony, or slow transition) is defined through the medium of house, and authentic evolved house. Holden is a prodigy. He is arguably a gypsies Mozart of electronica, having the musical sense of a maestro, and more importantly the transitional intuition of his greatest predecessors.
Holden picks up where Juan Atkins, Sasha, Nick Warren, Hernan Cattaneo and other house greats left off, yet he keeps to tradition and incorporates all the things the rest of us enthusiasts have been waiting for. Epic, washing, aurally suffusing musical theory with punctual and aching beat.

The first track, The MFA's "The Difference it Makes," pays homage to the roots of house: disco. A classic house beat is washed with flowing pulsing synth. I'm not talking Crystal Method synth, I'm not talking Depeche Mode Synth, I'm talking about heavily engineered complex pentatonic octave bending synth. Chord progression reaches Sehnsuct.

Holden's sense of swell, build, phase, reverb, frequency, and bass line complimentary are nothing short of the intricacies that can be found in the roar of a waterfall as the London Symphonic Orchestra performs Gustav Holst's Planets Symphony.
Pardon me if I'm babbling, I'm listening to it right now, and words and description beg to leap from my fingers. That's the kind of music I want to listen to. That's the kind of music that belongs in the fantastic themes of our movies; this is the kind of music that blows your mind more than any hallucinogenic substance has capability of. Just look at the track list. For those of you familiar with the scene you can recognize legitimate vinyls when you see them, and for you newcomers, trust us.


Buy this CD. Become a tourist of the cosmos as Holden guides you through the vast reaches of space, through pitch black Chasms of dark energy and shadowy house, through the garish colors of gaseous nebula with ambient epic anthem, to the center of our galaxy where light is so bright you'll swear your retinas are burnt and your eardrums bleeding after your done with this mix.

From the first time I played this I absolutely loved it! This is a fantstic 2 cd set,where both cds are very different but great ! (Slight preference for cd2, but absolutely love both).The comparison with sasha is apt, (in the sense that if you like sasha you will love james holden). Wonderful selection of tracks, uplifting,progressive, experimental,interesting,trippy,and very very dancey !), and unbelievable mixing. Superb! Wonderful ! Shot straight to the top of the list.

This album is absolutely astounding. James Holden has, in this masterpiece, reached further than most DJs out there. I define this album as a blend of electronic beautiful nuances, outstanding and smooth use of the bass line dipped in a psychedelic environment created brilliantly. Every time I hear it I become more fascinated. Instead of trying to fit this into a category (trance, house, downbeat...), I say this compilation is just plain f****** good!

I read the raving reviews a few months ago and decided to try out James Holden. Let me tell you this is what trance music is all about. Techno is one thing; this is progressive trance. This is certainly my favorite artist in this category along with Sasha.

You can pop this CD in and completely escape reality. Disc 1 has had one of the longest stints of any CD in my disc-changer, and its still in there! I'm obsessed. Incredible compilation. Keep up the good work James!

It is hard to express in words how great this CD actually is. The best word I can think of is perfect, because that is exactly what Balance 005 is, perfect. Whatever you are doing you can throw this disc in and enjoy the music. Whether you are working, getting ready to go out, relaxing in the tub, coming home after a long night of drinking and just chilling, driving in your car, or even having sex, you will enjoy yourself more listening to James Holdens balance 005.

This cd is simply amazing. The way James Holden mixes 1-2 minute songs in betweed 7-9 min songs is unprecedented. Very hard hitting set of cd's. And after Sasha involver, James Zabiela Alive, this set is still getting more play.

James has, as other reviewers have already pointed out, created an amazing mix with this release. My personal opinion is that CD1 is one of the BEST mixes that exist to date in the world, and if it were a one disc release, Balance 005 would have certainly earned 5 stars from me. Disc one's INCREDIBLE first 12 minutes are a testament to James' penchant for track selection and innovation.. who else could mix Umek (under Zeta reticula alias) with Petter and come out sounding so good?? Speaking of Petter, "All Together" is the highlight of CD1 and the whole compilation, followed by the fluffy mix of Nathan Fake's "outhouse" which is SO incredibly trippy, i can't get enough of it. I could rant about how great CD1 is all day but others have done that.

Now the faults of the compilation: few as they are, i think James fumbled disc 2 a bit. While his own "wheel" and Petter's massive "Tonediary" are certainly amazing, the rest of the CD doesnt offer the same consistency and structure as disc one. It seems James just made another disc because either he couldnt fit all his favorites on disc one without compromising mix integrity or simply because the label told him they wanted two CDs. I think "lifeformation" is totally out of place, and is a terrible way to break up what would otheriwse be a solid mix CD.

Also, James used pro-tools and other software to mix this, which doesnt take away from the brilliance of the track selection but it does make one wish he would experiment with the turntables. If i could have given 4 and a half stars i would, but this Cd, because of the imperfections of disc 2 and the software mixing stays just shy of a perfect score.