-John W Karabias
Baltimore, MD

All the best for 2012…

Stuart´s set starts off with a percussive tune that kinda sets the mood for the rest of the set. It suits the intro once the parts start coming together. Maschine Poetry comes after with groove and a bass that sort of sneaks in and out of the tune to start making things a touch more interesting. Vassiloudis´ tune opens the set progressively yet the two following tunes have a techy flavour that manage to preserve the melody infused through Reaching. Playdo comes in both bassy and percussive to start kicking things up a notch and this is the point where the DJ quality comes into play as Johnson `shows the skill necessary to what is to come next. Scared is such a beautiful track that takes things to the next level, if that makes sense. The mix played by Johnson has spooky elements that combined with the vocals get in the logos to leave a trace. As one Liberal thinker more or less once put it, misery is part of an existential state that has to do more with the materialistic side of matter rather than with the mental one. Nonetheless, it is existential and it is an inherent trait in a great number of those considered to belong to the human race, said to be the highest form of thought in this planet though it is dubious that in present conditions thought is used to the advantage of humankind. Right after, Braumstig is the tune that starts bringing the beats down though by no means the chuggy bass implies it so. Nuribo does bring things to a halt in a soft manner with a melody that fades the set away.Overall, the set as mentioned before, it is a solid sample of hard work that for some reason has drops of acid house in between-hope Stuart can elaborate on this more if there is room for it.

These days everyone wants to be a DJ and flatters him/herself by playing the top 10 Beatport tunes. Way too many lack the knowledge necessary to get into a booth and play tunes yet somehow knowing the ´right people´ allows them to do this and, in a way, disseminate wrongheaded ideas in front of a crowd that usually goes out for the sake of it. Others tend to highly think of themselves as Postmodernists by throwing the highest possible number of combinations without providing the minutiae necessary as to be not disproven. Johnson somewhat declares to be in neither camp and that is a sign of wanting to preserve the essence of music and, like some of us, tirelessly thinks that more can still be done.