CLUB NIX 171: Coming Back With Fresh Ears

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your ears is stop listening for a while.

I had a few weeks away before putting together CLUB NIX 171. No endless digging through new releases, no promos piling up, no wondering what might work in the next mix. Just some distance from it all.

Coming back, I noticed something almost immediately: I was listening differently.

Less analysing. Less thinking about whether something was Progressive House, Indie Dance or Melodic House. Less wondering whether a record fitted what I'd played before.

I either wanted to hear it again or I didn't.

That's probably how it should be more often.

Back to Digging

Once I started looking for music again, the usual rabbit hole opened pretty quickly. One record leads to another, an artist you've never heard of takes you to a label you didn't know, and suddenly it's two hours later.

But this time I tried not to overthink it.

That probably explains why CLUB NIX 171 moves around quite a bit. It starts with the warmer, hypnotic side of things through Sphynx & GROSSOMODO, KOYENGA and Khen, before slowly finding more groove and pressure.

Deetron feat. Ben Westbeech – Deep In Your Soul was one of those records that immediately made sense to me. Then Rex The Dog – Far Out! arrives and shifts the mood again.

I've always liked records that do that. The ones that make you look up for a second because something unexpected just happened. A DJ mix becomes more interesting when every track doesn't simply confirm the one before it.

Fifteen Records That Made the Cut

As the mix develops, it becomes increasingly direct. Adam Ten, HIGHLITE & Peredel and Amour Propre push things forward before the final stretch with Solomun, Max Styler and Korolova. Looking at those names afterwards, there's no particularly neat genre box I can put around the hour.

And that's fine.

Somewhere between Khen, Deetron, Rex The Dog, Adam Ten and Solomun, I realised I hadn't really thought about genre while selecting them. The records simply made sense next to each other.

That's a much better reason to play something.

There are thousands of new electronic records released every week and it's very easy to fall into the habit of listening for what you're supposed to find: the right genre, the right sound, the record everyone else is already talking about.

A little distance reminded me that the most useful question is much simpler.

Do I want to hear this again?

If the answer is yes, keep digging.

CLUB NIX 171

This edition moves from deeper Progressive House into Indie Dance and Melodic House, with plenty happening in between. Some familiar names, some newer discoveries and fifteen records that survived several rounds of listening.

No bigger theory behind it.

Just music that kept pulling me back.

Maybe fresh ears are sometimes more useful than another hundred new releases.

Tracklist

1. Sphynx, GROSSOMODO – Panjab (Extended Mix)

2. KOYENGA – Edge of Desire (Extended Mix)

3. Khen – Ango (Club Mix)

4. Avi Murz – Robots Speech (Original Mix)

5. Yannick Mueller – Dance-Tool (Extended Mix)

6. Deetron feat. Ben Westbeech – Deep In Your Soul (Extended Mix)

7. Celia Babini, Brunello – The 11th Hour (Original Mix)

8. Rex The Dog – Far Out! (Extended)

9. Rafael, Adam Ten – Beat Goes On (Extended Mix)

10. HIGHLITE, Peredel – Freak (Extended Mix)

11. Redhead Queen – We Are Free (Extended Mix)

12. Amour Propre – Rock Like This (Original Mix)

13. Solomun, Inez – Raider on the Storm (Original Mix)

14. Max Styler – Body Shake (Extended Mix)

15. Korolova, Goodboys – The Present (Extended Mix)

For the dancers. For the diggers. Nothing else.