Gonna take a detour from the normal "selection from the journey in" today as over the weekend I was sent this awesome D&B mix by an old friend, and man behind the brilliant 64bar Music DJ Kovas.
Kovas is an old friend from our days slinging mud on the Ninjatune Forum. We'd collaborated on a few projects and stayed in touch after the fact. He's done a few mixes for me in the past, like his brilliant "7 Steps to better Listening" guest mixes on my Interesting Blends blog.
Anyway, the mix landed with a subtle "here you go mate", and on listening i had to have it for the blog.
Kovas has always been a DJ steeped in D&B, and I like that he's dropped a slightly deeper off the radar selection here. There's so much good stuff out there at the moment that he has plenty to choose form and Kovas drops a wickedly varied journey into low slung, half time, minimal sounds backed up with haunting, cathartic ambience and lashings of jazz soaked melody (or some such guff as he said when i asked him to describe the mix).
Whatever, it's a stomping mix, full of uplifting melodies, tearing beats, soul and some of the deepest synth sound I've heard in a while – stand out tracks for me are “Those That lead” by Direct Motion, blog favourite Om Unit & Sam Binga’s outing on Exit records “Small Victories” and "Hills to Climb" by Kyshido, and the cheeky little Spectrasoul's rework of Sampha's – "Too Much".
If like me you're not massively into anyone genre but enjoy the more melodic side of D&B & Deep House this mix is perfect for you.
So check it out…..and a massive thanks to Kovas for getting our podcasts rolling again.
Walk to Work mix – October 2014 by 64barmusic on Mixcloud