Prosumer - Panorama Bar 03

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  • If you've heard any set from Panorama Bar resident Prosumer from the past few years, you should know what to expect from his entry into the club's mix series. But while there are no surprise appearances from Janet Jackson, there are surprises nonetheless (funky-grime figure Lil Silva, for one). The last few entries in the Ostgut mix series have been packed to the gills with exclusives, something which doesn't quite mesh with Prosumer's timeless house selections. Even so, they turn out to be some of the best moments. It's difficult to imagine a more appropriate starting point, for example, than Steffi's frail lament "Sadness," which flickers with a candle-lit beat over soft-rock chords before it solidifies into DJ Duke's compatibly ghostly "Heard." The other two exclusives collected on a separate 12-inch are equally fine, from the lush piano/synth interplay of Hunee's "A Leaf for Hand in Hand" to Soundstore's wiry and overdriven "Take U." As you would expect, the mix builds expertly. The blends might be a bit faster than usual, but you get the sense that Prosumer simply had a lot of material he wanted to fit in. His sense of ebb and flow is unparalleled as the chug of Soundso's untitled contribution grinds to a halt with Theo Parrish's jerky "Twin Cities" before the mix picks itself back up with Morgan Geist's bouncy night-drive "Current." Things really blast off with the disco sugar rush of Circulation's "Sincerely." But it's that damned Lil Silva track; it just swoops right in, disrupts the groove and makes a general ass of itself with electrified drums and wailing sirens. It's lovably irreverent but obnoxious all the same, and Brandenburg loads the second half of the mix with jacking house jams as if to compensate for the brief indiscretion. The disc finally peaks with the strange transition of Fingers' Inc classic "Music Take Me Up" into the autotrophic growth of low-end scum on Oracy's "Bass Mood," and finally settles down with a remix of QX-1's inimitable "Love Injection." Panoramabar 03 is a bit of an oddity in that, like Numbers mastermind Jackmaster's recent Fabriclive entry, there's nothing particularly new or earth-shattering, no grand narrative to make its release some sort of momentous event. But over the course of an hour and change, Prosumer makes these disparate tracks sound like they belong together, and the mix quickly becomes its own whole held together by adhesive as strong as any proper album. To reduce it even further, it's just a joy to listen to. I don't think a DJ mix can get much stronger than that.
  • Tracklist
      01. Steffi - Sadness 02. DJ Duke - Heard 03. Hunee - A Leaf For Hand In Hand 04. Soundso - Untitled 05. Theo Parrish - Twin Cities 06. Morgan Geist - Current 07. Romanthony - The House O' God 08. Circulation - Sincerely (Creation Mix) 09. Lil Silva - Pulse vs. Flex 10. Soundstore - Take U 11. J.T. Melody presents Tina Reneé - Prove It (Instrumental) 12. Fingers Inc - Music Take Me Up 13. Oracy - Bass Mood 14. i - L.T.B.C.Y.B. 15. T.S.O.S - Over And Over 16. Servo Unique - Let's Swing It 17. QX-1 - Love Injection (Inject Me Love Mixx)
RA