Sweetchilli presents Border Community feat. James Holden

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  • The first of a Double Header Sweetchilli in February had arrived and I must admin I was quite excited to witness what James Holden had in store for the 210 minutes he had before us. Holden I must admit wasn’t the greatest DJ going around 2-3 years ago. His mixing was pretty standard, and despite this, the one thing that kept him interesting was his track selection. Last year when he played Sweetchilli, his mixing was pretty impressive and again he had a stellar track selection. A year on, and I was expecting pretty big things. A big mention must firstly go to Dan Crocetti who really did things well in the warm, opting to up the pace and end his set with a noticeable 30 minute chunk of pretty impressive Progressive. Dan always knows how to get the excitement up to a high just before the main DJ heads to the decks. James Holden then entered and from the word go the pace and flow was relentless. From the first track which was a pretty sinister collection of throbbing baselines and twisted drums to the end where he started to play a few more of his bigger tracks, the pace never let up. For me it was one of those hit and miss sets, with nothing for those in between. You either loved the twisted and unique nature of his tracks, or you my have found them a little too overwhelming. For me it was definitely a ‘hit’ set. One thing that I really admire about James is that he is one of the most unique DJ’s going around. You would be very hard pressed to find a DJ that plays tracks like he does. Apart from the bigger more known tracks such as Infusion’s ‘Love & Imitation’, Michael Mayer’s remix of ‘Happiness’ by Superpitcher as well as Holden’s very own classic remix of Nathan Fake’s ‘The Sky Was Pink’, the set was full of the twisted dirty tracks that we are used to hearing from his Border Community label. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the playlist were indeed signed to his label. Holden for me delivered the goods. His track selection was very refreshing and his mixing and programming was also very good. It was a perfect fit for a Sweetchilli night, who you can continually count on for providing a good sound system and a general quality night. It definitely is on of the most friendly and intimate nights going around which is always a good thing, and it can only get better when Desyn Masiello makes his Oz debut next weekend.
RA