Laidback Luke - Essential Mix

Laidback Luke, BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix February 23, 2008 (YSI link) (Sendspace link) tracklisting in comments

Let's stay in the present and upload the most recent Essential Mix on Radio 1 featuring Laidback Luke. I've actually been meaning to drop a few tracks from this new wave of big-room house music coming out of Europe that has dominated in Ibiza. Laidback Luke is a Dutch producer, who has been around for while but only has taken off in the last year or two. Some of his biggest successes like "Get Dumb" have come in collaboration with members of The Swedish House Mafia - Steve Prydz, Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. All of these names are essential, producer/DJs bringing that old funky Chicago house sound back with some electro and minimal thrown in.

This 2-hour mix is just awesome, awesome, awesome, like a night at Pacha without the Asian mafia or Jerseyites. It ranges from vocal house to electro to some techno, hell, there's even a trance-y euphoric vibe at moments. Listening to it, it's hard for me to believe that this is the overground in dance music; this set is so dynamic and sounds so great, nothing like the untz-untz stuff you have in your head. What I love most is the tempo changes, how he will drop out to just a vocal playing and slowly let the beat come back in and away we go once more. It's one of the best Essential Mixes I've heard in a while, wonderfully paced, a nice mix of current favorites, some Luke remixes and even some of his edits of classics like Daft Punk's "Teachers." I can't recommend this one more highly, especially for anyone who wants to get a sense of what clubland is like right now in Europe and the States.