djChairboy - Liberation Drops Vol. 1 - Find Your Spirit
http://djchairboy.selfsustainingsages.com

what it sounds like: really lush, really melodic, many layered electronic music. this is true of all the tracks, and often, there are female vocals and often, the female vocals are lyricless. all of this is operating a generally propulsive tempo. genres would be house and probably trance (not of the cheesy sort).

why it is good: overproduced, highly melodic music can often be cheesy and cloying. see most of trance, or any adult contemporary artist. djchairboy, however, has a great ear for production. the layers in these tracks often have distinctive purpose, making it so that the songs are alive with reverb and interweaving of elements, and not drowned in mush or hazy narcotic like.

listening to such lush music with so many beautiful layers the effect of the mix is often elation, rapture, or drawn-out bliss. it is difficult to describe because temporality is not commonly associated with bliss - but it is an extended bliss. it is a beautiful moment that is stretched out like a plateau, so in effect you are experiencing the same moment over and over. a temporary forever of elation. (production tricks lending to this effect that show up on several different songs are a 1) constant retriggering of samples and 2) rhythmic gating of longer sounds)

another interesting thing about the mix is the prominence of female voices. what it shows is enthrallment with the female, the feminine, and maybe the feminine is associated with beauty to djchairboy, so that in fact beauty is feminine.

also interesting are the inclusion of older tracks such as the ones by FSOL. of course they are beautiful and classic, but why they're interesting to me is that with this mix he is presenting a singular unified vision of music. it's not just a collection of the latest and greatest songs. this is his ideal of music, this is what he thinks good music should be: often complex, highly melodic, soulful and bliss reaching electronic music. luckily for me, that happens to be one of my definitions for good music too.

(full disclosure: i have known djchairboy for many years and one of our common interests has always been music)