Adventures in Playlists – Ultimate 4 Song Chill Out
While I was doing the DJ thing I had these 4 song setlists I would use because I knew I could always hit the transitions in between the songs and because I knew the songs worked exceptionally well together. I started thinking about it the other day, and since I had to work on a back track for a broadcast I started thinking about them again…
While chatting wtih a friend of mine the other day I had changed my status to One Perfect Sunrise As The Rush Comes and she inquired where it came from. Randomly my computer, on shuffle had played Orbital’s One Perfect Sunrise followed up with Motorcycle’s As The Rush Comes (G&D Chillout Mix). My iTunes has a ridiculously long crossfade setup so that I can get a better “flow” going on, and I started to think about how I could engineer the crossfade together to get a sweeter mix. And then I started to think about what tracks I could put together to make an insanely awesome mix.
- Ranta /Darude
- Silence / Delerium feat Sarah McLachlan
- As The Rush Comes / Motorcycle (Gabriel & Dresden Chillout Mix)
- One Perfect Sunrise / Orbital
Ranta has a dark beat with solo acoustic guitar sitting on top of it that gets you thinking of a face paced scene being played in slow motion. The beat, on it’s own, would leave you with a feeling of “I’ve got to get this done” and the guitar detaches you from that feeling. I could make some amazing video sequences to that song.
Silence is a slower smoother beat that with Sarah McLachlan’s amazing voice floating over the top of it. Her voice moves so nicely into this genre it’s almost like this is what it was made to do. I had to speed this track up 7% to get the beat into a pace that was more to Ranta’s liking.
As The Rush Comes was introduced to me by a friend as we were hanging out one day and she said you HAVE to hear this track. She played the Chillout Mix for me and I fell in love almost instantly. It’s kinda like Ranta in that it has a dark beat underneath an amazing voice. This voice isn’t as angelic as Sarah’s or isn’t as solitary as the guitar in Ranta but it has an edginess to it that gives it power. This track had be pushed 3.6% faster to get the beat where I wanted it to be.
The tracks went dark, smooth, dark and with One Perfect Sunrise you bring it back to smooth with a kick. This song actually is pretty close to the pace that Ranta sets (140 bpm) and I left the beat alone even though I really should have pulled this track back by a .25% margin to really make it match up, but I decided to put a delay between where the beat of the Motorcycle track ends and where the beat kicks in on this track. This track is easily the most fun one on the list and it’s why it wraps up the playlist.
I guess you can’t really call it a playlist anymore because I spent time matching beats and putting together good transitions (I don’t say perfect because I have friends who could do an amazing blend of thise tracks without even trying live.) If you know how to find me, either text me or email me and I’ll hook you up with a copy of this CD. It’s that good 
