James Holden – Balance 005

I vowed a while back, perhaps harshly, not to rate any progressive releases higher than 4 stars simply because they weren't Nick Warren's GU Shanghai. I'll make an exception here, and NW himself wouldn't mind since the prog maestro is always saying how good he thinks James Holden to be.
Holden's outing on Aussie series Balance justifies such high praise. The tracklisting is teriffic and the mixing paradoxically seamless yet so identifiable in its competent execution. Check out the mix from Outhouse into You Are Sleeping - there's a song between them but it's only just over a 1min long and is wonderfully worked to lead in to PQM's progressive flagpiece.
Mentioning the highlights would involve listing most of the entire set, partiuclarly CD1. I'll at least miss out the artist names to save space: The Difference it Makes is an attention-grabbing opener; All Together is richly dark and electro; Do What You Want represents the increasingly rare quality-prog-track-with-female-vocals; Outhouse is typical Nathan Fake: minimalist syncopation worked to a moving climax; You Are Sleeping is still awesome. As you can tell CD1 definitely leads the way, but Form and Lifeformation on CD2 exemplify the quality of the second half for its part.
I'd be wholly surprised to meet just one serious prog fan who didn't consider this one of the finest mixes aroud.

Meek on Balance 005 is not the italian house trio who made the track called Leeno. They are a duo from Amsterdam composed of Britta Hosman and Rob Smits. looks like they also made some short films or something.

Year after year I keep returning to the CD1 of this masterpiece, and the more I do, the more personal it becomes to me

UPDATE I sometimes go to Youtube just to read comments on big releases like this, and it's almost always a good idea, as I enjoy reading other people's takes on summing up the feelings in one paragraph. And very often, these takes are on point and much better than mine:

> It follows you trough life

It does.

Couldn't have said it better.

legit a classic. amazing how consistent it is over the 2 hour run time.

I remember the first listen to this double mix when it's came out, i were totally impressed. And you know what? After 18 years,stil feel the same. Never met another mix which could do the same for me. Stil listening in every half year once, never gets old. Holden's fused together a lot of different styles of electronic music, every feelings keep changing in. Can't find the words. An evergreen mix in my soul.

I'm with the others here - one of the best mixes out there - just go for it!

Almost 20 years later...and this is STILL THE BEST MIX I'VE EVER HEARD.

Such an amazing journey by Holden...the tracks seem like they were made for each other (maybe they were?). Regardless, someone had to be a mastermind behind it.

After listening the hole 2 cd's on YouTube, I said I have to buy this cd, took 1 month to get it from Australia but it came. James did an amazing work here, very good mixed and enjoyable, I like both ends cd1/2 and the begging on cd2, I heard both cd's 4 times before, with the cd now 5, and every time gives me the same excitement, as the first time. A big thanks to James for mixing balance 005.

Don't know if I'll be able to properly review this, even after countless listens, but I'll put this way - even if you aren't hooked the 1st time, you'll come back to it (you better). And each time you do, the less you believe that a mix like that can actually exist

My god this CD is evocative for me of an era of house music I was obsessed with. This progressive style of house that came out of the post trance scene and is on show par excellence on this CD was never topped for me, not even by Sasha's fantastic various albums or other Holden efforts. Seminal Album. You must get it if you haven't heard it.