Will Holland
's DJ mixes have generally been issued in the form of either label promo samplers or mixtapes focusing on records of a certain genre or region, sometimes presented without track listings. For his installment of the long-running
DJ-Kicks
series, he did something different, serving as a curator as well as mixer and artist. Like
Theo Parrish
's excellent volume of the series from a few years earlier,
Quantic
's consists entirely of original productions, and it's clearly a set meant to spotlight the artists and material included rather than any sort of technical trickery from the DJ. It covers many of the genres he's explored during his prolific career, working its way up from a slow boil to a peak-hour rush and an after-hours cooldown. From
JJ Whitefield
's sensual, inviting opener "The Mind Is a Palace,"
the Heliocentrics
present the sinister, fuzz-drenched "Minimal Engagement."
's bubbling, bass-boosted "Dialect" is followed by swinging, rainy-day jazz-funk from
Alfa Mist
. The mix then smoothly slides onto the dancefloor, from
JKriv
's flute-driven broken beat to a percolating track from
Frente Cumbiero
, along with several more
originals that seem to follow in the retro-disco mode of 2023's
Dancing While Falling
and the subsequent
Tropics
EP.
Meridian Brothers
' "Un Grande Nubarrón Se Alza en el Cielo" is a quirky, space-age standout, and the shimmering electro of
the Maghreban
's "Covent Garden" leads into stripped-down club cuts drawing from reggaetón and dancehall. Finally, things slow down with druggy electro-cumbia from
Turbo Sonidero
and
's
Sobredosis
project. ~ Paul Simpson