Desyn Masiello is back with volume number eight for the Balance 008 series which sees Desyn give us the mix of his life.

Balance 008 – Mixed by Desyn Masiello (E.Q/Stomp)
Desyn Masiello is finally knocking on the door of the upper echelon of deejaying ranks. If you don’t know him, it was the Deep Dish label Yoshitoshi mix with Luke Fair a few years back that got them both noticed. They both have tremendous talent but it seems that Masiello hit the bigtime a little bit before Luke. Masiello is the man behind Alternative Route, the label that pushed KC Voices in 2000 and everyone loved it. Since then he has pushed new artists and he has toured the world. So EQ/Stomp chose him as the 8th Deejay to do a mix compilation for the increasingly more popular Balance series that seems to be competing with GU now.

Disc 1

01 Will Saul - Mbria
02 Dusty Little Kid - Jerry Cala
03 Clashing Egos - Love Sweet Love (Sterac Electronics Dub)
04 Williams - Love Crisis
05 Chelonis R. Jones - One & One
06 Babak Shayan - Flowers
07 René Amesz - Cabilla
08 Mark Clément - The Tunnel (François K Visions Of Saturn Mix)
09 The Visitor - Our Lips Are Sealed (Dub)
10 Dusty Little Kid - Dusty Kid Adventure
11 Soulsearcher - Cant't Get Enough (Derek Howell Remix)
12 Idiots - The Teardrop
13 Chris Lake - Piano Tool

Disc 2

01 Orbital - Halcyon + On + On
02 The Spirals - X
03 Rozzo - Blue Reloaded
04a Killing Joke - Love Like Blood
04b Moloko - Cannot Contain This (Acapella)
05 Dave DK - Crush The Bits
06 Dealer's Choice - Bomb This Place
07 Wize - Again (An-2 Remix)
08 The Hong Kong Micros - Time For Change (Start Your Revolution)
09 Coburn - We Interrupt This Program (Raul Rincon Remix)
10 Ramsay - Dirty Delicious (Dub)
11 Joey Negro - Make A Move On Me (Joey Negro Old School Dub)
12 Daisuke Matsusaka - Asian Blue Rose
13 Ellen Allien - Magma (The MFA Remix)
14 Karu - Maraud Your Ears (Tim Paris We Almost LOST Detroit Mix)


Disc 1 is a weird mixture of house, breakbeat and electro and some other genres that have not been named. Masiello is known for being able to play any genre going and being able to mix it properly. He has been compared to Craig Richards and Lee Burridge, who tend to play many genres in one set. Balance 008 starts with Will Saul’s Mbira, which is an odd track to start with but it seems many deejays (i.e Zabiela) are using it as a starter. Masiello then heads into house with Jerry Cala, which seems more disco than anything else.

Track three sees us heading into weird electro, which tries to sound dated like the early 90’s with Sterac’s mix of Love Sweet Love. Williams’ Love Crisis comes in at track four and it uses an electro line with some neat percussion, its clearly slow and Masiello is building up the mix as we speak. “One and One” continues the electro onslaught but Masiello seems to pick heavy basslines and that instantly puts him up there in my book. “Flowers” is a hard to identify as a genre but its melodic line coupled with a solid bassline, pushes it and this is where the mix picks up from the introduction, which for this disc was five tracks.

Rene Amenz finds his way into this mix, he’s known for nasty bassline rockers, which always gets big points in my book. This is melodic progressive house, that pushes a hook that is surprisingly addictive. Now this deejay has balls, certainly throwing Francois K with any cutting edge mix is risky but it seems that the old man (Francois K) has turned in a solid house mix with a solid bassline that just really grows on you. “Our Lips are Sealed” pushes it into more progressive house territory that really moves the disc on.

“Dusty Kid Adventure” pushes the mix into electro mode with a real weird main lead but I like the variety in Masiello’s first mix. I’m not sure how the hell Masiello managed to mix Derek Howells’ mix of Soulsearcher’s I can’t get enough. People view it as a classic and the Texan wonderkid seems to push new things every single day and this is a nasty rocking remix. Its almost techno at times with a hard bassline with an eviler breakdown. Masiello’s own The Idiots’ Teardrop is next, which is Leon Roberts, Desyn and 16B or Omid as he is known. Its almost electro and its certainly a pace change from Howells Mix of Soulsearcher. Chris Lake’s Piano Tool is really electroish and it finishes the first disc, which was certainly a glide through many genres and many top tracks.

Disc Two starts with the legendary Orbital track – Halycon On and On, which is just a beautiful haunting vocal and I did not realize that deejays still played it. The track is a solid way to start a new disc. The Spirals push the early disc two into progressive house and its laidback, which is a nice change. Rozzo’s Blue Reloaded pushes back into electro, which seemed to be the sound of 2005. Masiello showcases his skills with layering the laidback progressive house of Killing Joke with Moloko’s acapella, it works too well, you can’t really tell that its two tracks in one.

Dave DK’s Crush the bits takes us back to electro with a solid main line and it contains a harsh bassline. Dealer’s Choice pushes us back into progressive house, it seems that Masiello is alternating between the genres at will on disc number two. Wize pushes it into a progressive house feel with electro sensibilities. Hong Kong Micros gives us a watery sound layered over an electro beat, it reminds me of something that I just can’t put my finger on. Raul Rincon’s mix of “We Interrupt this Program” has such a jazzy line and the BPM is starting to increase and the mix has been solid so far and you expect to get hammered in the final stretch. You get a tremendous piano line in Rincon’s mix, its almost get your ass on the dancefloor funky at times. Ramsay’s Dirty Delicious is almost a bridge track to probably the best track on the compilation and one of my favorites of 2005. Joey Negro is a complete genius, his output is just huge and most are just funky as feck and his old skool dub of “Make A Move On Me” is just plain nasty. The bassline is harsh, so is the hook that just grabs you and this is where you get up and start dancing for no reason.

“Asian Blue Rose” takes us back into electro and its solid as well, just like the last two discs. MFA’s remix of Ellen Allien comes as second last, who knew Masiello dug German Electro? Its bleepy and weird but it works just fine. Tim Paris’s “We Almost Lost Detroit Mix is electro as well and it finishes the mix off in fine fashion

Conclusion:
Solid disc from Masiello, who will be one to watch in the future, he is young and talented and if he is not an A list deejay yet, he is certainly damn close. Disc 1 and 2 alternate between many corkers and many genres seamlessly. Certainly one to go out and buy immediately