After his ‘Buenos Aires’ inaugural popped Afterdark’s mixcomp cherry last August, the spring of 2019 sees label honcho Sneijder ready for a second drop. Doubling down, the album expands to two discs and finds Afterdark bringing the sound of the underground to Los Angeles. Capturing every fader-flip, drum-kick, synth-soar and reciprocal crowd cheer, in the liveliest of live forms Sneijder’s ‘Afterdark 002’ defines the trance divinity of the City of Angels.
Packed with exclusive music from the likes of Giuseppe Ottaviani, Key4050, Stoneface & Terminal, Simon Patterson and others, with finger-on-pulse intuition ‘002’ shifts between the melodic, the uplifting, the tech and the out-&-out tough. Boasting a track list rammed with upfront, cutting edge club music from the Afterdark roaster and seasoned artists across the trance and tech spectrum.
Comprising of 16 tracks, in about the finest way possible, disc one commences with Sneijder’s most recent single, ‘Back Home’. Having notched an 8.5/10 in DJ Mag (“when song and mainline meet, honest-to-goodness magic happens” declared the mag), the Irishman rolls ‘Home’ into an early uplifting ascension. Collectively Cold Blue’s synth-storming ‘Another Life’, ‘Redemption’ from Italian doyen Alessandra Roncone and newcomer Billie Gillies’s thrill-packed ‘Evolve’ send it airborne. Sneijder proceeds to slide recent Giuseppe Ottaviani chart-topper ‘Panama’ between Craig Connelly’s remix of his & Karen Kelly’s ‘Be With You’ and his own firestarting, ‘Resonate’.
Album-exclusive ‘Here Once Again’ sees the mix go up a gear, opening it up into its tougher second act. Stoneface & Terminal’s ‘Mind Games’, Mandy Reid’s ‘Infiltration’, ‘Taipan’ from Renegade System and others orchestrate the floor action before Sneijder’s harmonic, anthemic revision of Ben Gold & Sivan’s ‘Stay’ kisses it off.
From disc 2’s outset, Sneijder drops straight back into a tougher groove. Alex Di Stefano dives ‘Into The Flames’, Shugz explores ‘The Darkside’ and David Forbes produces a ‘Phenomenon’ – each raising its pressure by degrees. Into that slipstream comes another swathe of Sneijder’s own, with his recent rewire of Nick Callaghan’s ‘Kill Jester’ and his team-ups with David Forbes (on ‘Flashback’) & Nick Callaghan (‘Marching Orders’) bringing techier tones. The second mix reaches its dizzying zenith with some weapons-grade gear from John O’Callaghan & Kearney’s Key4050 project. ‘Egon’ and ‘Utterly Butterly’ viscerally bookend James Dymond’s bringback of Maria Nayler anthem ‘Angry Skies’ and Simon Patterson/Sam Jones pair-up ‘Rotavator’.
TRACKLIST
Disc 01
01 Sneijder – Back Home (Club Mix)
02 Cold Blue – Another Life
03 Alessandra Roncone – Redemption
04 Billie Gillies – Evolve
05 Sneijder – Resonate
06 Giuseppe Ottaviani – Panama
07 Starpicker – Elated
08 Sneijder & Karen Kelly – Be With You (Craig Connelly Remix)
09 Sneijder – Here Once Again
10 Project 8 – Reason I Say This
11 Stoneface & Terminal – Mind Games
12 Renegade System & Ed Lynam – Redux
13 Mandy Reid – Infiltration
14 Manuel Le Saux & Unbeat – EVO
15 Renegade System – Taipan
16 Ben Gold & Sivan – Stay (Sneijder Remix)
Disc 02
01 Sneijder – Violate
02 David Forbes – Phenomenon
03 Shugz – The Darkside
04 Alex Di Stefano – Into The Flames
05 Nick Callaghan – Kill Jester (Sneijder Rework)
06 Sneijder & David Forbes – Flashback
07 Sneijder & Nick Callaghan – Marching Orders
08 Simon Patterson featuring Lucy Pullin – Blink
09 Ashley Bradbury – Sesh Gremlin
10 Sneijder – Break The Silence
11 Dante – Cognitive Behaviour
12 Key4050 – Egon
13 Billy Gillies – Open Your Mind
14 Maria Nayler – Angry Skies (James Dymond Remix)
15 Simon Patterson & Sam Jones – Rotavator (Sam Jones Remix)
16 Iain M – Serotonin
17 Sneijder – Decimate
18 Key4050 – Utterly Butterly
If you’ve not clubbed in LA before, this compilation will all-but secure those credentials for you. Across its 30+ tracks, two or more musical hours and disc deuce, Sneijder musically divines LA to a forensic level. You can pre-order/bookmark ‘Afterdark 002 – Los Angeles, Compiled & Mixed By Sneijder’ here!
Sneijder’s ‘Afterdark 002 – Los Angeles’ brings LA to you this May 24th.
INFO
sneijder.net
facebook.com/sneijdermusic
blackholerecordings.com
facebook.com/blackholerecordings
Competition
Share this article on Facebook (share this post in public mode), fill out the form and enter to win 1 of 2 copies!
*ends on 09.06.2019
