Global Underground 016: Cape Town (CD2)

Global Underground 016: Cape Town is not Dave Seaman trying to charm you in five minutes.

CD2 starts with Pete Lazonby’s ‘Sacred Cycles’ in Quivver’s mix and immediately settles into a darker, more spacious version of progressive house than the warmer parts of Seaman’s earlier Global Underground work. Planisphere follows, then Luzon’s ‘The Baguio Track’ in the Bedrock remix, and by that point the disc has made its intentions pretty clear.

This is pressure music rather than fireworks.

The turn of the millennium is all over it. Progressive house had become heavier, cleaner and increasingly comfortable borrowing from trance, breaks and the techier end of club music. Seaman handles that change without turning the disc into a collection of fashionable 2000 records.

The programming is too controlled for that.

Ballroom, Opal and Nerva keep the middle section locked into a dark groove before Way Out West’s ‘The Fall’ lets some warmth back into the room. That shift works precisely because the previous stretch hasn’t been constantly offering emotional release. James Holden’s ‘Horizons’ in the Way Out West remix then sits beautifully in the later run before Junkie XL and Highland carry the disc home.

There are more immediately lovable Dave Seaman mixes. Buenos Aires has a stronger late-90s identity and can be easier to grab onto. Cape Town CD2 asks for a full listen.

That makes it useful now.

A lot of progressive house from around 2000 gets remembered through individual records: the one breakdown, the famous Bedrock remix, the track that turned up on everyone’s compilation. This disc reminds you that the genre was also about sequencing records that were not necessarily doing spectacular things on their own.

Seaman’s strength is keeping that material moving without making the hand of the DJ too obvious. You realise the mix has become warmer, tougher or more melodic after it has already happened.

That is not dramatic DJ mythology. It is just really good programming.

And when you are an hour into a mix, that matters a hell of a lot more than one clever transition.