We continue our countdown of Joe Miller’s favourite moments from 18 Balance Series compilations…

With over 30 compilations and 6,000 tracks, the Balance Series is more than just a collection—it’s a living archive of electronic music’s evolution. Narrowing down all the moments from the series is no easy task, but luckily, Australian producer Joe Miller lent his expert ear and deep connection to the series to guide us through some of these sonic bookmarks.

In this follow-up to Joe’s first nine selections, we dive into the remaining eight tracks. These selections span deep, atmospheric soundscapes and peak-time anthems, showcasing the diversity that defines the series.

This was a polarising mix: at one end of the spectrum are the people who find it too scattered, unmoored, and, frankly, French. At the other extreme are the listeners who rate it as an eclectic masterpiece, a pair of bookended trips that combine raw folk, Berlin minimal, abrasive ambient and New York indie house.

I’m with the ‘eclectic masterpiece’ crowd; this is the work of someone obsessed with music, oblivious to genre boundaries, and possessing an uncanny ability to manipulate emotions. ‘Over the Ice’ is the summit of an exhilarating half-hour climb.

I obsessed over this mix for years; earlier experiments by Sasha, Jay Burnett and Richie Hawtin had hinted at a collage-like style of mixing, but Voorn’s rigour and ability to balance fine detail with a sense of narrative arc was like nothing before (and arguably since).

With ‘At Les’, he honoured a second-gen Detroit legend, layering Craig’s original with the 1999 Innerzone Orchestra version, then bringing Ripperton’s 9$ Remix of Radiohead – ‘Nude’ over the top.

It all adds up to an exquisite moment of ecstasy-in-melancholy, rounding off what might be the most ambitious studio mix in existence.

This UR classic is something you have to earn in a set. A hymn to empowerment with echoes of 19^th century American Transcendentalism, this stubbornly optimistic jazz techno piece is my highlight from Paolo Mojo’s much-praised mix.

(Honourable mention: Wighnomy Bros. – Wombat, and the absolutely obscene layering Paolo uses to recontextualise it just three tracks earlier).  

Compilation 005 was the ultimate tough act to follow and could have thrown many a successor into a self-doubting mindcircus. But Pappa (then living in London) had been DJing for eighteen years by this point, with his schedule including 200–245 gigs per year, and he had the requisite confidence to go all in.

The result was an era-defining double CD; disc one showcases pure breaks, opening with Luke Chable’s exquisite ‘Into the Storm’, and disc two features the darkest four-four prog.

(The twentieth anniversary of this mix came up this year, something Pappa recently commemorated with a fresh two-hour mix).

Each disc of the original compilation is a manifesto in its own right; my current standout moment is this immersive and truly progressive moment towards the end of disc two. 

Like the Northern Exposure series, Holden’s Balance mix still comes up in conversation at gigs and afterparties. Its tracklist was the main reason I moved to Melbourne a decade ago, and meeting some of its featured artists gave me the sort of buzz Swifties presumably get from meeting their heroine.

It’s impossible to pick a highlight here, so I’m going for an overlooked gem: Form & Function’s ‘Wonderland’, a disorienting piece of psychedelic wistfulness that gets into your bones. 

(Honourable mentions: The MFA – ‘The Difference it Makes’, Jase from Outta Space – ‘Do What you Want (Infusion Remix)’, Meerkat – ‘Colours’, Meta.83 – ‘End Titles’)

 

This gently powerful breaks piece from Phil K’s Lostep collaborator set the tone for a mix that’s still discussed with respect. A master of technique, embracer of emerging technology, and nurturer of young talent (inspiring artists like James Zabiela), Phil brought his whole humanity to these 156 minutes of driving house and evocative breakbeat. 

(Also including links to a couple of Phil’s favourite charities/causes):

https://mess.foundation 

https://www.tonicmusic.co.uk 

In clubbing as in spirituality, ecstatic highs are followed by a reckoning with something Freud referred to as ‘the reality principle’. (After enlightenment, carry water, chop wood).

This inevitable descent happens as much at the personal level as it does at the level of a culture – Flower Power gave way to qualuudes, coke and cynicism, and the euphoria of the Hacienda and early trance morphed into something darker and more knowing.

The early Balance compilations distilled and bottled this feeling, capturing a style of house music that was capricious, steely, and a little dangerous. You can hear it all over 005 (in Chable’s Vocal Pass of PQM’s ‘You are Sleeping’ and the Infusion mix of Jase from Outta Space – ‘Do What you Want’), but the ingredients are already here in Hamel’s turn-of-the millennium paean to the dark.

Released in 2001, Sean Quinn’s Balance 001 captured the tail end of the trance wave and the beginnings of the subtle, rolling sound that came to define the early Balance compilations. 001 is still a rewarding listen after 23 years, with highlights including Solid Sessions’ ‘Janeiro’, Way out West’s ‘Mindcircus’ and this collaboration between Gwill Morris and a 22-year-old James Holden. 

 

Balance-Walter Balance

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