After his ‘Buenos Aires’ inaugural popped Afterdark’s mix-comp 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 tracklist 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’. 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 O’Callaghan & Kearney’s Key4050 project. ‘Egon’ and ‘Utterly Butterly’ viscerally bookend James Dymond’s bring back of Maria Nayler anthem ‘Angry Skies’ and Simon Patterson/Sam Jones pair-up ‘Rotavator’.
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.
Sneijder – Afterdark 002 [Los Angeles] – 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
