Though it's two CDs short of the recent voluminous re-release of Sasha and Digweed's The Mix Collection, John Digweed's Transitions marks his return to Renaissance with another mash of craftily blended house and techno bearing his regular progressive watermark. Digweed was painted as a bit stuffy in 2005's Delta Heavy DVD, a largely behind-the-scenes peek at his infamous big-budget 2002 tour with longtime deejay partner Sasha (he was seen nervously checking his watch during Sasha's less-than-punctual arrivals at their gigs). But the Transitions mix speaks to his reputation as an edgy, floor-filling selector, fidgety or not.

Digweed brightens his Transitions mix with bold, genuinely stimulating ripples like those in French deejay/producer's David K.'s "Beautiful People," which ignites the more volatile second half of the track list. "Beautiful People" tenses up in dark tech-y house, with shuddering metallic coil clanks underneath the trance-swabbed tail end of Catwash's "Plastic Rubberband." The Lutzenkirchen remix of Digweed's own "Warung Beach," falling later in the list and tapering none of the latter half's afterburn, steadies thick, grotesquely churning bass drills on a chirping electro frame. It sounds fresh and new -- and coming from a guy who's been doing this for decades, that's a noteworthy feat.

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Artist: http://www.johndigweed.com/

Label: http://www.thrivemusic.com/index.html