TuneLab
Ben Rau special house set in The Lab Johannesburg
Ben Rau’s special house set for The Lab Johannesburg is a clinic in functional, peak-time tech-house that understands its primary job: to make bodies move efficiently and relentlessly. This is the sound of a sleek, packed club at 2 AM, where the lighting is strobed and the dancefloor is a single, sweating organism. Averaging 125.6 BPM and obsessively locked into the 12A key for a whopping 28 tracks, this is mixing as precision engineering. The energy profile is ruthlessly focused, with a colossal 70% of the spectrum devoted to a rock-solid, four-on-the-floor low-end, leaving the mids and highs to provide just enough tonal colour and shuffle to prevent monotony.
It’s a relentless, harmonic loop session. The track selection is a survey of modern tech-house’s best tools. 'Nocturnals' by Infamous Zol is a percussive, atmospheric opener. Dennis Ferrer's 'How Do I Let Go' brings timeless, soulful depth.
The Dualz's 'Berlin' offers a tougher, loop-based riff, and the Mood II Swing rework of 'Closer' is a classic vocal used to perfection. The peak, however, is undoubtedly the double-tap of 'Lady Love'—first in its original form, then the Extended Mix—a festival-sized anthem deployed with surgical precision. The set begins with the subtle build of 'Nocturnals', drives its peak with the soaring vocals of 'Lady Love', and closes, aptly, with the extended mix of that very track.