Various Artists - Cycles 6 (Mixed Max Graham) (2015)

Cycles is Max Graham’s “Yearly Snapshot” of his own musical journey, a collection representing the natural progression in his taste. As always with Cycles the elements of melody shine through this classically mixed compilation (like Graham’s own ‘Redemption’ and his remix of Solid Stone and Jennifer Rene’s haunting vocal tune ‘Not Enough’), but much like his successful career over so many years the mix takes a wide arc of influence as it moves from Tim Penner’s lovely piano opening to Alex Di Stefano’s tough as nails “Black Panther” and back down to a perfectly fitting closing track by Gai Barone entitled “Psycles”. Graham delivers his annual state of the trance nation address and it's far removed from the glowstick-led buffoonery of mainstream EDM iterations of the sound.