There is a hidden motorway running through this selection: five cuts in E minor spread between 123 and 132 BPM, enough to chain almost half an hour without ever leaving the key. Hakan Akkus' 'Moonrise Over Lagos' opens the stretch at 123, 'Sharing Love' by Disco Gurls and The GrooveBand picks it up at 124, Tim Light's 'All the Time' — a 5:30 extended with room to blend — pushes to 128, and Spat's 'Set Me Free' caps it at 132. Four harmonic transitions served on a plate.
For warming up a room, the material lives at the bottom: 'This Weekend' at 116 and Quinta Queen's 'All Is Well' at 117 take their time, while 'Home (Infinity)' brings a luminous C major at 118 — one of five cards Paraiso deals across the pack, all pocket-sized. Peak time sits in the 130-135 bracket, with Ros T's 'Highland Rave' as the tempo ceiling. A fine detail: both Perfect Havoc cuts, 'Highland Rave' and Cory's 'Over Now' with Ina Shai, share A minor, so the jump from 128 to 135 between them stays clean. The London label run by Adam Griffin and Robert Davies — the same house that broke Joel Corry and PS1 — is still thinking in dancefloor terms.
Short formats, fast hands
The catch is the running times: only five cuts arrive as extended versions and much of the rest hovers around two and a half minutes. Three coordinates so you don't get lost:
- 'Lady' by Ertan Koculu and Kaisser Bouzriba (5:55 at 125) has the most mileage in the pack, ideal for long transitions through the mid-set stretch.
- 'Rolex On Ma Wrist' lasts 2:02: come in with the loop ready or it slips away before you raise the fader.
- VEMØ's 'Stay With Me' (93) and Steve Kroeger's 'smoke' (94) are the two downtempo snipers: closing material or ambient openers, never prime time.
A tip for label watchers: Liftoff Recordings places two cards here, 'Set Me Free' and 'Smooth', the latter signed by the label's own founders, Disco Fries. The New York duo of Nick Ditri and Danny Boselovic built the imprint to give emerging talent a runway, and here Kaden Meza and Karrion share the credit with them. That farm system is the one worth watching from the booth.
Sources: Perfect Havoc · Wikipedia
