The 1:14:43 continuous mix is the listening experience; the working material is the 27 individual cuts, and this DJ-Kicks comes apart surprisingly well. Orlando Higginbottom — the TEED formerly known as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs — says he has been listening to the series since he was 10, and frames his !K7 entry around a very booth-minded idea: the moment before heading out for a night in Los Angeles, his home city for over a decade.
There are two ways in. Malibu's 'Spicy City', at 94 BPM and barely 3:10, is pure intro; David Vunk's 'Purple Light', at 127 in A minor with 4:48 of build, gets a room moving without burning it. The tempo ceiling arrives with Jacques Greene's 'Lily Pad' at 135, closely trailed by Joe Goddard's 'Collide' at 133 in F major: that is the heavy-hitting bracket, alongside 'Under The Metal' — one of the exclusive originals TEED saves for the record — at 131 in Db minor.
The keys hand you several blends for free. F major shows up five times ('Collide', 'Alright Alright', 'Waiting Room', 'Foundry', 'Coastal'), a near ready-made harmonic chain for the 127 stretch. Tigerskin's Alternative Mix of 'First Day In Time' and the cover of 'Please Don't Go' — yes, the KC & The Sunshine Band one, among TEED's five exclusives here — share Eb major between 125 and 123. And Decius' 'More 2 Luv', in A minor, drops straight onto Margaux Gazur's 'Agata' in C major, its relative key: a clean step down from 127 to 120.
The final descent gets the same care. Convertible's 'Like The Rain', the longest cut at 8:24, eases down to 123 in E major with plenty of room for long blends; 'Never Seen You Dance (DJ-Kicks Version)' — the single, a club rework of his own 2022 track — leaves the floor at 120 in C major, and Oliver's 'Coastal', 1:35 at 103, works as an ambient tail. The whole thing breaks down into tools with unusual logic: this mix was conceived from the booth, not just for it.
Sources: Decoded Magazine · Bandcamp