TuneLab
The Anjunadeep Edition 286 with Leaving Laurel
Anjunadeep Editions are our weekly therapy, and the one hosted by Leaving Laurel is essentially a guided meditation through heartbreak, hope, and the blurry line between them. It’s the kind of mix you put on when you want to feel everything at once, preferably while lying on the floor. The vibe is introspective, a private world of fading light and unresolved chords where every snare crack feels personal. On a technical level, it’s a deep, melodic house journey with a distinct narrative arc.
The BPM gently fluctuates around 123.7, but the harmonic spine is the unusual and poignant 10B key, giving the entire mix a dusky, minor-key melancholy. The energy is balanced between low-end warmth (0.49) and mid-range melody (0.46), creating a rich, detailed soundscape that rewards close listening. The selections are peerless. The mysterious opener sets a tone of anticipation.
X3SR’s ‘Sublimation’ is a glitchy, beautiful piece of electronica, while Leaving Laurel’s own ‘Need Little, Want Less’ is a masterclass in subdued, guitar-laden emotion. The real thrill for heads is the inclusion of Porter Robinson’s ‘Language’, a festival-era classic recontextualized here as a moment of pure, soaring nostalgia. The mix travels from its enigmatic start, climbs to the anthemic, tear-jerking peak of Andrew Bayer’s ‘Open End Resource’, and then does the most Leaving Laurel thing possible: it ends not with a beat, but with the haunting, classical stillness of Philip Glass’s ‘The Slave Quarters’.