Last Thursday the Denver dance community was treated to a night of spectacular music from rising star Mat Zo.  Over the past few years Mat has built a very strong reputation in the world of dance with his gorgeous productions that have always pushed the progression of various sub genres in the world of trance & progressive.  Thursday night he lived up to every bit of this reputation with some with heavy doses of his own productions and a very impressive array of remixes and mashups.

We arrived to the club just as he took control of the decks and from the first track he had the party people eating out of the palm of his hand.  He may have done his homework prior to coming to Denver or maybe it just happened to work out perfectly as the first 45 min of his set was taylor made for the progressive electro and clubby tastes of the Denver crowd.  Tracks like Deadmau5 & Wolfgang Gartner vs. Ridgewalkers feat. El – Find Animal Rights (Mat Zo Mashup) , Wolfgang Gartner – The Way It Was  and D-Mad & Arty vs. Deadmau5 & JELO – The Reward Is Happiness (Mat Zo Mashup) built the crowd into a frenzy – the party was on.

Although I  appreciated the originality of the first half of his set it was not until the second hour that he really hooked me with his harder more trancey track selection.  This second hour of gold was kicked off with the classic Sander van Doorn – Riff followed by more big room tunes like Ferry Corsten vs. Beltek – Feel Kaiten (Mat Zo Mashup) and Third Party vs. First State feat. Anita Kelsey – Release vs. Falling (Mat Zo Mashup).  These tracks all set the stage for the big finish which was headlined by my personal favorite moment of the night when he played Arty – The Wonder and mixed it directly into one of my favorite tracks of 2011 - Arty & Mat Zo – Rebound.  The Wonder’s epic melodies built up the crowd to a boiling point and then he pushed them over the edge with Rebound – amidst a flurry of smoke and confetti.  Be sure to check out the fantastic climax  in video below!

From this high point Mat never took his foot off the gas pedal – ending the night with a flurry of monster tracks and mashups that would have made any trance fan’s head spin.  After waiting so long to catch this future superstar of dance I am happy to report that he leaves nothing to be desired when the night is all said and done.  His understanding of how to build a set, impeccable mixing and insane production ability secure an undeniably bright future and guarantees that no matter where or when you cross his path its going to be a big night.

**Big thanks to Beta Nightclub for inviting us out to another incredible night of dance music – can’t wait to do it again!

- D -