The Lost Art of Long Tracks: Why It’s Good To Let Music Breathe

Ferry Corsten recently found himself in an interesting position. After not playing vinyl in a club for over 15 years, the trance legend took to the decks at London’s Outernet for a four-hour set that included one hour on vinyl. His reaction was telling: “I gotta admit that when I mixed the next track, I’m like, okay… Now what?”

That moment of uncertainty wasn’t about technical ability – it was about patience. About allowing music the time it needs to develop, breathe, and create its intended impact. It’s a skill that many modern DJs have lost, and one that veteran DJs remember fondly but struggle to implement in today’s fast-paced musical landscape.

The patience problem

“People had the patience,” Ferry observes about those earlier days. “People knew that you could not jump to another track in the next minute. People just accepted that music for what it was and not being impatient.”

This patience extended to track lengths themselves. Six and seven-minute productions were standard, not exceptional. These extended arrangements allowed for proper breakdowns, multiple drops, and what Ferry calls “that second breakdown that’s slightly shorter, more energetic than the first drop”.

But somewhere along the way, we lost that patience. The Instagram generation demands instant gratification, and DJs have responded by cramming more tracks into their sets, often switching every 30 seconds in a frantic attempt to maintain attention.

The vinyl reality check

Ferry’s recent return to vinyl highlighted just how different mixing longer tracks really is. “With vinyl, you know, maybe if a track had a difference of like a BPM or two, the keys remain very close to each other, so it’s fine. But once you wanna mix a 130bpm track with a 138bpm track in the same key, that same key is no longer the same key in both tracks.”

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These technical limitations forced DJs to be more selective, more patient, and more creative. You couldn’t just slam one track into another – you had to find the right moments, respect the arrangement, and work with what each track offered.

Modern DJ software has removed these limitations, which should be liberating. Instead, many DJs use this freedom to avoid the challenge entirely, chopping tracks at the first sign of complexity rather than learning to work with longer arrangements.

Why longer tracks still matter

Despite the modern trend towards brevity, longer tracks offer something that rapid-fire mixing simply cannot: emotional development. “It allows tracks to breathe and it allows you to look forward to that bit that’s coming, that second breakdown,” Ferry explains.

This anticipation is crucial for dance music’s emotional impact. When every element hits immediately, nothing feels special. When you make people wait for the drop, earn the breakdown, and build towards the climax, the payoff becomes genuinely euphoric.

Consider the difference between a three-minute radio edit and its eight-minute club version. The radio edit gets to the point quickly, but the club version takes you on an actual journey – one that unfolds naturally rather than being forced.

The circular nature of production trends

Ferry has witnessed the complete cycle of dance music production, from hardware limitations forcing simplicity to unlimited software possibilities enabling complexity, and now back to simplicity again. “Now there’s this whole new trend of tracks have to be really simple again,” he notes.

This return to simplicity isn’t nostalgia – it’s recognition that the best dance music has always been about knowing what to leave out, not what to cram in. The most effective tracks give DJs room to work, audiences space to breathe, and ideas time to develop.

Practical advice for modern DJs

So how can today’s DJs reclaim the lost art of letting music breathe? Here are some practical approaches:

• Start with your preparation – Look for extended versions, club mixes, and original releases rather than radio edits. These longer arrangements give you more options for creative mixing
• Practise patience – When you load a seven-minute track, commit to letting it run for at least four or five minutes. Learn where the energy peaks and valleys are, and use them to your advantage
• Use modern tools wisely – Your software can loop, extend, and re-edit on the fly. Use these capabilities to create the space that tracks might not naturally have, rather than to rush through arrangements
• Study the masters – Listen to classic sets from DJs like Sasha, John Digweed, or Ferry Corsten. Notice how they let tracks develop, how they build tension over minutes rather than seconds

It’s not about going backwards

This isn’t an argument for abandoning modern music, returning exclusively to vinyl, or never “quick mixing”. It’s about recognising that some aspects of older DJing approaches remain valid and valuable. Ferry himself uses many approaches: “I love listening to other music and see what people do. That’s why I love doing this all, really.”

The goal isn’t to copy the past but to take what you need from it. Modern DJs have unprecedented technical capabilities and access to music from every era. The challenge is using these tools thoughtfully rather than frantically.

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As Ferry puts it: “There’s something to these tracks that are six, seven minutes instead of two, three minutes.” In our rush to pack more into our sets, we might be leaving out the very thing that makes dance music special: the space for magic to happen.

Finally…

Whether you’re mixing for a living room full of friends or a festival crowd, remember that sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is nothing at all. Let the track breathe.

Give the moment space. Trust that your audience will come with you on the journey – but only if you give them time to get on board.