Blaze Presents Underground Dance Artists United For Life - Keep Hope Alive

Side A features the much talked about Dennis Ferrer remix (Future 3000 Mix) of Barbara Tucker’s “Most Precious Love”, definitely a peak-time floor shaker! To close out this side, Blaze’s mix of their brand new “Not Far Away” is one of my favorite cuts on this album. It features the wonderful vocals of one Josh Milan (Alexander Hope), who also gets busy on the keyboards. Typical and classy Blaze!

Side B features my other favorite brand new cut: Stephanie Cooke’s gorgeous, “What Makes The World Go Round” (original Blaze version). Stephanie has definitely been on a roll for the past few years, and she shows absolutely no signs of letting up! This is another vintage Blaze production. The latter half of the B side teams up the remixing crew of the infamous Bobby & Steve duo, along with Urban Groove Productions’ James Ratcliffe, as well as Nathan Haines (from Chillifunk Records) on flute and sax. Together they dish out a superb soulful remix of Ultra Nate’s “A Wonderful Place”, which tops the original in my opinion.

Side C breaks open with Will Milton’s tight remix of Byron Stingily’s “Spread Love”. It’s refreshing to hear Byron lifting his voice over a top notch deep house track (much deeper than the usual Stingily productions). Side C closes out with the original version (previously released) of Joi Cardwell’s “Be Yourself”.

Side D features Phil Hooton’s stellar and appropriate version of Kenny Bobien’s “Hiya Luv”, as well as Blaze’s mix of Dawn Tallman’s “Keep Hope Alive”

All-in-all, this double pack is indeed a necessary must have and should be copped before it runs out.


Review by Michael Terzian