Layo & Bushwacka! - Global Underground GU33: Rio

Can't say I agree with the above reviews.

How can classic chicago tracks like Open Our Eyes, Taste My Love, Can't Get Enough, Never No More Lonely etc ever get tiresome or be old hat?!! Simply not possible!

In particular, some of those tracks rarely ever get put on classic compilations so Layo & Bushwacka! have really digged deep here. Consequently, this is not sellout material. If anyone thinks that an old Larry Heard track featuring Robert Owens from 1988 would get featured on your average MOS comp, then they're undoubtedly smoking crack.

The tracks on CD1 are the foundation of House. Give me these types of tracks anyday over run of the mill boring prog house/trance.

No wonder dance music is on its arse when people are so blinkered, so loathed to embrace change or anything even slightly different. Kudos to GU for trying something different at the very least.

This is yet another step towards a total GU sell-out. It used to be all about what the title suggests: the finest DJ's of the 4/4 prog/tech-house fraternity serving current, fresh underground music played along their global dj circumnavigations.

Now, this is more reminiscent of a Ministry of Sound-esque comp, where the core values are bastardised, edges ground off, as the company owners have dollar signs in their eyes. Sack the director! Bring back the GU we all knew and loved!

Disc 1: Cleverly put together bunch of old hat. We don't need reminding of the past if we are the sort of people buying GU compilations.

Disc 2: Bland, on-the-bandwagon minimal stuff. Includes good tracks (Gerber, Sammim, Heard), don't get me wrong, but only the last track is anything like the Layo & Bushwacka! I thought I knew.

I remember thinking that this could be such a fresh addition to the series, bringing some current underground breaks materials to the GU forum, but it seems like they and GU the label have changed their ways too much, and for all the wrong reasons.

PS. The cover photo is a complete joke, and sells this for what it really is... disappointed would be an understatement.

I have to admit, I gave this compilation a 3, simply because CD1 is totally out of place here and deserves 1 as far as I'm concerned. Nobody needs that kind of shit on a GU comp (Felix Da Housecat's Milan comes to mind as well). GU folks should wake up a bit. The praise goes to CD2, which, although minimal and modern in it's heart, does tell a story and goes somewhere. Hey, I'd even say it's rememberable, and not one of those discs which you'll be listening to for a month or two and forget later. I can even understand they were paying some kind of a tribute to a particular sound with CD1, but I can't escape the feeling it was quite hard for them to make 2 good CDs with current material, which is a shame. Maybe I'm wrong, but there were never so many mix compilations seeking old tunes for help, as there are today. Why do I feel it was a much easier task few years ago to make a good, coherent set with new tunes without sounding bland or dull? Hell, I know I'm not the only one having this feeling...