Danny Howells – Miami #027

In all honesty, this has to be the best Global Underground since Sasha's #13 from Ibiza. This one is Danny's first contribution to the actual GU series. I honestly don't think he could have made a better first impression. Danny has been playing house music for years and it's only fitting that he's finally been given a shot at making a mix for the most popular and widely known name in electronic music. He's done work for Global Underground before, but it was with the Nu Breed(I have it and really like it) and 24:7 spinoffs that he made his albums. This time it's the real deal.

Disc 1 starts out very mellow and kind of slow, but you can just feel from the beginning the energy waiting to burst out and get you moving. He keeps that feel going till he drops the remix of Post Modern Sleaze by the sneaker pimps and just tears it up till the end of the disk. From the fifth track out the entire mix is really up beat house. The pace is slower than disc 2, but it's still a pretty energetic album.

Disc 2 has more of a progressive house sound to it. He throws in some of the same styles he used on the first disk, but with a slightly different feel to it. This mix uses some elements that sound more like Sander Klienenberg at times and Hernan Cattaneo at others, but the overall album is phenominal. The sound and feel of the album fluxuates constantly and is textbook progressive house. This mix is more of his real sound, and is full of dark and dirty little runs that you would normally hear him play in a club.

This album is easily going to be one of the best of the year. I'm kind of in a bind as to whether or not it's better than Hernan's Masters Series II, but both albums are so good it's going to be hard to decide. What's even worse is Sasha is supposed to be releasing another full blown album here in a couple months, while Digweed just released Fabric 20(my copy should be here in a couple days) and another ablum a couple months from now. 2005 is going to be a great year for EDM fans.

One side note to all of this is the actual CD book. I got the "long" version which actually refers to the case. Instead of being two disks in a normal plastic CD case, it's layed out like a book with both CD's sitting next to each other on the inside of the front cover. The album notes are stapled into the inside of it and make up the pages of the book. The entire case is full of the photography normally found in any of the other GU's, but this one has interviews from people that are involved in the music scene around Miami. It's very slick and one of the most creative cases I've ever seen.

Easy 5/5 I’ve listened to this regularly for 17 years. What more can I say.

This was a great mix by the venerable Danny Howells. He was able to show what he does best during his marathon sets that we all loved at WMC over the course of a double disc - to play many different styles cohesively over the length of the journey. It starts out with warm deep house vibes and gets to the disco flavors as well as the banging techno vibes. He showcased all of his vibes with both old and new jams. This was a proper Global Underground entry from DH and stands the test of time.

This is really atypical for Global Underground but it might be my favorite one, as far as consistency goes and pleasurability. These are mostly smooth and upbeat tracks that are really different from the usual obsession with dark stuff you find on most Global Undergrounds that made a lot of them a real chore to listen to all the way through. This is closer to what you think of as upbeat mainstream house music, but they're so well chosen and they go together so well that it's a better album than most of the more far-out darker deeper stuff. And there's more good tracks on here than almost any other Global Underground. There's usually a pretty high number of tracks that you'd like to skip over on Global Underground albums, but this has the fewest that you'd like to skip over.

Love the christ clean out of this album. Track eight is wrongly titled as 'Mission (Original Mix)' - That's on the A-side of TF 017. Track eight is in fact 'That Sound', on the B-side of TF 017 - I have TF 017 here in front of me ;)

Some of the best house music i have ever heard.

A pity i only own the second CD from this special sized DoCd Booklet-Set. For me tis is the best Global Underground Mix i heard. You won't find any of that progressive House one associates with GU. Instead the Mix on CD 2 starts with german minimal Tech-House; but this sounds different in Danny Howell's Mix than in your average Minmal DJ Set. What stries me is the flow, the transitions and the easygoing, yet forward moving flow Danny creates here. After the minimal start he blends into one of my personal faves Mateo Murphy's 'Latin Loover' (Intec); he rests on that vibe for 5 minutes then changes gear towards Electro Beats and a few Vocal Trax courtesy of Boogie Drama, Bobby Peru and Tiefschwarz's Remix of Bodydub = Hits from the time this mix was recorded. He changes directions towards Tech-House again with Bryan Zentz and ends this fine ride with the excellent Classic Music EP by The Geens Keepers and a rare Remix of Throbbing Gristle's 'Hot On The Heels Of Love'.
He uses the effect Scction of his mixer clever and (best of all) accents his transitons in a unique way returning to a certain groove a couple times, to emphasize the upcoming Mix. Hats off 4 that !
That's real good DeeJaying and an entertaining Feel Good Home Listening Mix at the same time.
I return to this CD more often than to other Mix CD's i rated higher after the first few rounds in my CD Player.