The lyrics sound like they have been made up on the fly and as if not even half a thought was put into them - "The sexy girls with the bad boys in the club, all they want to do is feel the heat of summer love". Still, Lonyo has such a soothing, silky voice that he can even make this sonsense work. It's all about the Original Mix here, which was deservedly one of the biggest hits spawned by the 2-Step movement. Class A also turn in some decent mixes with a relaxed house touch, while Robbie Rivera's mixes, using a more "big room" approach, are a little too obvious for me.

Around 1999 / 2000, most artists who had been part of the Big Beat movement started making house with a rougher edge. The most prominent example of this surely is the Chemical Brothers' "Hey Boy Hey Girl". I remember that an article in Mixmag called this new style "Smash House". When I heard that the Dirty Beatniks jumped onto that wagon too, I was sceptical at first, but this album really works. Most of the tracks are driving forward with a lot of energy, and the inclusion of Mau's beatnik poetry gives the tracks some kind of song structure, so that this records is not just a collection of tracks, but a real album.

Most of the tracks on this compilation are over-the-top UK Hardcore numbers, some of which (Smart E's, Chops-EMC & X 10 CIV) cross the line to cheesy Euro Dance. I suppose that if you're in the right mind state and on a big rave, this style might be a lot of fun, but when listening to these tracks on CD at home, they get tiring really fast. But even if you like this style of music, I wouldn't recommend anyone to buy this compilation because of the bad job that was done on the sequencing. Obviously the label tried to cram as many songs as possibly on one CD, so every track gets faded out way before its real end - The seven minutes of house classic "Some Lovin" are cut down to only one minute, ending before the first verse of the song! Since hundreds of these early Hardcore/Rave compilation CDs can still be found in second hand stores, there's really no need to buy this particular one.

The happy hardcore / hardtrance stuff (back then, this style of music was usually simply called "rave") from 1993-95 is still my favorite phase in Westbam's work. All of the tracks he did back then, be it as Westbam, Members Of Mayday or under other names, were full of energy, had great melodies and also a lot of humor, which most of his later "technolectro" work was lacking in my opinion. "Wizards Of The Sonic" was one of those great tunes, built around a fast beat and a melody taken from the "Sonic The Hedgehog" video games. The remixes featured here are all nice takes on the track with the Westbam Remix being closest to the original. CJ Bolland goes into hardtrance / techno territory with his mix, while Westbam's Dub is the most underground-friendly of the three and already has many electro elements.

CDs that come as a bonus with magazines are usually average at best, but this mix is so good that I'd buy it as a full price CD anytime. Ellen Allien takes us on a journey through deep house, atmospheric techno and new disco that never gets boring. The mixing is not flawless, but you can tell that the mix was done live and and that Allien really must have gotten "into the groove" while recording it, since there is that kind of buildup and drive in the mix that you can only get when you do a mix in real time.

Another big remix package from "Destroyed". "The Right Thing" and "After" were two of the album's strongest songs, and about half of the remixers featured here succeed in producing equally strong versions. Kleerup turns "The Right Thing" into a progressive breakbeat track and cuts up Inyang Bassey's vocals. Ben Hoo's mix is a standard chillout track, not exactly bad, but also nothing that hasn't already been done better before. Meanwhile, the Sharam Jey Remix is one of the best tracks of his that I have ever heard, somewhere between synthpop and progressive house, and Cosmonauts deliver a nice, warm electro/new disco version. "After" doesn't get an equally good treatment - Paul Woolford's mix coould be solid techno, if it were not for his irritating use of Moby's vocal, and Peace Treaty's take on the song is a Tocadisco-like electro house mix which will surely work on many floors, but just isn't my cup of tea. Thankfully, the single closes with another highpoint, as iamamiwhoami stay with "After"'s dark and threatening atmosphere and enhance it even more.

It's really sad to see Ministry Of Sound, who released gems such as the "The Sessions" and "Northern Exposure" series, go down like this. The track selection on "The Annual" has always been rather commercial and pop-oriented, but this compilation breaks all borders of underground integrity and good taste.
We get to hear unbelievable euro-crap by the usual suspects - David Guetta, Eric Prydz, Bob Sinclar, Cascada etc. I wouldn't expect these people to turn out a good tune, but here, even quality artists such as Paul Oakenfold, Sharam (from Deep Dish) and Roger Sanchez turn in some of their worst productions.
Most of the tracks are remixes or cover versions of old tunes from the 80s and 90s - we get to hear unnecessary remakes of old songs by C & C Music Factory, Pink Floyd, Eddie Murphy, Double 99, Adventures Of Stevie V., Rick James, Bronski Beat, Kathy Brown, Genesis, Crystal Waters, Apollonia 6 and even an uptempo eurodance version of Roxette's "Listen To Your Heart". Listening to this makes me wonder - were there really so few new ideas in dance music in 2007 that they had to put every old song they could find through the "electro house" remix machine?
But still, there are a handful of good songs between all the crap. Tyken's "Every Word", Basement Jaxx' "Hush Boy", "Rain Down Love" by The Freemasons and "My Life" by Chanel stand out and would make this worth listening, if they weren't so hard to find between all the cheese.
As is usual with Ministry's mix CDs nowadays, the DJ is not named anywhere on the release, because they probably just let some engineer put the whole thing together on the computer.
The DVD is not any better - It's hard to see where one video ends and the next starts, because 90% of the clips included consist of showing half-naked girls dancing around douchey-looking men. Seeing this, it's easier to cope with the fact that MTV hardly plays music videos anymore.
This whole release is aimed at people who care more about binge-drinking and wearing the right clothing brands at the club than about music, and it is only fitting that the sleeve is filled up with ads for Ministry Of Sound ringtones, MP3 players, a Quiz DVD (!) and an MOS prepaid card (!!).

Four years ago, I had the pleasure of accidentally stumbling into a Чай Вдвоём concert at a town festival in Smolensk. I had never heard of the group before and asked a member of the crew what kind of music they would play, to which he answered "funky grooves".
I wasn't expecting much - all contemporary Russian pop I had heard up until then was much to much "in your face" for me, lacking any subtlety or depth. But this group immediately caught me with their songs, which is why the very next day I went to the local market and bought this CD.
The music is still mostly radio-friendly europop, but always with something extra to it which is hard to find in other Russion pop releases. The harmonies and vocals arrangements are quite complex for this type of music, and the two singers' voices work together very nicely. The inclusion of jazz elements on some of the songs is also a nice variation to the usual dancepop/ballad-standard.
Highly recommended if you like good pop and can stand a little bit of kitsch, even if you don't understand a word in Russian.

This release was widely rejected by hip hop heads but to me it's really Kanye's best album up to then. This is mainly due to the fact that the factors that made his previous offerings rather annoying are missing here - no endless skits about how West dropped out of college, no Puff Daddy style productions that are completely based on obvious samples of old songs. Instead we get 12 tracks (which is more than enough, most hip hop albums are too long anyway) of synth pop with some hip hop influences here and there, which is great because West is far from being an exceptionally good rapper, but he is a pretty good pop artist. Most of the melodies are catchy and even the autotune doesn't sound stale here. The only thing I could have done without is the last track, a boring freestyle that goes on for way too long.

Most of these mixes are OK, though nothing special, but the Chosen Few Mix alone justifies a 5/5 rating. Dark hardcore with dirty breakbeats and distorted screams. The Original Mix is nice too, but the other mixes go slightly too much into Happy Hardcore territory and use so many effects and samples to get your attention that they get annoying fast.