What can I say that hasn't been said already? Well…I'll give it a try.

This is the culmination of Louie & Kenny's many years of experience working with world class musicians and singers, and perhaps the highest point of their many accomplishments. I don't mean to imply they've gone downhill since then, or anything like that; I just don't think they could ever *outdo* this one.

I loved their deep house and hip hop stuff back when they were "just" a couple dudes writing tracks, but sometime around 1994, they really started to take it to the next level. A major milestone that stands out in my mind was the song "Love & Happiness" (which they released as River Ocean, with singer India). It was one of the greatest of the great singles of that era -- a time when singles were sometimes a bigger deal than entire albums (like they used to be in the 60s and 70s). Consider their epic hit "The Bomb", as The Bucketheads…if you're even reading this page, I bet you have a copy of that track in your crate or on your shelf. Now how many of you bought The Bucketheads *album*?

(I did, but you didn't really need to. What you *should* buy, however, is Chicago's epic disco classic "Street Player". I give Louie & Kenny full props for digging this one out, but their track was pretty much borrowed wholesale from Chicago's song, and once you've heard the original, "The Bomb" starts to sound like a skipping record, but I digress. The Bomb really was the bomb when it first landed.)

There was a real charm to MaW's double 12" singles. Thick, heavy, high quality vinyl, truly great songs (as opposed to "tracks") made with a parade of talented musicians, and great remixes by great artists (the latter doesn't always guarantee the former!). You could hear how much love and sweat had gone into each one.

To me, that's the backstory that led up to this album. At this point I felt like their love of music had reached a level of maturity that allowed them to really break out of the mold and find their true voice. It's pretty impressive that they managed to bring their own style to the table, even while working with some of the living legends of our time (George Benson, Roy Ayers, Tito Puente…do I even need to drop names here?).

They said themselves, in the liner notes of this album, that it was a dream come true to work with these musicians, and I'm sure it really was. It's been a treat just *listening* to all this fine music over the years. These tracks still sound as fresh and alive as they did when I first tore the plastic off my copy back in 1997.

Enormous respect.

Not exactly "complete" as this is only volumes I and II.
Behind The Eye vol. III is not included.

This hidden gem is a rather nice mini-album of remixes by some of the finest ambient and IDM producers of the time. I tracked this down for the Global Communication remix of Aspirin — a drifting ambient mind-massage, reminiscent of their other remixes from around this time (check out "Remotion" for some of the best ones) — but I really like the other remixes as well. The Move D remix glides on smooth chords (of the Koolfang variety), backed with a funky minimal beat. The other remixes all have their own merits, and a good variety of styles is represented.

Quality.