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Various - Soul Heaven Presents Masters At Work - 03-Dec-06 03:28 PM
On their first installment for Defected in 2004 ("SoulHeaven presents Masters At Work"), the Masters turned it an authoritative 2 CD mix that covered their familiar territory of Deep/Soulful House, with all the usual inflections (Latin, Jazz, Hip–Hop, and even Gospel), exclusive track selections, and seamless mixing that have marked the signature work of this team over the past decade. That mix was attributed entirely to MAW, whereas on the present outing we are treated to a "deconstruction" of the MAW sound: Louie Vega gets to mix on the first disc, while Kenny Dope takes over on the second.

The more appropriate analogy here, therefore, is with the pair of 2003 releases "SoulHeaven Presents London_Ibiza" by Louie Vega (suSU) and "In The House: Kenny Dope" (Defected). Whereas Vega leans towards a softer sound that's more Latin and soulful in spirit, Dope takes an edgier approach to modern House music, using hip–hop and rap to invigorate his 2003 mix, and various shades of Acid to spice up the proceedings on Disc 2 of the present mix.

With Louie Vega, track credits only tell you so much about what's going on, given his fondness for deconstruction, reconstruction, mixing, mashing, remixing, and rehashing, i.e., "tweaking" on a massive scale (but so expertly executed that it's all but inconspicuous). On Disc 1, these studio pyrotechnics reach an unmistakable high point on track 1.11 with what must be the finest House record of 2006, a sumptuous but uncredited rework of Moloko's "Forever More" which satisfies every craving for a fitting arrangement to accompany Roísín Murphy's rapturously beautiful vocal that the artist's original version sadly failed to deliver.

François K and Eric Kupper had long ago realized the potential of the Murphy vocal and, with their customary professionalism, delivered a deliciously spacey, Deep Techno House remix of "Forever More" in 2003 that turned out to be a marvelous piece of underground dance music. Vega's overhaul of this song remains a bit of a mystery (the liner notes are completely silent), but it seems that (like FKEK) he has gutted everything except Murphy's vocal, and then set it against a sumptuous Balearic backdrop that is a dubby, uptempo variant of his signature sound on production/remix work branded under the "Elements Of Life", "Roots", and "Criola" marques (in fact, the backdrop sounds suspiciously like Vega's Criola Remix of DJ Grégory's "Elle"). With its lushly swirling, dubbed–out synths and robustly rocking Latin–flavored bassline and percussion arrangements, this track works equally well at home and on the dancefloor (Danny Krivit, among others, has been featuring it in his live sets). My only complaint is that it hasn't (yet) been released in any format other than on DJ mixes, which include Sandy Rivera's recently released "Renaissance — The Masters Series Part 8" and a forgettably commercial mix this summer on Defected by its chief hack (in both cases giving "proper" credit to DJ Grégory).

Another fine example of Vega's masterful tweaking can be found on tracks 1.14 and 1.15, where River Ocean's "Love & Happiness (São Benitez Sun Rise Mix)" is stripped down to an acapella over beats and mashed with Julien Jabre's 2005 near–classic "Swimming Places" (the refrain from the latter gets going 45 seconds into track 1.14 even though it's officially billed as track 1.15). Although most listeners would prefer "Swimming Places" exactly as it is, Vega shows us an alternative, equally plausible view of the world, which is precisely what great DJs are supposed to do: taking other people's records and making his own records out of them (as John Creamer put it in slightly different context).

Disc 2 by Kenny Dope starts off reliably in Deep/Garage House mode, then takes us into a Retro–Acid reverie with Kerri Chandler's "Bar A Thym" before meandering for a track or two into the sort of Acido–Electro–Progressive territory where you would expect to find Steve Lawler and his ilk. Thing is, this kind of sequencing (herding softer, more traditional styles of House into the jaws of Ironic Disco and Progressive House) has been done umpteen times before by genre–straddling jockeys with names like Rivera, Tengalia, and Howells, to name but a few useful ones. And there's little point in drawing comparisons with the heavyweights of the Global Underground jetset unless Dope is out to poke fun at their inherent limitations: he stands heads and shoulders above those blokes anyway. That said, by the time we get to track 2.09, he has pulled back into more familiar Dope territory i.e., fleshy House music set alight with rap and some permutation breakbeat, broken beats, and marching beats (a legacy of the Adonis style of early Acid House and its excessive use of the snare drum?). Both fans of Dope and of the SoulHeaven series will certainly not be disappointed by this mix, but perhaps it is not quite the pathbreaking effort that was 2003's "In The House: Kenny Dope" or, indeed, the Retro–Funk meets Broken Beats mix that he dropped this year on disc 1 of "Southport Weekender Vol. 5" (Endulge).

Disc 3 compiles (unmixed) eight House tracks which Vega and Dope cite (with their typical modesty) as their "Influences and Inspirations", even though they had a hand in producing and/or tweaking most of them. The tracks by Manzel and Eddie Palmieri, in particular, are not to be missed.

Lexicon Avenue - Nite:Life 012 - 26-Sep-06 03:16 AM
The lads from Lexicon Avenue have turned in a superbly crafted, deliciously funky mix here that merits frequent revisits even to this day. It was quietly released towards the end of the darkly tribal phase of the Progressive House movement and brought more than a gust of fresh air to that particular genre of underground dance music at just about the time when it was about to sink under its own weight and self–absorption.

While the likes of John Creamer and Stephane K proclaimed with great fanfare that their DJ mixes "connected the dots between progressive, tribal, deep and funky house", and Satoshi Tomiie told us how he connected with audiences by varying his sets in accordance with the changing, substance–influenced moods on his dancefloors, the lads from Lexicon Avenue were, in Nite:Life 12, the only ones who actually made the connection with their audiences' desire for quality dance music which satisfies every craving for pounding, funky beats and late–night edginess that Progressive House was supposed to be about.

And they did so with a lot less self–serving verbosity and a lot more flair than their peers by selecting a relentlessly funky, beats & bass–driven collection of tracks that are no less dark and tribal than the pound–a–penny, mindlessly monotonous fare served up in the name of Progressive House circa 2001 – 2003. In fact, the lads have so much fun on Nite:Life 12 that Creamer, K, Tomiie, et al. all looked positively stilted, in a stick–up–the–behind sort of way, after this mix came out.

A key driver of its success is its refreshingly diverse range of artists/producers/remixers (as opposed to the usual incestuous collection of names that populate commercial releases from labels such as Global Underground, Renaissance, React, Bedrock, and EQ), who represent an even more refreshing diversity of approaches to making funky dance music without fluff. Thrown in among the usual Progressive House suspects (Chab, the lads themselves in various guises, and Bini & Martini) are heavy hitters from other styles of underground dance music such as Jay–J & Chris Lum (West Coast House), Global Communication (Deep House, Ambient Techno, Hip–Hop), and Dizzy & Jado (House). All of this goes to show that the usual suspects and their ilk had no monopoly on the funky progressive goods (quite the opposite, in fact), and it is only to be lamented that these other purveyors of Progressive House haven't taken the time to engage in lateral thinking of the sort that has, triumphantly, resulted in Nite:Life 12.

NRK is a forward–thinking, no–nonsense label in the underground dance music space that has given us a lot of great music from a multiplicity of genres over the years. Many of the mixes in the Nite:Life series (2000 – 2004) are the sort of benchmark releases that make tastemakers everywhere sit up and pay attention. Nite:Life 12 is unmistakably one of these and is well worth tracking down if only to see exactly how Funky Progressive House should be done.

Danny Tenaglia - Global Underground 017: London - 12-Sep-06 12:02 PM
This is, without doubt, the high point of the entire Global Underground series and easily qualifies among the top 10 House music mixes of all time. It is a showcase of great music from beginning to end, intricate yet accessible, and masterfully mixed to seamless perfection by one the most experienced pairs of hands in the business. It was an eye–opening experience the first time, and many years later it still brings a unique pleasure. Timeless and classic, it sounds no less vital and relevant now than it did six years ago.

The throbbing, wildly exotic musical landscape that Tenaglia offers up traverses the entire breadth of underground dance music, from its roots in jazz, soul, and disco, and then onwards and upwards into its future where technology and ancient tribal rhythms meld into a perfect whole. This mix defies categorization by genre: the quality and diversity of Tenaglia's track selections are simply astounding, and virtually any one of them would today provide a welcome breath of fresh air on dancefloors anywhere in the world, especially in those places starved of soul by the acido–electro–syntho ephemera that are currently working their way through the bowels of the underground.

Although GU Tenaglia/London is all about House music, it has an unmistakably epic quality to it. "Epic" is a term that's more commonly associated with Trance, but there's none of the drugged out cheesiness of that genre to be found here; no trashy build up of soaring synthesizer refrains, tacky drum rolls, or the flabby self–consciousness that was the undoing of that particular dead–end in underground dance music. GU Tenaglia/London is uncompromisingly about getting down to dirty beats, grooving basslines, and dance music that pays proper respect to its origins while looking astutely forward to where it might head. Indeed, GU Tenaglia/London perfectly anticipated the entire tribal phase of the Progressive House movement, offering up one timeless classic after another that out–tribalizes and out–progresses anything that the dark princes of Progressive House (subsequently) ever managed to concoct; and it did so without ever disconnecting from the organic soulfulness that separates the true craftsmen from mere hacks and pretenders.

Those who take issue with this mix for its "slow" speed and/or the repetitiveness of certain tracks should bear in mind only one thing: all of it was deliberate. Tenaglia the DJ is the consummate tweaker/twister/reconstructor, whether in the studio or on the fly, more so even than Deep Dish. And, fortunately for those who need a clue, Tenaglia is prolific with his listening notes: you know he's on deck when the CD booklet runs into a dozen or more pages of fine print.

On the issue of speed:

[Tenaglia] is willing to let us into the secret of successfully flipping [between musical] styles [in a mix]: "I pitch it down," he says. Slowing everything down lets him be as eclectic as he wants, because it's all grooving at his pace. — Liner notes to GU Danny Tenaglia/Athens (1999).

Tenaglia plays gourmet house. He doesn't use rapid–fire snare rolls and he doesn't drop quick–fix dancefloor explosions. He teases out swaying grooves that slow–burn rather than flame up, but still bristle with energy ... . — Liner notes to the present mix.

(It's unlikely to be a coincidence that GU's resident PR man and liner note writer did his best work annotating the loquacious Tenaglia's GU mixes.)

On the issue of repetition, Tenaglia himself says this in the notes to this mix:

Pro–tools software was only used to edit and mainly shorten many of the songs that were way too long to fit on the CD's. There are also places where I've utilized the editing to do "minor" remixes here and there. The best example would be Track 1 of CD 2 "Signals", where I get to bring back the top of the song and have it rebuild since it never had any breakdown, and my special WMC re-edit of ATFC's "In & Out Of My Life". See if you can trainspot the others.

Danny Tenaglia produced this extraordinary mix after more than a quarter–century in the dance music business, and could well have retired on this crowning achievement. Luckily for his fans, he did not; unfortunately, though, he hasn't released anything commercially since GU Tenaglia/London that really comes close in quality, preferring mostly to work on eclectic productions in the studio and continuing to thrill audiences live on dancefloors. That's not so bad given the quality and longevity of this mix (something that can't be said for 75% of the other GU releases), but perhaps it is now time for him to help us connect the dots once again with a new 2XCD release that puts the last six years of House music into their proper context.

Various - Bedrock: Mixed And Compiled By John Creamer & Stephane K - 01-Sep-06 03:17 AM
"Joining the dots between progressive, tribal, deep and funky house," proclaim the liner notes in bright orange. "It's gonna be an album of other people's records," adds Creamer, "but we're going to make our own records out of it. It's gonna be a big CD of remixes."

With the benefit of hindsight (four years of it, to the day), Creamer's boasts for this iconic DJ mix would sound wildly ambitious even today, while the mix itself falls short of that ambition, albeit in a way that perfectly encapsulates the perpetual shortcomings of Progressive House. That said, this is a deliciously dirty, filthily funky record that party people anywhere can, even now, seriously get down to circa half past midnight on any night.

Its greatest strength has always been the pair of opening tracks, the highly exclusive, delightfully lubricious "Take Me (I'm Yours)" by Peace Division, followed by the hugely effective Sono Pelican Remix of "Can You Feel (What I'm Going Thru)" by Matt Schwartz presents Sholan, with its bobbing, throbbing bassline and rhythms punctuated by subtly menacing tom–toms and timpani in the background. These tracks, and the seamless transition between them, represent both the point of departure and the high point of the mix, although that's not to say that the rest is disappointing. A reappearance by Peace Division later on in CD 1; tracks by Dan K, MV, and 4Toasters among others; and the updated version of Bernard Leon Howard III's trippy groove "Marscarter" (in virtually all of its full glory on CD 2) keep this party hopping all the way to the end.

"Bedrock" by Creamer & K, together with the more cerebral "NuBreed: Satoshi Tomiie" from Global Underground (both released in mid–2002), can be thought of as the joint high water mark for the Progressive House movement in its funky tribal phase, and fully illustrate both the strengths and the fatal limitations of this genre of underground dance music. Shortly after their release, breakbeat went on to supplant the tribal element in Progressive House as NuBreaks opened up dancefloors to an entirely new groove that made people really want to dance without any need for tribal percussive contrivances. It's also worth noting that a less celebrated, one–CD mix, "Nite:Life 12" by the lads at Lexicon Avenue (late 2002), delivered convincingly on the concept of Funky Progressive House with the sort of panache that makes Creamer & K and Tomiie look positively bookish.

In retrospect, the entire funky tribal movement in Progressive House had been fully anticipated two years earlier in a pair of benchmark releases from Global Underground, "GU 17: Danny Tenaglia/London" and "NuBreed: Danny Howells" (2000), which delivered the "funky goods" with a great deal more flair, subtlety, and colorful variation (Tenaglia especially). The two Danny mixes did not by any means go unnoticed, but were largely underappreciated for their prescience: the year 2000 coincided with the height of the Trance era in dance music, just before Trance collapsed under its own flabby exuberance and gave way to the dreary, soul–less, one–dimensional sounds of satanically dark, mechanistically tribal Progressive House that eventually morphed into the styles that inform "Bedrock" by Creamer & K and "NuBreed" by Tomiie. While these latter mixes are perfectly deserving of their iconic status, those by the two Dannys are really the ones that truly deliver on Creamer's promise "to join the dots".

Hed Kandi Records - 28-Aug-06 02:58 AM
I couldn't agree more with the last few comments. To be fair to the Ministry of Sound (libel laws would preclude a frank description here of this label and the individual who founded and still runs it), Hed Kandi started going downhill even before the sale to MoS. The previous corporate owners (Guardian Media Group and, before them, Clear Channel Communications) just didn't have the creative wherewithal to nurture the JazzFM and Hed Kandi businesses, and the sale to MoS, though shocking to many, was an entirely predictable business decision.

The "Serve Chilled" and "Winter Chill" series had gone into precipitous decline by 2004, and by 2005, on the eve of label head Mark Doyle's departure, even the redoubtable "Es Vivé" release had become trash. Fortunately, the Beach House series seems to have survived both Doyle and MoS fairly intact.

The recent release "Beach House" (2006) seems to have maintained some semblance of quality, although the false advertising on the sticky label (which misleadingly states "2XCD FULL 12" MIXES") is a problem, albeit one that's perfectly consistent with the modus operandi of MoS. To be specific, the versions of "The Way You Love Me (Dim's T.S.O.P. Version)" by Ron Hall & The MuthaFunkaz and "Swimming Places (Original Mix)" by Julien Jabre on this unmixed compilation are only 6:39 and 5:37 in length, whereas the real 12" versions (that you will find uncensored on various releases by Defected) come in at 9:14 and 10:43 respectively. Chop off, if you will, the drum intro and outro, but don't call it the "Full 12" Mix" after doing so.

The sad thing is that Mark Doyle and his new Fierce Angel label are doing no better. They have simply continued the lousy track record of his last year at Hed Kandi by issuing trashy compilations and mixes, often rehashing old Hed Kandi material, albeit priced at a discount to Hed Kandi's current crop. Unfortunately for those of us who adored the original "Es Vivé" in 2002, the relationship with the Ibiza hotel seems to have followed Doyle, who has promptly issued a 3XCD mixed compilation this year also called "Es Vivé" to cash in on what's left of the goodwill.

MoS founder Jamie Palumbo and his financial partners at 3i are shrewd operators/investors (the purchase price of Hed Kandi was not disclosed), and so I doubt if Hed Kandi will fold any time soon (the same cannot be said for Fierce Angel). That said, the shady commercial values espoused by Palumbo et al., which don't seem to fool contributors to these pages, will make it very unlikely that Hed Kandi will be receiving my further custom going forward.

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