Saint Etienne – The Trip

The strength of this 2004 mix lies in the song selection: obscure, long-forgotten but mostly solid soul (CD1) and folk-pop (CD2) gems from the '60s and '70s that vary in mood but gel together perfectly. This is helped by the flawless ordering of the tracks, the hallmark of a great mix.

The first disc is the mid-paced sound of a '70s house party that flits between the joyously upbeat (Gainsbourg, Page), the sentimental (Scott, Gaye), the dark (Morricone, Schifrin), and the funky (Williams, Sylvers). All the tracks are from the same 10 year period however, and so the trip does feel a bit samey after a while. (8)

The second disc is a chilled out mix of consistently strong folk-pop, each song flowing into the next to maintain a dreamlike atmosphere, the mix working so well that you don't mind the odd weaker track coming in. Stand out tracks for me are the breathtaking "Auntie Aviator" (John & Beverley Martyn), "Autopsy" (Fairport Convention) and "My Silks And Fine Array" (Julie Covington). Highly recommended to anyone interested in beautiful, non-commercial DJing from yesteryear. (9)

WOW, stunning Compilation ! I have a love/hate relation with this strange Compilation / Mix CD Concept. By now i have listned to nearly all of them and i only like a few (or only certain parts from some). Anyway. Be that as it may . The Trips who concentrate on old Rock, Pop, Soul + other Classics work best for me : i liked the Trip by Dirty Vegas a lot, but this goes further. Dirty Vegas used great songs, that were popular back in the days and are well known by most serous long time music lovers - this attempt here concentrates on mostly obscure stuff. No Single Hits . There are only about a handful of songs i knew before.
But Saint Etienne's taste is impeccable and on point. There are a couple tunes that just blow my mind total. The Songs by The Supremes , Fairport Convention or John & Beverly Martyn for example. But the rest here also works like a charm and fits together quite nicely. This Trip actuallly got a soul and a direction - The Feeling of the 60ies / 70ies Love Generation. Any wide open minded music lover will enjoy this DoCD and learn about a whole world of music , unknown to most.

This compilation "The Trip," is quite amazing and repeated listening brings back the experience of being slightly stoned on some kind old brown colombian marijuana that hasn't been around for about 25 years, the songs all being by different artists from the same time period, fit together as if all one album by one group, interspersed with appropriate and unusual soundbites picked carefully I presume by this group "Saint Etienne" which has produced some great CDs my favorite of which has a mod dressed girl holding up a picket sign that came out around 1990, I'm under the influence of this album right now and it is a great "Trip" with no hangover or after affects try it yourself