Mat Zo – Damage Control

My copy has an error in the middle of The Sky, as if the disc was missing a small chunk of song and just plays a crashing of noise. They sent me a replacement and it has the error in the exact same spot. Anyone else with this issue, it would be good to hear. None of my other records had any issues like this.

One of the coolest releases on Anjuna ever and I really like the way the vinyl looks.
Great packaging, great blue & red colours and even the black blob is quite unique.

Ok, so SOMEHOW, there are still copies of this available on Anjuna, I have no idea how, I'm amazed they haven't been snapped up before release day. The packaging and vinyl colour is done extremely well, the spot gloss on the cover elevates it. It's the bonus tracks and remixes though as to why this is so essential in a collection. My advice, grab it NOW while you still can.
And ignore the dismissive reviews on the original album, those are the ones who think music and artists should never evolve, this is a great album and paved the way for Mat to branch into other areas.

This has been repressed. Don't pay these crazy high prices.

This album sums up everything what is wrong in current electronic music scene. Most of the tracks have some nice ideas but that's all. Like so many other producers, Mat Zo now refuses to produce tracks "for the floor", that means tracks with a DJ-friendly intro and or outro, tracks that are longer than 4 minutes or faster than 118bpm. It feels like he refuses to make House or at least something you can work with on a floor.

As user sayeh wrote, "EZ" and "Hurricane" are interesting tracks here, but why the hell are they so short? "Only For You" is good too, but way too slow, the tempo doesn't fit the style here. "Easy" has the right tempo and is not too short, but unfortunately it is annoying as the SHM stuff. "The Sky" is my personal favourite, it's the only track I can imagine to integrate into a set.

I don't care about the other, mostly downtempo, pseudo-Soul/Disco or Dubstep tracks, it is like Mat Zo wants to tell us, "hey, I can write true songs, too!", but unfortunately they are nothing really new or original and were better written in the 70s or at least by Daft Punk, or some Dubstep producers. In other words: If I want to listen to Dubstep, I buy a Dubstep album, same for Disco, Soul etc. If I want to listen to Mat Zo, I want something for the floor, some housy and some trancy melodies. Of course, there is nothing wrong with slower tracks. But hey, there used to be a whole chill/ambient subgenre in the Trance/Progressive scene, so why not put something like this on the album ("Superman Lost" is the sole exception here.)

What the hell is going on with those low ratings? Damage Control is one of the greatest albums in electronic music at the moment. Such a colourful spectrum of sounds, as the album cover shows, but still got that "Mat Zo signature" sound in them. I just don't care about "it's not trance, Mat sold himself out" and other stupid snob blahblahs.. Come on people, open your eyes, stucking at only one thing is a real waste of time. Be happy that Mat didn't pick up that plastic SHM-bigroom sound...