Hi guys,
I visited my old town of Leeds the other day, I moved away almost 20 years ago! I was amazed and impressed to find one of my favourite record shops from my youth still going.
I bought my fair share of early mix tapes and CD’s from Jumbo Records when I was a teenager so it really brough back memories to see that little had changed. It’s sad to see more and more brilliant independent shops like this disappearing for good. Naturally I had to buy something!
I have a lot of trust in the Balance series, I’ve got a few now and not one of them is less than brilliant (although James Holden’s 005 mix from 2003 is really in a league of it’s own but that’s for another post). My faith in the Balance series is such that I know I’m going to be getting something special on each new release and Guy J’s product is perfectly in keeping with that track record, but…there’s a couple of little buts.
This really is a quality release from Balance, but with two minor faults so let’s deal with those right now:
1. The opening track, eh? hmm, not what I would’ve gone with myself. In my eyes (ears?) a mix should be like a film without pictures or a sound track to an unmade film. The intro really sets the scene for the whole film or in this case the opening track sets the scene for the whole mix and well, this just doesn’t. I want something to grab my attention, to reassure me that I haven’t just flushed 10 quid down the toilet and to be honest track one got me a little worried. If this CD was a book and track one was chapter one, I very much doubt I’d be reading any further, basically in my subjective opinion a mix CD should open like a James Bond film and suck you straight in with a bit of build and action and then quickly get down to business.
2. There’s only one disc! AAAHHHGGGHHH!
Once you over look these two niggles, you’re in for a real treat. I know I should be glad of any release but you just kinda get used to the traditional format of 2 discs, especially with Balance, it’s been like that forever and I just assumed it would be a 2 CD set so I didn’t think to check and I was a bit disapointed to only find one disc.
This is a stroll through a beautiful, intelligent and complex electronic landscape (I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s on the money) with a warm deep sound to it and in track 10. echomen’s ‘Perpetual’ I might have just found my own official ‘sound of summer 2013’. I’ve been following Guy J for a while now, popping up on Hernan Cattaneo’s ‘Sequential Vol.2’ with ‘Agent Blue (v. nice track 🙂 ) in 2007 and on John Digweed’s ‘Structures 2’ on the blissed out electronica mix with ‘Lamur Am mix’ (again v/nice track 🙂 ) and loads of others besides. In fact this mix could be a sister disc to John Digweed’s ‘Structure’s 2’ they seem to share that same glow.
If you’re a fan of the Balance series and/or of Guy J’s work then this is an essential release you can’t be without, or if you’ve never heard of Guy J or Balance before but appreciate a slightly slower, deeper sound to the run of the mill EDM, then I promise you will not be disappointed in this mix. Can’t wait for the next one.
P.S. Dear Guy J, in the very slim chance you see this post, keep up the amazing work, but for f$%* sake would you do me a favour and put out two discs next time!
1. dj yellow & the flowers and sea creatures – NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND guy j remix
2. roger martinez & secret cinema – MENTHOL RAGA guy j remix
3. henry saiz – SANTA FE guy j remix
4. AMP001 – MIGRANTS guy j remix
5. juan deminicis – ONCE UPON A TIME guy j remix
6. navar – PHASES OF GRIEF guy j remix
7. pavel petrov – FEVER guy j remix
w/ dj t featuring cari golden
CITY LIFE accepella | guy j edit
8. lanoiraude – WAITIN’ charles webster’s missive sounds mix | guy j remix
9. dactilar – DAY ONE guy j remix
10. echomen – PERPETUAL guy j remix
11. guy martzur – I’M YOUR COUNTRY guy j remix
12. way out west – KILLA guy j remix
13. robert babicz – DUBA guy j remix
A Renaissance 3CD set from the ‘Worldwide’ series, by three distinctive artists, on paper looks like a good deal but it’s not quite that simple. First of all the packaging is great, an open top box containing 3 individual sleeves which fold out to reveal the disc and additional information and artwork, very nice. After that though things go down hill…
The David Morales CD is very disco/garage as you’d probably expect but I just didn’t get on with it at all. I’d go as far to say that it has a bit of a camp sound to it and despite having maybe two or three good tracks on it that’s probably not enough to save it from never being listened to again! This is the worst Renaissance disc I’ve ever heard!
Dave Seaman comes to the rescue with disc 2 and things begin to look up. Not Dave’s best mix but still a good listen with enough interesting moments to keep you hooked throughout I had a feeling of returning to familiar territory after an hour of Morales. It’s a good mix, but that’s it, just ‘good’. You begin to expect more from the top names in the industry and this just isn’t quite there somehow.
The real star of the show is disc 3 by BT, I wasn’t expecting this mix to be as good as it is but it really saves this 3CD set from completely bombing. It would’ve made an excellent stand alone release but as it is here it feels like it’s carrying the other two along. Subphonics ‘Friendly Fire’ and Kaistars ‘The Promethean Groove’ really standout, ahhh the balance has been restored.
I don’t like writing negative reviews as I love the music and the people who make it but occasionally along comes a clanger and unfortunately this is one, get the BT mix if you can download it and maybe the Seaman mix if you like his stuff but the Morales mix I can’t recommend.
CD1 David Morales
1. Bini & Martini featuring Romina Johnson – Dancin’ With You
2. Preluxe featuring Clive Griffin – You’re The One For Me (Hustlers Convention Mix)
3. State Of Mind – Take Control (M&S Epic Klub Mix)
4. Hustlers Convention – Turn It Up (DJ Maurizio Mix)
5. Doug Willis – Feel The Funk
6. East West Connection – East West Club
7. The Heclectic featuring Latasha P. Jordan – Found A Cure (D’Ambrosio Classic Club Mix)
8. Mike Delgado presents The Upstairs Lounge – Byrd Man’s Revenge
9. Eddie Amador – House Music (The Beats Mix)
10. The New Hippie Movement featuring Bishop – What A Feeling (Cevin’s Feelin’ The Power Mix)
11. Wamdue Project – Where Do We Go? (Armands’ Last Hustle In Paris Mix)
12. Unkowledge presents Love Juice – Get On Up (Club Mix)
13. Bobby D’Ambrosio featuring Michelle Weeks – The Day (Classic Club Mix)
14. Kerri Chandler – Movin’ In
CD2 Dave Seaman
1. Banco De Gaia – Drunk As A Monk (Rabbit In The Moon Mix)
2. Danny Tenaglia – Elements – The Voice
3. Lo-Fidelity Allstars – Vision Incision (Incision In The Midfield Mix)
4. Dominion – Creation (Dub)
5. Dolls Head – It’s Over It’s Under (Brothers In Rhythm Mix)
6. Fifty-Fifty – Tonight I’m Dreaming
7. Freefall featuring Jan Johnston – Skydive
8. Hydro – Liquid Prayers (Starecase’s Aquabatics Mix)
9. Hybrid – Theme From Wide Angle
10. Garbage – Special (Brothers In Rhthym Mix)
11. Howie B – Angels Go Bald (Orginal Mix)
12. DJ Shadow – High Noon
CD3 BT
1. 2 Phat C**ts – Ride (Space Invaders Mix)
2. Deep Dish – Summer’s Over (Ali’s Club Mix)
3. Invisible Scream – Invisible
4. Hybrid – Snyper
5. Silicon Valley Def Stars – Believer (Thursday Club Mix)
6. Morgan King – I’m Free (William Orbit Mix)
7. DJ Rap – Bad Girl (BT Mix)
8. The Crystal Method – Coming Back (Light Mix Dub)
9. Subphonic – Friendly Fire
10. Kaistar – The Promethean Groove
11. Amoeba Assassin – Piledriver (The Hurricane Mix)
12. BT – Godspeed
Drew Neumann, Eye Spy, Ears Only: Confidential Review
This CD is the soundtrack to the awesome original animated short series ‘Aeon Flux’ which blew me away in ’92 on BBC Two’s ‘Liquid Television’. A little bit of an outsider in the company of the usual mix CD’s I post about but this is so good it had to be included. It’s full on electronic theme and background music from the show and it just oozes atmosphere and tension.
The whole CD has a very distinct sound, all made from the same group of electronic synth instruments but each track has it’s own character and the range of styles used varies widely while all still fitting together at the same time.
If you’re like me and are into film/theme music and you can track a copy down then I would definitely recommend it for you even if you haven’t seen the show as there really isn’t anything else out there quite like it. Very clever stuff.
‘Hero’s’ is one of my favourite tracks on here, there’s a lot going on, it tells it’s own story and is from one of what I believe to be one of the best episodes. Just playing the music back I can see the whole episode played back in my mind, I must have watched it like 50 times so no wonder really!
Disc 1 is full of mainly shorter tracks with the odd longer example included, disc 2 is mainly the longer tracks running at around 12 minutes each.
This release was my very first online purchase, ever!
Disc 1
1. Intro
2. Ultimate AF
3. Train Station
4. Monican Jam
5. The Torturer
6. Train Cars
7. Breen Lounge Lizard
8. Computera
9. Heroes (Excerpt)
10. Marche
11. Errors Of The Night
12. Gravity
13. Alien Leisure
14. The Dark Prison
15. Phobia Suite
16. The Dictator’s Office
17. Demigods
18. Windtunnel
19. Memory Lapse
Disc 2
1. Choice
2. Clones
3. Paradise
4. The Tragedy Of Flight
5. Underwater Suite
6. Time Pretzel Paradox
7. Closure
Another much anticipated release for me by Nick Warren, regular followers may have seen the count down timer I had running up to the release of this over on the left column, it takes quite a lot to get me excited usually but for this I was literally counting the days!
I’m going to let you all into a little secret now, Nick Warren’s music is the real reason I started Electronica Restoration, it was originally going to be called something else and be just about his releases. I figured that would be a nice little project to work on but then it grew and grew in my mind until it became what you see before you now.
I told you I found some old boxes in my garage with some CD’s missing, what I didn’t tell you was the panic and horror of realising that, amongst others it was Nick warren’s Global Underground #28 Shanghai and Global Underground #24 Reykjavik that were missing! They eventually turned up, thankfully, as even the second hand prices on those two are astronomical!
With this release Nick Warren has put something together which is truly sublime. Disc 1 is slow and smooth, this moves between chill out and blissed out, there are some incredible atmospheres and soundscapes on here Tripswitch’s ‘Still Seas’ being my pick a real shame it’s only 1:36 long, also DFRNT’s El Spirito has that ‘otherness’ sound to it that fits well here. James Munro’s ‘Ambientworkx7’ is another favourite of mine from this set. This is a lock the front door, lights off, headphones on disc for sure!
Disc 2 changes direction slightly into a more traditional dance mix but keeps the quality and the ‘feel’ of the first disc, the two definitely compliment each other. SimpliCity’s ‘Singing Or Speaking’ stands out for me, there’s a quote in that track that you should recognise, I won’t spoil it for you though. Sam Waller’s ‘I Pointi Pointi’, David Calo’s ‘Moving To Myself’ has a warm and deeply hypnotic quality to it, Tom Glass’s ‘Welcome To The Sun’ is probably my most listened to track across both CD’s. The back end of Disc 2 melds back into the familiar territory of progressive house with some really stunning tracks, which after the already excellent track selection is an added bonus.
My only regret with this release is that I didn’t buy it through Renaissance directly and so missed out on a signed copy! If only Id’ve known! Nevermind, there’s always next time.
Anyway, enough hero worshiping for one review I think, there’s only one course of action for you to take now, buy it, play it, love it!
Disc 1
1. Aurtas – Introduction
2. DFRNT – Nocturn Part 1 (feat. Annabelle Guilhem)
3. Tripswitch – Still Seas
4. Pedro Aguia – The Voices In My Head
5. I Awake – Labryinth
6. SCSI-9 – Ellsworth Land
7. DFRNT – El Spirito (Beatless Version)
8. Circular – City Pulse
9. Cell – Take Off
10. Terje Seather – Oia
11. Nick Warren – Buenos Aires (Luis Bondio Dub)
12. Trip Switch – Sick Teckers
13. Nick Warren – Devil’s Elbow
14. Excession – Amblight
15. Audioglider – Summer Rainstorm
16. Levente – Naja Haje (Amibient Mix)
17. Bubble Club – The Goddess
18. James Munro – Ambientworkx7
19. Yppah – Blue Schwinn
Disc 2
1. Levente – Tunneling
2. Cristian R – Deimos
3. Darren Flecta – In Moments
4. Darin Epsilon – Shine The Light
5. Levente – Csillagok
6. SimpliCity – Singing Or Speaking
7. Doomwork – All About
8. Sam Waller – I Pointi Pointi
9. Cesar Lombardi and Luis Bondio – Toro
10. David Calo – Moving To Myself
11. Tom Glass – Welcome To The Sun
12. Nicholas Ruiz and Marko Zalezar – Choir
13. Miraculum – Constellation
14. Verche – Corals
This Two CD set had all the hall marks of a promising pair of mixes, cool packaging, techy looking graphics, it’s Laurent Garnier and it’s on the REACT label. So why I didn’t like it is beyond me, even more confusing is I haven’t heard this for 15 years, I know it’s one of my least listened to CD’s (both discs barely have a single scratch between them!) but I’ve just listened to the whole thing to write this post and do you know what? It’s actually very good!
My musical tastes must have changed over the years because I distinctly remember being quite disappointed with this when I originally got it. It is a little mellow (read slow), with a jazzy if not minimalist tech sound it’s quite dark too. There aren’t really any stand out tracks to speak of and even if there were it would be very difficult to tell you what they are because each mix is on one track! Good luck skipping forward to your favourite bit 36 mins in. If you’re going to create a digital replacement for cassette tape why the hell would you exclude one of the main benefits of this format!
Despite it being a hidden gem in my collection I personally can’t see me dancing to most of what’s on here, I probably would be able to find something better to drive to aswell, but this is a near perfect CD for those times when you’re knocking about the house and you want some music on but don’t quite know what. It will be getting more play time from now on.
Mix One
1. Jungle Wonz – The Jungle
2. Funky People Presents The Blaze Tracks EP – Moonwalk
3. Green Velvet – Help Me
4. Braxton Holmes Presents John Redman – People Everyday (We Just Wanna Be Free)
5. A.J. Sound – Basemental
6. Broccoli Brothers – Ruhrschnellweg
7. Chaser – Sides Of Iron
8. 6k – Tomorrow Is The First Day
9. Fierce Ruling Diva – You Gotta Believe
10 Neil Landstumm – Takks (From Index Man EP)
11. DJ Deeon – House O Matic
12. Robert Armani – Ambulance
13. Speaker – Speaker (High Mix)
14. Stephan Brown – Gas Mask
15. Scan X – Bleu
16. Kosmic Messenger – Flash
17. K-Hand – XTC (From Groove EP)
18. Aux 88 – Bytes (1. Technosis 2. Tales From The Bass Side)
Mix 2
1. Laurent Garnier – The Force
2. 3MB Feat. Juan Atkins – Die Kosmischen Kuriere
3. Three – Let It Go
4. Teste – The Wipe
5. Big Foot Part 2 – All The Way In
6. Ration – Conflexx
7. Club MCM – Mind Control Music
8. The Purpose Maker – Reverting
9. Time Blind – Tre Qua
10. DJ SHufflemaster – Man-Me
11. Essit Musique – Essit Musique 1
12. Bobby Konders – Nervous Acid
13. Choice – Acid Eiffel
14. Rhythem is Rhythem – Beyond The Dance (Cult Mix)
15. Aphex Twin – ICCT Hedral (Phillip Glass Orchestration)
In the early 90’s I’d heard some of William Orbit’s tracks on compilations and to me his name quickly came to mean quality and originality. I had a version of ‘Water From A Vine Leaf’ on the Techno Nights/Ambient Dawn compilation but didn’t actually possess anything else. This is another CD I wished I’ve found years ago, it’s in its 20th year and still sounds very impressive. The whole CD has an organic ambient sound in the same vein as Future Sound Of London or Orbital, drifting acoustic and electronic melodies over deep bass, it really has to be one of the best electronic albums out there.
Obviously ‘Water From A Vine Leaf’ is going to get the most attention on here which I don’t want to focus on too much because it’s probably William Orbit’s most well known track but that aside the CD is crammed with well thought out and memorable tracks, including:
A Touch Of the Night, Bass guitar and classic Orbit keyboard sounds
The Story Of Light, a bright but down tempo piano track
A Hazy Shade Of Random, tribal/ethnic sounding wind instruments over moody synth contrasting with clean piano
The Monkey King, atmospheric and dark.
…but c’mon ‘Water from A Vine Leaf’ is still my favourite!
If I had to choose a track to drop it would be ‘Harry Flowers’ but really this is a CD well filled with top quality work, I’ve already received the follow up album to this one ‘Hinterland’ which I’ll be reviewing in the next few weeks but from what I’ve listened to so far it’s just as good.
Electronica Restoration Gold Star CD!
1. Water From A Vine Leaf
2. Into The Paradise
3. Time To Get Wize
4. Harry Flowers
5. A Touch Of The Night
6. The Story Of Light
7. Gringatcho Demento
8. A Hazy Shade Of Random
9. Best Friend, Paranoia
10. The Monkey King
11. Deus Ex Machina
12. Water Babies
If someone had told me when I started this blog that I would still be posting over the Christmas holidays I wouldn’t have believed them. I thought I’d spend a couple of months AT THE MOST posting pics and listings of my old music and that would be that but here I am 5 months in and I’ve only posted around 10% of what I’ve got and because of this blog I’m buying more music than ever before! Thing is, I’m loving it!
Wasn’t Christmas was last week?
I was just sitting down ready to put a new post out and within seconds of logging into word press the postie dropped these three through my door, there’s more on the way too and I’ve just pre ordered Nick Warren’s new Renaissance Masters Series CD due out at the end of January.
The DJ Culture 3 CD set is THE comp I’ve been looking for, for literally 17 years! I never owned it but was lent a copy in ’95 it’s the only disc I’ve ever come across The Sunday Club’s ‘Paladian Dawn’ which is my favourite track of aaaallllll timmme! Anyway I need to live with it for a week or two get to know the discs and I’ll review it then but from memory it’s all good.
In 2013 I’m aiming to do two reviews a week but work and life do intrude so I’ll try my best. I hope you’re all enjoying my posts there’s some good stuff coming next year, if you have any suggestions or would like to guest review with one of your own favourites let me know!
Have a great new year and I’ll see you on the other side.
Dan
It can be easy to over look game sound tracks, especially if you’re not that into gaming but the WipeOut sound track is better than a lot of regular compilation albums (experience talking!). The artist list speaks for itself and many of the tracks aren’t the usual radio edits so there’s some special stuff on here. All the tracks share the same theme of dirty electro with heavy bass, but vary nicely across the genres of fast paced techno into slower breakbeat examples. From Underworld’s relentless ‘Tin There’ to Daft Punk’s laid back ‘Musique’ this disc is a perfect example of how great electronica can be when it’s done right.
This has got me looking into other game sound tracks that I might have over looked myself, including the other WipeOut comps’ bet there are a few that are worth a shot.
I hadn’t heard this disc for probably over ten years but I’m glad I rediscovered it, THE track for me is Orbital’s ‘P.E.T.R.O.L.’ it has this tense paranoia about it, hard to convey with words but it seems to me at least to be the most fitting track for the game.
1. The Future Sound Of London – We Have Explosive
2. Fluke – Atom Bomb
3. The Chemical Brothers – Loops Of Fury
4. Underworld – Tin There
5. Photek – The Third Sequence
6. The Chemical Brothers – Leave Home (Underworld Mix 1)
7. The Future Sound Of London – We Have Explosive (Herd Killing)
8. Prodigy – Fire Starter (Instrumental)
9. Fluke – V Six
10. Daft Punk – Musique
11. Source Direct – 2097
12. Photek – Titan
13. Orbital – Petrol
14. Leftfield – Afro Ride
Rocky & Diesel
Spotted this in the now long time defunked Andy’s Records, a cheap buy for two mix CD’s. First up in the Rocky & Diesel mix, it’s my least listened to JDJ CD, I never quite took to it like the others although it’s a good listen it has quite an underground deep sound kinda Detroit style. It’s proper house music but bordering on too heavy for me it’s all beat and bass (where are the melodies!) but I would say it’s still a classic mix despite that. The most memorable track for me is track 8. House Is A Feeling which did the rounds on ton of mix tapes at the time but I think this might be the only digital version of it that I have.
PM Dawn and Shakespears Sister are the two outsiders on this mix, the Shakespears Sisiter track is surprisingly good (typing that just felt plain wrong, but it stands).
Jay Chappell’s Ultimate Beach Party
This is much more my cuppa tea, I totally ‘get it’. I was swayed into buying this set because I have Jay Chappell’s Ultimate House Party which is *amazing*, oh hang on, I did have Ultimate House Party but where the hell is it? Ah I remember it suffered the same fate as many other CD’s I had… I lent it to someone.
Nevermind, zoverstocks to the rescue again and who knows it might even be my original copy that works it’s way back to me, it’s on order but this close to Christmas who knows when it’ll land on the mat. Anyway Ultimate Beach Party is a great blend of house tracks with Party being the operative word, equally good in the car too. There’s definitely more good tracks than bad, lots of piano house which my regular readers will know I love!
From the opening track intro to the fade out the whole CD is a corker. Track 5. Dagnabit and track 6. Right Here Right Now are class but then so is track 2. Prooot, and the Confusion Groove Mix of Nomad’s Devotion and Track 9. Bassin’ Rhythm. The list goes on (foxforce five makes an appearance! love it!), it’s a CD full of colourful sounds and beats that deserves to have the ‘party’ stamp on it. Can’t wait for the postie to drop Ultimate House Party because that’s even better!
You’ll struggle to find these two in a set together like this but separately you could dig up second hand copies without too much effort and it would be worth it.
Rocky & Diesel
1. Tunnel Vision – Aphrohead
2. Come Back – DC Depressed
3. Future – Mr Monday
4. Catch A Groove – Marshall’s Party feat. Killer T
5. I Got The Music – Maurice Joshua
6. Triptonite – East 28 Boyz
7. House Music Machine – Darkside
8. House Is A Feeling – Sunday School
9. Feelings Are Here To Stay – Sounds Unseen
10. If You Should Need A Friend – Fire Island
11. Dark Corners – Swag
12. A Watchers Point Of View – PM Dawn (Don’t Cha Think) (Melody Mix)
13. Love Vs. Hate – League Of Sinners
14. Let’s Get Ready To Rumble – DJ Giovanni
15. Black Sky – Shakespears Sister (Dub Extravaganza Part 2)
16. Colour Of My Skin – Swing 52 (Swing To The Second Colour Mix)
17. Manhattan Anthem – East Village Loft Society (feat. Martin Passey)
18. Thank You – Chugger (Chuggles Revenge) (Lopez In Leeds Edit)
19. Let’s Get Horny – Hi Voltage
20. Garden Of Earthly Delights – D-Note
Jay Chappell Ultimate Beach Party
1. Change – Daphne (Jimmy Gomez Cappacino Dub)
2. Prooot – Prooot (Ratcliffe’s Dub)
3. Any Kind Of Vision – Bit Machine feat. Karen Jones (Kamasutra Dub Mix)
4. Can We Live? feat. Ce Ce Rogers – Jestofunk (Joke Remix)
5. Dagnabit – Sylvester Sneakley (Original Flavour)
6. Right Here Right Now – Disco Citizens (CJ Scott Mix)
7. There Will Come A Day – The Absolute (Black Lozenge Mix)
8. Devotion – Nomad (Confusion Groove Mix)
9. Bassin’ Rhythm – Groovin System (PV Trax Mix)
10. Jazz From The Heart – 24hr Experience
11. Silver – Pure Silver
12. Head On – The Head Nodding Society (Pretty People Work)
13. Give Me Luv – Alcatraz
14. Foxforce Five – Chris & James (Big C’s Break Of Dawn Mix)
15. Mahogany Roots – Hardfloor (Original Mix)
16. So Damn Tuff – Boomerang
17. Dynamics – Squelch (Daydreemer’s Darkhappy Remix)
Electronica Restoration 