Sasha – Invol2ver

Since I loved the dreamstate that the original Involver could put me into, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the long awaited and cleverly named In(vol2)ver.  It begins much like the original with a ‘Grand National’ in ‘You are the worst thing in the world’.  I was slightly disappointed as the mix slowed down a bit from there and nothing much happened in the next few tracks, but it picks up again at Charlie May’s Midnight.  The Felix Da Housecat moment happens again with ‘Destroy Everything You Touch’ with some horrible grating vocals and you would’ve thought Sasha had learned from the original but all is redeemed when M83’s ‘Coleurs’ comes on, a brilliant track.  The mix ends well with the also fantastic ‘Three Little Piggies’ and The Engineers.

Overall, I’m just a little disappointed.  Involver 1 was amazing but 2 is very different, being electronic and boring in places to equal the original.  However, it still has a great ‘white’ and neutral dreamy feeling to it that can hypnotize you like the original and I highly recommend this mix. 8/10

Shpongle – Tales of the Inexpressible

I haven’t written here for ages and since I have ordered many more CDs and explored many more artists!  Shpongle is just one of them.  An amazing blend of psychedelic trance and world music, the album begins with Dorset Perception, an awesome, fast, jungly track that you will find on mix albums such as Sasha’s Involver.  The album slows down afterwards and becomes very random and is perfect for entering a certain state of mind.  The amount of samples and strange atmosphere on the album makes it one of a kind, except the first of their albums, ‘Are You Shpongled?’.  9/10

Dreadzone – Second Light

I bought this purely from the recommendation of members of amazon.co.uk, as usual.

It’s different. Different, in an amazing way. With old English samples, accordions and all sorts of instruments it feels familiar and peaceful. According to minister-of-dub of amazon.co.uk:

Second Light is like a spliff – fuelled trek across the English Countryside, taking in caves, oceans and sailors (could just be me!)with Mr. Kipling at your side. Theres an even more spititual feel about this album; it is so chilled out it just fills you with a sense of peace and well being.

I agree, it’s a beautiful album and definitely worth it if you like something very different from any dance you’ve heard before!

My rating: 4/5

Amazon rating: 5/5

Andy Hunter – Life

Yes, it’s Christian dance music, but don’t let that put you off at all. This is a classy album. In the words of Flap Jackson from Amazon:

Fact: The British like to dance.
Fact: This album is so pumped with adrenaline, it’s bad to drive to this. You’ll find yourself doing 100 MPH. Yes, it’s that good. “Open My Eyes” is pure adrenaline, say goodbye to coffee, because this is a pure action song. You’d expect it to be played in huge action movie scene, like a high-speed car chase.

“Lifelight” is a song that actually has lyrics, but that doesn’t hinder the song, as it’s still a great dance song, and it could fit right in with the club scene. The rest of the album is filled with great beats, and cool vibes. Overall, a great unique album for the Christian music industry. This album is so cool on every level, even Andy Hunter’s name sounds totally cool. I just wish more people could hear him. So try it out, but don’t drive to it. You’ll get a ticket.

Basically, it’s very energetic, some of the best hardcore dance you’ll get.

Air – Moon Safari

Bought this on the recommendation of those on Amazon, who you can usually trust. It’s a chillout CD from French band Air.

It’s quite a decent CD. ‘La Femme d’Argent’ is a very nice sounding chill song, but it runs into ‘Sexy Boy’, which isn’t. The robotic voice is annoying, and the CD feels annoyingly long even though it’s one of the shortest I have, because all the songs are the same.

Let’s leave it to Gustav on Amazon to explain the rest:

Moon Safari gets a bit of praise and claim to be the best Air album. I honestly cannot tell why. There is only two or three songs on here worth listening to and one is basically a continuation of the other.

“La femme d’argent” – a fantastic track. Its the only song on this cd worth listening to.
“Sexy Boy” – a terrible, horrible, disgusting track. Every time it starts I hit the Next button. I can’t stand this song.

“All I Need” – bores me to tears.
“Kelly Watch The Stars” – tries to be a good song but doesn’t quite make it.
“Talisman” – This one is more a “La femme d’argent” part 2 so its good as well.
“Remember” – This one tries to be good too. Its slightly better than “Kelly Watch The Stars”
“You Make It Easy” – another continuation. This time it’s “All I Need” part 2. Still bores me to tears.
“Ce matin-là” – On the level of “Kelly Watch The Stars.”
“New Star In The Sky” – listen to this on as well. Its very good.
“Le voyage de Penelope” – On the level of “Remember”

Leftfield – Leftism

Since I’ve mentioned this album a few times, recently in Faithless – Sunday 8PM, I decided it was time to review.  Commonly seen as the best British dance album ever, its the atmopshere that holds this together.  Somehow the greeny ambient colour on the cover art explains the delicate, ‘green’ atmosphere throughout the album.

‘Release the Pressure’ is deep and spiritual, ‘Afro-Left’ energetic and powerful, ‘Melt’ beautiful, ‘Song of Life’ again beautiful – I have something to say about every song, since though they change they are all good and feel the same, like a certain emotion.  Top album, and very easy to get hold of. 

Sasha – Global Underground 9: San Franisco

This has slowly climbed up my list of favourite CD’s, and reached the top. It’s really got me into Sasha’s stuff and the Global Underground series. It’s a mix album, so always peaceful, and a total sea of emotions all the way. I suggest you listen to it on holiday, it’s the best ‘holiday’ style music I have. I’m off to buy some more Global Underground and Sasha CD’s, this is now the music I love. Just one seamless mix. The CD says you’re likely to get emotional having listening to Sasha live which I thought was a bit odd at first but now I understand.  ‘Some call it trance.  I call it magic’ his slogan.

‘Words cannot describe the genius involved in this. The flow of music from Classified Project – Ressurection into Medway – The Ressurection is enough to reduce me to tears.

This album is mindblowing, all I can say is that if you dont own it, you thought GU 016 was the best GU, just buy this and be blown away. It’s so much greater than the sum of its component tracks. In no other album I own has the actual way the tracks are mixed together had such a large effect.

Another section that stands out is the intro into CD2 and the following Track Narcotikblue – when you hear the tom-toms and then “Be aware of every Sound.. Sound.. Sound…” and the bass part hits in, it will put the hugest grin on your face, you will replay it over and over again in wonderment.’ – Miles JC

Very much agreed, love it. So do 18 other people just on co.uk.

Massive Attack – Mezzanine

Mezzanine is viewed as the highest point of Massive Attack’s career, and it certainly deserves the title. It has recieved brilliant reviews all round, notably from Rolling Stone who placed it on their list of all time top 500 albums. The public on Amazon also love Mezzanine.

So let’s look at the tracks. ‘Angel’ is a rocky, slightly dissonant opening to the album, which really helps set the uneasy atmosphere to the album. ‘Risingson’ and ‘Inertia Creeps’ follow the same pattern, with ‘Teardrop’, arguably the best Massive Attack ever, is a great chill out song but still slightly on edge like the others. I won’t bother with the other tracks, since they generally follow the same pattern, just they aren’t as popular or amazing as the mentioned songs, hence being put farther up the album, but they don’t degrade the quality of the album at all.

Interestingly enough, I was tempted to give this album less stars, because often there are the same band members on the vocals, which makes parts of the album tedious and feel repetitive. Also note Massive Attack, according to Wikipedia, stole someone’s sound sample in their ‘Black Milk’ song. However, the album is too good to get anything less than

The Future Sound of London – Lifeforms

Beautiful 2CD ambient album, one of the best of the genre. It’s one of those albums when you can’t remember the names of certain tracks, it’s just seamless background music that takes you to a different place. It whisks you from rainforests to caves with several appropriate track names to match. The most amazing thing is it’s from 1994. Obviously an experimental music band as advanced as this one often sound ahead of their time, and this album is no exception.

The Future Sound of London are still going, but I would strongly recommend this album (best they’ve ever done). It’s a complete masterpiece.