Faithless – Sunday 8pm

Interesting CD that I was inclined to buy in HMV the other day. They charge very high prices, and this just happened to be £4 (and was rated rather well I remember) along with Leftfield – Leftism (WTH? That’s the best one there!)

Unfortunately some parts of the album are pretty poor. I can see where it’s going, it’s a bit like Massive Attack, and it seems more spiritual and indulging. There are one or two brilliant tracks, however, that make up for the lacking, such as God is a DJ which feels… different than other music.

The Crystal Method – Vegas

This is big in America, not so much in UK. It’s a strong album, with a nice bassy techno sound. Great music to drive to/walk to etc. A lot of the tracks sound similar which joins them together better than the Chemical Brothers ever did it but it’s the main problem with the album, there’s not a lot of variation in the music.

“High Roller” is a pulsey, acid track and it’s my favourite on there. ‘Coming Back’ has some creepy female vocals on it as do a few others, but mostly its the same male voice throughout the album. I like this album but it’s not perfect, and doesn’t even come close to Sasha’s work for me since the work isn’t varied enough.

Best Dance Music

Hunting for the best dance music? Look no further! I have experience here and only list the very best.

Sasha and John Digweed – Northern Exposure 1 (Best ambient music ever. You’ll have some trouble getting hold of it though.)

Sasha – Global Underground 9 San Francisco (The trance mix which has the best power to play with your emotions)

Hybrid – Wider Angle (Combines classical music and dance – beautiful)

Leftfield – Leftism (What a delicate atmosphere.)

Sasha – Global Underground 13 Ibiza (Another great mix from Sasha, with some awesome tracks!)

Chill Out – KLF (Just chill out)

Orbital – In Sides (Happy, sad, dark, this CD moves through them all!)

Music for the Jilted Generation – The Prodigy (Rave, rave)

Total Euphoria – Dave Pearce (Dance anthems, if you feel in the mood.)

Massive Attack – Mezzanine (Dark, dark, dark. Depressive!)

Sasha and John Digweed – Northern Exposure 2 (Nothing like number 1, but some tracks are awesome)

Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman (A bit more random, but classic from 1994)

Future Sound of London – Lifeforms (Pure ambience – I thought I was in a rainforest!)

Paul Van Dyk – Out There and Back (Sounds of hope)

Now why did I choose these? The ATMOSPHERE. It’s rarely the case that a few brilliant tracks (cough Chemical Brothers) make a great album, the reason why these are all good is the whole album leaves you changed. It’s the atmosphere of them, whether it’s dark, uplifting, ambient. Buy one and see.

Global Underground 13 – Sasha in Ibiza

Yet another brilliant mix from Global Underground.  It goes without saying, both discs are flawless.  At first I preferred Disc 2 but I began to realise it was pretty cheesy.  Disc 1 is deeper – it starts off funky and as you move on it gets deeper and darker.

So as you open the case, again you feel it’s a bargain.  2CD’s, loads of artist info to read inside, and quality music for under £5 at amazon.co.uk.  I was a bit surprised to find a dude wearing a UK shirt swearing at me, probably just the DJ trying to keep on his cool guy act.

As stated Disc 1 starts the night with some slow, pulsing beats, getting more powerful until its all over.  Onto Disc 2 with some awesome Breakbeat that teaches you some maths ‘Fibonacci Sequence’, one of Sasha’s best tracks ever, ‘Xpander’, and you feel really in it by the time you get to the last few tracks, with some brilliant Bedrock to end it.  The only downside is that it doesn’t quite beat Sasha in San Francisco, but not much can beat that anyway.  They’re two completely different CDs.

Why is dance music so good?

Yes, well why do I like it so much. It’s a shame no-one else does (or seems to).

• In the best dance music, the atmosphere is so intense it’s beautiful (Hybrid), emotional – not EMO! (Sasha), dark (Massive Attack)
• As above there are so many subgenres to choose from  whether you want rave music, ambient music, it’s got it all.
• There’s much more thought put into it than a riff and lyrics
• Live performances are awesome

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.

Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman

From the opening pulses of ‘Dark and Long’ through the wonderful melody of ‘Dirty Epic’ and the instant classic ‘Cowgirl, you can be assured of a brilliant experience.One of the few dance albums ever made that you won’t find yourself pushing the ’skip’ button, every song is enjoyable and different from each other.

It’s also an album that you can listen to, as well as dance to, actually I find it more enjoyable just to listen to it. There are so many beautiful sounds and textures, it’s good to take time out to appreciate the amount of work that has gone into this album.

This album is a shining light for the techno genre, it shows that not all techno is boring and loud. An album to savour – Jay MC

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 Chemical Brothers – We Are The Night

This is the most recent of the Brother’s albums, I felt I had to write about them again as Ed Simons dumped girlfriend Lily Allen (celebrity relationships never last anyway). Back to the point, this album is definitely the worst they’ve ever produced. Asides from ‘Burst Generator’, ‘Das Spiegel’ and ‘Saturate’ the track listing isn’t anything special.

But hell, ‘Burst Generator’ makes up for it. Possibly the best song they’ve ever created, it’s a futuristic space-ish song using the best guitar sound ever for the choruses. The rest of the time is a huge tension buildup to the awesome-sounding choruses. Better download this song than buy the whole album…

In summary, this album is a big disappointment since the Brothers usually bring out brilliant albums. I hate to criticise them, being one of my favourite artists, but for this album just pick off the best tracks and ‘The Salmon Dance’ if you think some guy singing about a salmon and swearing is funny.

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.