The Chemical Brothers – Come With Us

Commonly seen as a disappointment by the Chemical Brothers, and it’s easy to tell why.  Exit Planet Dust was good, Dig Your Own Hole was brilliant and then they changed their genre – losing the big beat factor that they were so good at.  Surrender was mediocre, and so is this, dropping the standard.

‘Come With Us’ and ‘It Began in Afrika’ are alright at the right time, but sometimes feel loud and boring.  Lots of the album is just normal – nothing special, setting the trend for the whole thing.  The song to note is ‘The Test’, which uses the right instruments to create the druggy experience Richard Ashcroft of the Verve is singing about. 

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.

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.

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.

The Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole

This is the second of the Brother’s albums, and the last of their Big beat stuff. The album starts with the song that made them famous, ‘Block Rockin Beats’, a pretty solid song worthy of that title. However, there’s some even better stuff on the album. ‘Elektrobank’ is absolute brilliance, and makes you want to go mad and jump round like a lunatic (the neighbours will complain). ‘Lost in the K-Hole’ has an awesome beat, and ‘Where Do I Begin’ and ‘Private Psychedelic Reel’ are epic, especially the latter one.

However, I feel most of the rest of the songs unmentioned just don’t cut it for this album, they’re alright, if they were as good as some of the mentioned ones this album would be the best ever created for me. However, half of the album being pure awesome is better than it all being just decent.

Fatboy Slim – Why Try Harder

Fatboy’s Greatest Hits Album. I somehow got hold of this on amazon.co.uk for £1.90 (the DVD version to boot). It has a nice optimistic feeling to it most of the way, especially with classics such as ‘The Rockafeller Skank’, ‘Praise You’, and ‘I See You Baby’ which I expect most of us have heard of.

The album is optimistic and more of a big-beater, Fatboy knows how to stir up the crowd. He used to do gigs on Brighton beach, police had to get involved of course. If you want a party get this album.

However, there isn’t anything massively brilliant about many of the songs here apart from one or two mentioned and with 18 tracks, rather than having long tracks typical of dance, which I like, it feels like a lot of the tracks here are just fillers. Nonetheless a good album, definitely worth £1.90.