Various - Disco Kandi 05.04

Hed Kandi: 2004

Right, don't need to get deep into this one. I've talked plenty about Hed Kandi, its various compilation series, the rise, the buy-out, the fall, the continued existence. Heck, I've already dabbled in their disco series twice now, so no need to get more detailed about something as self-explanatory as this.

Eh, before I talk the music, you want to know where Disco Kandi 05.04 falls on the grand timescale of Hed Kandi's lifespan? Oh, somewhere in the middle. I think this was one of the last before Ministry Of Sound came along, doing away with the numerical titles after. Disco Kandi became just another yearly DJ mix series, the first track of this new direction a remix of Fedde Le Grand's Put Your Hands Up For Detroit. As if you needed a more perfect example of Hed Kandi's brand losing the plot under the Ministry's 'guidance'.

Not that everything was flying high while still under Mark Doyle's supervision. Even here, one can sense a bit of struggle in filling out two CDs worth of up-front disco leaning house music. Change was unavoidable by the year 2004, most producers chasing that lucrative 'electro' craze, leaving things like 'funk' and 'soul' behind. There were hold-outs, of course, with many regular Kandi contributors featured across these two CDs. The days of finding hot up-and-comers were long gone though, few future hits makers found on Disco Kandi 05.04.

As always, disc one gives us the mid-tempo garage, exuberant Latin, and soulful side of house, with names like StoneBridge, Basement Jaxx, Funkstar De Luxe, and Joey Negro (as The Sunburst Band here) keeping things in familiar Hed Kandi territory. There's also that Axwell kid doing a remix on Mambana's Felicidad, but is more of a standard, loopy French house rub and anything 'Swedish'. The only track I recognize from elsewhere is Seamus Haji's go with Belezamusica's Running Away, though I can't help but think this is a remix of a cover? There's a fair bit of that going on between these two discs.

Oh yes, we get a couple of such tracks on CD2 (the late-night option), including Mr. Haji having his own go with Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. There's also Soul Central doing rather generic cover of Strings Of Life, a tune that I'll never understand the appeal of (those 'strings' always sound like ass). King Britt is here with a decent little acid boogie number in I Can't Wait (Milk & Sugar on the rub). Armand van Helden is still trying to ride that French house thing with My My My. And gosh, is that a touch of the space disco in opener Solaris from DJ Gregory? Sure sounds like it to me.

Overall, Disco Kandi 05.04 doesn't offer much that you wouldn't have heard before. It's just more of the same from the Hed Kandi brand, but as a slice of fluffy, funky house on a rainy day, it'll do the trick.

Motorbass - Pansoul

Motorbass: 1996

(a Patreon Request from Omskbird)

There's folks that claim without Motorbass, there'd be no Daft Punk, or even a French house scene vital enough for Daft Punk to have succeeded. Bollybark is what I say to such claims, though it's undeniable that Monsieurs Cerboneschi and de Crécy got a good head start on most in the lands of francophone. How can someone not hear the old UMM cut Home and think, “yeah, that's some fine French action right there and wha...? 1993??”

Yet while the chaps behind Motorbass would go onto bigger things in separate projects (Ceroneschi as part of Cassius; de Crécy's own solo output), their Motorbass material didn't get much notice outside their homeland. It was Daft Punk's success that had everyone digging through France's back-catalogue of house releases, after which some realized that hey, there was more going on around Paris clubs than most realized. There's a reason why their lone album Pansoul became hailed one of the best “lost albums” by NME, and “the most important album in French house” by Spin. Magazines love proclaiming something earlier and comparatively 'underground' such things. Still, those are indie rock rags, and what do they know? It's not like Muzik Magazine was bigging this album up (did they? I can't find it in the .pdf archives; lots of Daft Punk love tho').

Now, I did come to know of Pansoul's existence, mostly thanks to the slew of reissues in 2003 (Virgin and Astralwerks got in on that action). Of course, I didn't buy the album, but with all that hype of it being some long-lost precursor to Daft Punk's success, my curiosity was indeed piqued. And what I heard was indeed house music with a French slant, but hardly the ultra-filtered sample 'n loop stuff that came to define it (somewhere, DJ Sneak once again angrily shakes a fist). Except Les Ondes and Wan Dance anyway, which does the filter funk better than many that came later.

Coming back to this over fifteen years later and without those stupid expectations the re-issue hype sullied me with, I hear Pansoul as less a landmark French house album, but rather a house record that finds itself on the crossroads of what house music was doing in the '90s. There's unmistakable influence from the Masters At Work bump-n-grind vibe (Flying Fingers, Pariscyde, Bad Vibes), plus the dubby cinematic European soul that marked much of that continent's forays into deep house (Ezio, Neptune, Genius). Throw in an obligatory trip-hop opener with Fabulous, and you'd think the Nineties-ness of Pansoul is complete.

Yet it doesn't really sound stuck in that decade either. By not necessarily adhering to any given trend, nor catapulting a burgeoning one as their French countrymen did, Motorbass released an album that stands unique and apart, a melting-pot of what was and was to come. It's the sort of record you'd expect released after all the dust had settled, not before. Which it did, once the reissues kicked in. Crafty marketing, that.

Daft Punk - Alive 2007 (Original TC Review)

Virgin: 2007

(2018 Update:
Might this have been the Most Important tour in electronic music history? It certainly kicked off an arms race of spectacle concerts within the scene, where having the biggest, boldest, flashiest, gargantuan light show was a necessary evil in one's career arsenal. Good tunes and loyal fanbase just wasn't enough, you had to get them buzzing online, sharing phone videos on YouTube and Facebook of The Experience of seeing your act live. Heck, with so much visual stimuli, having 'good tunes' wasn't even a requirement any longer, any ol' 'thumpity thump-thump' rubbish being enough so long as 20 billion watts of LEDs and laser power is going down. And when that is no longer enough, throw in a dinosaur or two.

I'll contend this remains the 'definitive Daft' collection of music though. Yes, it's missing their Random Access Memories material, but really, what are we missing from that? Get Lucky, and maybe one other song you like from that album. No big loss when you have so much other dope material here. Besides, the live nature of those songs really wouldn't jive with all the boom-boom stuff here. Would work as a nice pre-show opener though.)


IN BRIEF: Definitive Daft.

Maybe Kanye West had something to do with it. It’s certainly possible the hip-hop star whispered just the right words to Thomas and Guy-Manuel about such things as ‘legacy’, as Mr. West is quite obsessed with his own. If so, the electronic community may owe him some thanks, lest Daft Punk might have still been in the collective “fallen off” category of many as we enter 2008. Because let’s face it: after the mediocre Human After All and an all-too perfunctory greatest hits package, the general assumption was Daft Punk were past their prime. That they would have the most successful dance-act tour a couple years later was the furthest from everyone’s mind.

Yet that’s exactly what they did. By combining both the simplest yet most visceral of what the genre offers, Alive 2007 earned plaudits and accolades and kudos and whatever else you may have from across the board. And most importantly, it reminded us just why we enjoyed these daffy punkers to begin with.

Naturally, an album release of the show was inevitable. As with any live recording though, the same ol’ question marks regarding the outcome still cropped up. How would the sound quality be? Will crowd noise enhance or hinder the atmosphere? How effectively does it make you feel like you are actually there? And most importantly, does it make you wish you were there at that moment? Screw-ups in any of these factors can make for a lackluster live album (see Vitalic’s recently released one for a perfect example) but when nailed, the home listening experience can be almost as exciting as being there in concert.

Since Alive 2007 is a couple months old now and several of you have already undoubtedly listened to this, I’ll save you the suspense: they nailed it. Everything.

Most prominent of all the awesome on this CD is the bass. Whether they placed their recording source in a perfect sweet-spot or relied on post-production trickery to get the maximum results, every track literally pounds and resonates with amazing arena realism. If you ever wanted to show off to your non-‘techno’ friends what beats sound like a rave, this is as good a demo as any. From thunder-like rumbles (Touch It) to cannonball gut-punches (Da Funk), the bass is a marvel to hear (and feel, should you be fortunate and rich enough to own a sound system of such quality).

But that’s more of a technical gush than anything, and could be found on any home-theater showcase. No, the reason you’re after this disc is for la musique, and Alive 2007 delivers in such a way I’m sure few could have expected.

Despite their singles being bona-fide classics in EDM canon, the general consensus here at TranceCritic is much of Daft Punk’s discography is littered with tracks of questionable quality. The duo’s hype has often helped elevate annoying go-nowhere tosh like Rock ‘n’ Roll to levels of acceptance among their fanbase. And while such tracks sometimes make sense when used as quick sound-bites, they do not for the lengths Daft Punk presented them on their albums.

Perhaps Thomas and Guy-Man eventually realized this too, as all these problems with their ‘filler’ tunes are abolished here. The best parts are cannibalized to complement the bigger hits, and it works fantastically! Take the Prime Time/Alive mash-up for instance: Prime Time Of Your Life is rather listless on its own, but with the vocal complementing the cascading synths of Alive, the joint venture soars with excitement.

Their set is filled with such wonderful moments. The ripping fusing of Rollin’ And Scratchin’s sledgehammer beats supporting The Brainwasher’s techy rhythms. Crescendolls giving Television Rules The Nation extra vitality at its peak (lord knows Television could have used it). And, perhaps the most cheeky and exhilarating example of them all, the killer combination of the number two hits off their first two albums: Around The World and Harder Better Faster Stronger. I have to wonder if even the most dedicated Daft Punk fan would have been able to cobble together a set of Daft tunes and made it work as excellently as Thomas and Guy-Man have here.

And then there’s just how immersive this release is. Live recordings can be hit or miss in making you feel like you’re actually there at the event, but this one is definitely a hit. Just watch a couple bootleg videos of the event or flip through the fifty-page-plus booklet that comes included in this two-discer to get a feel for how it looks, then close your eyes as it plays through. Okay, so those sorry sacks out there without an imagination probably won’t vibe on that, but indulge me on this. Ooh... pretty, that pyramid...

I honestly can’t recommend this album enough, for Daft Punk fans and for casual fans of EDM period. Every single one of their best tunes are here, all of the questionable tunes are given new life, it is all presented in an atmosphere that draws upon dance music’s strengths, and it comes in a package that makes it worth shelling out that extra couple bucks for. Throw in a great encore featuring some of Bangalter’s side projects on the second disc, and you have about as definitive a Daft Punk release as you’ve ever seen. Whether they’ll be able to ride their new-found popularity to larger heights in the coming years remains to be seen but unlike the fall-out from their last album, you can be rest assured their next project will be waited upon with bated breath by fan and foe alike.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2008. © All rights reserved

I:Cube - Adore

Versatile Records: 1999

An album I've long looked forward to talking about, but also kinda' feared doing so. For some, I:Cube's sophomore effort is among the glistening jewels of criminally overlooked French house gems, a record that should have been at the tips of everyone's tongue come the new millennium, and cemented Nicolas Chaix among the upper elite of clubland's tastemakers. I suppose I rank myself among those “some”, Adore blowing my mind when I stumbled upon it. I knew of him, tracks like Le Dub and the titular cut appearing on mixes and compilations in my collection, but I had no idea he was this versatile. Maybe I should have, what with his appearing on Versatile Records.

Yet despite getting playlisted by a wide range of DJs over the years, I:Cube never broke through to the rarefied French air acts like Daft Punk and AIR occupy. Mr. Chaix' project remained an underground darling, one that heady wax spinners expose to an unsuspecting audience at those 'perfect moments' in a set. Then someone in that audience will run up to the DJ, eyes alight with wonderment, inquiring, “Dude! What was that song? It was so funky and deep!” And the DJ will smile with a slight nod, knowing his job was done, and he could now comfortably return to his home planet. “Gastro Funk,” he replies. “Gastro Funk by I:Cube.” Then the punter will furiously tap through his smartphone options, voraciously searching online for that one jam he heard that night, saving it for a future playlist. It's a tale as old as time.

Adore has all that I've ever wanted in a French-pop, electro-dub, deep house record. The titular opener hits you with sweeping strings and groovy-chill Latin rhythms, La La La hits you with the swingin' funk and French soul, Le Dub and Tropiq go deeper down the dub lane, and Cash Conv. gets a little techy with I:Cube's deep house stylee. A bunch of nonsense happens for a few tracks, then we're right back into the deep house bliss of Deep Republic, Pooh Pah (it makes sense when you hear the 'lyrics'), and ultra-deep dub techno of Dans la Piece Vide (DeepChord approved, I'm sure).

Eh, that skipped over bit? It's nothing. No, it's nothing! Okay, it's something. What holds Adore back from being a nigh-perfect record, is what. Yeah, my opinion and all, but seriously, the noisy, abrasive stabs at loud club fodder always sound out of place compared to the proper-deep vibes the rest of Adore cultivates. Caca Carnival at least has a little pep to it when it's not indulging those farty noises, and Lak does bring things back to the deep electro, though its drifting out of key leaves a sour taste on my ears. These tracks don't break the album, but sadly blemish it enough such that I honestly don't return to Adore as often as I'd like. Ah well, at least it lets me savour the rest all that much more when I do return.

Various - Soma Records: 20 Years (Soma Classics)

Soma Quality Recordings: 2011

Has there been any UK label more influential than Soma Quality Recordings? Yes, yes there has. Many more, in fact, and I could name-drop a dozen of them off the top of my head. I won't, though, because this is supposed to be a summation of Soma, a label that often likens itself as Very Important, but is honestly more like Kinda' Important. Still, they've released a lot of classic tech-house and techno over the years, and was a go-to source for many top progressive house jocks from the lands of Britannica. They've been steady homes for Slam, The Black Dog (Phase II), Samuel L Session, Silicone Soul, Funk D'Void, and DeepChord. Soma also introduced me to one of my all-time favourite artists of the past decade in Vector Lovers, and that's gotta' count for something. Oh, and a French house duo got their break on this label too, though they were quickly lured away by big Virgin dollars, so we needn't talk about them.

Oh, fine, I guess I must. I mean, it's practically the selling point of this 20 Years blowout, plastered all over the front cover. Frankly, I was more excited getting an unmixed version of their rub on Scott Grooves' Mothership Reconnection, one of the last before becoming robots. All that prime-era French filter funk in full effect, mmmm... Oh, right, the exclusive, unreleased cut, made before even Da Funk, when they were still doing hard acid house with Conor Dalton. Okay, my review of Daft Punk's Drive: it's a'ight.

I have half the tunes on the Soma Classics disc already, but in DJ mixes, so it's nice having them mostly in their full, original versions. Kinda' gutted that Desert Storm from Desert Storm is missing the intro portion with the war dialog and tasty pads on their own, but since this CD maximizes its runtime, some space needed saving.

Three Slam tracks make the cut (thumping acid techno of Positive Education, loopy hypnotic techno of Azure, Pt. 1, and vintage Balaeric progressive house of Eterna), because it's their label, damn it. And no Soma classics CD would be complete without inclusions from Silicone Soul (Right On, Right On), Funk d'Void (Diabla, though the lighter Heavenly Mix instead), The Black Dog (Cost II, by way of a 2007 reissue loophole since the 1993 original came out on General Production Recordings), Percy X (X-Trak 1 letting Detroit know that Soma recognizes the roots), and Samuel L Session. Interestingly, Mr. Session's Can You Relate is the only nod to then-contemporary bloopy tech-house on this CD, and by way of the Joris Voorn Flooding The Market With Remixes remix. Unsurprisingly, it's the least interesting cut here.

Of course, this is hardly the full Soma story, many names and tracks not included here. Fortunately, two additional DJ mixes handled by Slam and Silicone Soul come with this package, filling in those gaps to various degrees. Check in to Part Two of this review for the details!

Various - Disco Heaven 02.02

Hed Kandi: 2002

I mentioned that 2002 is generally agreed upon as the year that Hed Kandi's quality peaked out. The following couple years weren't too bad, though a definite dip in consistency was settling in. This here Disco Heaven compilation is indicative of the problem. “Wait,” you probably think, “the label fashioned itself after appealing, uplifting house music, and disco's got that in spades. Hed Kandi would be out of their mind not to create a compilation series celebrating it!” And you're right, they did create a series, almost from the outset. It was called Disco Kandi. This, on the other hand, is Disco Heaven. That's right, Hed Kandi was finding so much success in the compilation market that they doubled their disco house options. By the next year, they'd set up a third series called Twisted Disco, and more recently a Nu Disco series. Plus don't forget the one-off Destroy The Disco. I'm surprised they haven't done a Disco Classics yet.

Point is, Hed Kandi's covered a lot of disco house in its day, probably spreading the choice selections out too thin in the process. They might have handled it okay in the early going, as label head Mark Doyle remained passionate of his pet project, but no one could maintain so many compilations with any regular consistency, especially if the franchise kept growing and growing with new series every few years. Small wonder it got sold off to Ministry Of Sound.

And for what reason did Hed Kandi see fit to create Disco Heaven in the first place (beyond muscling in more Hed Kandi covers in record stores)? Mark Doyle's liner notes state “we just thought it would be better to have a new title instead of hitting Disco Kandi 37 sometime next year!” Alright then.

Near as I can figure it, Disco Heaven offers up one disc of your standard uplifting, soulful garage house music – the stuff you'd find on Disco Kandi - and a second CD with clubbier tunes that feed off that loopier French filter funk. Like, I have no idea whether the Disco Kandi dabbled that way too, but I don't recognize any tracks of that sort in those CDs. Meanwhile, Disco Heaven has Junior Jack's Thrill Me; aka: that tune that apes the bassline from Daft Punk's Burnin'. I honestly thought it was some remix of Burnin' when I heard it here, only because I'd totally forgot about Junior Jack's version.

Anything else? Names I recognized from a glance included Kings Of Tomorrow, Full Intention, DJ Antoine, Kenny Dope, StoneBridge, Francois K, Jamiroquai and Shawn Christopher. Names you might recognize include Indigo, The Lab Rats, Shakedown, Kim English, and DaYeene. Really, name-dropping feels pointless with this collection. Disco Heaven is rather all one-note (and one-BPM) throughout, and does get weary hearing Yet Another House Beat unmixed over and over and over. It's still fun in spurts, but a little more variety would have broken up the monotony too.

Various - WipEout XL

Virgin: 1996

WipEout didn't introduce the world of gaming to electronic music, but it sure built one of the biggest, strongest bridges to its culture. The first game scored a coup in getting the legendary Designer's Republic to create its futuristic aesthetic, while Tim Wright of Psygnosis' music studio supplied several original techno and trance tracks that fit the vibe of racing at super-high speeds. It didn't hurt that a beta version of the game appeared in the 'raver' movie Hackers either.

Sensing they could do more nods to the burgeoning 'chemical generation', Psygnosis also licensed out a few tracks from prominent 'electronica' acts of the day, including Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers, and Orbital. This factoid wasn't seen as a major selling point for the game though, especially since the tracks never appeared on the American version of WipEout. When a sequel to the game was announced, however, the mighty Virgin realized they could license out a bunch of their signed acts to the game, giving them even greater exposure with a totally untapped gaming demographic. Throw in other 'rave culture' landmarks like Red Bull ads (when 'energy drinks' were still a new concept for the West) plus associated music videos, and you have one of the defining touchstones of 'electronica' in the '90s! Or just a fun racing game with kick-ass music.

I'm almost tempted to do two reviews of WipEout XL (aka: WipEout 2097), as the game version and soundtrack version do have differences. Most interestingly, the game features some ridiculously rare cuts from The Chemical Brothers and FSOL, not to mention the exclusive Cold Storage tunes from Mr. Wright. Maybe I'll save it for *gasp* video reviews.

As for the CD, the track list isn't too surprising if you know your mid-'90s 'electronica': We Have Explosive, Loops Of Fury, The Third Sequence, Afro Left, P.E.T.R.O.L., Firestarter, Atom Bomb. Actually, the Fluke single is somewhat different here, slower and with bigger beats than the video tie-in. Underworld is also repped, though by way of the ultra-fast, loopy Tin There (a sorta' remix of Pearl's Girl), and a remix of The Chem-Bros' Leave Home that somehow sounds nothing like either group.

Easily the most intriguing thing about this compilation are the two exclusive cuts that never appeared in either WipEout game: Source Direct's 2097 and Daft Punk's Musique. The former I can see either as a tune that didn't make into the game, or Photek getting his pals a little extra rub, being something of students of Mr. Parkes' approach to tech-step. That Daft Punk track though, it's totally a case of Virgin promoting one of their new acts. And why not, the French duo already making massive early buzz with their initial singles. Sure, Musique's “what if Plastikman did a house track?' vibe totally clashes with the rest of WipEout XL's roster of big beat, d'n'b, and Brit techno, but damn, feel that funky filtered low-end. Virgin's trick worked, as I couldn't wait to hear it on the forth-coming album!

ACE TRACKS: August 2013

Huh. Spotify’s gone a little screwy after downloading one of their updates. Despite registering ~14,400 songs, my Local Files no longer show. Meh, serves me right for figuring a newer version of a Desktop app would somehow be better. There’ve been a few minor features that disappeared lately, though nothing as inconveniencing as this. I suppose it doesn’t make too much difference since most y’all couldn’t hear the missing tracks anyway. For a short Playlist such as AUGUST 2013’s, however, even having those songs in a track list would help some. Guess I’ll add them in whenever Spotify sorts their shit out.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - High Karate
DJ John Kelley - High Desert Soundsystem
DJ John Kelley - High Desert Soundsystem 2 Various - Dirty Vegas: Homelands 2002 Preview
Various - Helsinki Mix Sessions: Jori Hulkkonen
William Orbit - Hello Waveforms
Various - Heroes! Rewind!!

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Daft Punk - Alive (how’d the end come so soon!?)

Vacation time already resulted in a lean month for reviews, but with half the albums covered not even available on Spotify makes for one very, very short Playlist. Remarkably, almost everything that made it is house music, and a rather specific sort at that. It’s like Frankie Knuckles, Daft Punk, and Hercules & Love Affair are kindred spirits in alphabetical coincidences. Even the tougher tech-trance from L.S.G., Trancesetters, and Jan Driver don’t sound out of place.

What obviously will though is that Hits Unlimited CD from 2 Unlimited. It seems Spotify finally has a version of the group’s greatest hits package available, so I’ve lumped it all at the end of the Playlist like the fanboy I am. There were also current remixes on it too, from the likes of Steve Aoki, Big Dawg, and Joachim Garraud. Naturally, I jettisoned them to the bin. Why make you suffer more than necessary?

Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You

Virgin Records: 1998

Friends, family, folks, and fairies: lend me your ears and eyes, for this is a tale of what could have been, but sadly wasn’t. Where the lights shone brilliantly for but a single slice of music-on-wax, then flittered away from a lack of confidence. Thomas Bangalter, he of the incredibly successful duo Daft Punk, riding high on the success of their debut album Homework; Alex Braxe, he of the not-as successful single Vertigo, but still a major component in an emerging French house scene.

The two paired up one chilly-warm Western European dusky-dawn, finding mutual love of vintage disco like Chic and Chaka Khan. “You know what would sound cool,” Bangalter said, “is if we took those disco rhythms and looped them a bunch.” “Like DJ Sneak is doing?” asks Braxe. “No, like Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez is doing,” Bangalter replied, his eyes glazing over at seductive filter knobs in the ramshackle, state-of-the-art studio they sat within. “Gee williker, Bangalter,” enthused Braxe-Boy, “that’s brilliant. Let’s make that track!” And so they did, unleashing Music Sounds Better With You as Stardust. The pseudonym was a nod to the Stardust casino from which they only had a passing familiarity with representing all that was wholesome and tacky of the ‘70s.

The single was a smash hit, almost outdoing Bangalter’s previous triumphs with Daft Punk. Moreso, it cemented the French house sound as endlessly loopy disco with a tight, funky ear for the filter. Such a simple idea, so often replicated, sometimes even bettered, but never as impactful as Music Sounds Better With You’s initial cataclysmic meteor drop. If this was their first track together, just imagine what their next efforts could be! No no, keep imagining them - it’s all you’re gonna’ get.

Bangalter and Braxe claimed they never made another tune under the guise because they lacked faith in themselves to better it. Well, that sucks, achieving your best on the first shot. You know what I think? I think Bangalter just wanted to hoard his filter-disco French house ideas to himself, hence having that “accident” with Homem-Christo that turned them into robots. Now freaks of nature, they could isolate themselves as Daft Punk exclusively, so tough beans to all of Bangalter’s former producing partners. Maybe if Braxe turned into a robot too, we’d get another Stardust single.

My copy of Music Sounds Better With You includes the original Bob Sinclar Remix, long since jettisoned when he and Bangalter had a falling out (woo, collector’s item now!). This was back when Sinclar was going from strength-to-strength with the rest of the French scene, and here he takes the track down smooth garage roads. Also here is the Chateau Flight Remix (more French folk), a choppier tech-filter rub-dub – handy for deeper sets. There was also DJ Sneak remixes, because of course there would be.

Eh? You say the tale I’ve told wasn’t entirely truthful? Well, what do you expect from a tale? If you want historical accuracy, go read the Wiki’.

DJ Dan - In Stereo

Kinetic Records: 2001

At the turn of the century, if you lived on the West Coast of the Americana-Lands, DJ Dan was the man. Already a hotbed of deep house action, Mr. Daniel Wherrett was tops on the scene when it came to bringing the funky disco vibes at the peak hours of any party he played at. Or maybe it was just Moonshine Music recognizing his skills in a long-simmering underground capacity and giving him that extra promotional push as far into the mainstream as any house DJ could achieve back then (not that far, all things considered). Whatever the means he used to reach that star status, it couldn’t be denied DJ Dan brought the goods. He may not command the same level of hype now, but any West Coaster knows a show with ol’ Needle Damage on the decks is a guaranteed good time.

During that heyday, Danny boy released mix after mix through Moonshine, most of them respectable enough if you were a fan of his brand of house music, but lacking something truly special as far as this listener was concerned (not enough Olav!). He eventually branched out from their arms, establishing his In Stereo imprint – and not a moment too soon, as Moonshine folded shortly after that (hey, it’s like he was carrying Moonshine! …not really). So as expected with such things, he released a mix CD showcasing all the new tunes that were to be released on- What? There’s nothing from his label on here? Wait a moment…

*sacrifices bootleg vinyl of Sasha and Tenaglia mash-up titled Elements Of Gravy to Lord Discogs*

Oh, this mix came out a year before In Stereo was launched. Not only that, but barely anything was released on the label for the first few years, and has since become a sluggish digital vehicle. Can’t blame Dan for not focusing on running a label though, since he’s undoubtedly kept proper-busy touring. The struggles of DJing.

Alright, enough of that. Is In Stereo, the CD, any good, you ponder? Damn straight it’s good, even if there’s not a whole lot here anyone familiar with disco house won’t have heard before. Not so much in the way of familiar tunes – though there are a few of those too – but just in the execution. You got your samples, your filters, your loops, your repeating vocals, and all that. Ill Concepts from The Street Preacherz shows up, as does the original version of TDR’s Squelch - you do remember that one, right, before the Sander van Doornering of it?

The biggest peak of the set hits with Liquid People’s electro-funk of I Am Somebody and Scanty’s breaks of Get Next To The Opposite Sex, perfectly complementing each other. There’s a couple French house leaning cuts in this mix too (from Joey Beltram, no less), and DJ Dan eases things down to a deeper disco-dub house vibe towards end, the likes of Junior Sanchez and Todd Terry leading the way. But still not enough Olav. Fail!