Sunscreem - O₃

Columbia: 1993

(a Patreon request from Philoi)

Sunscreem pretty much marked the end of the first 'rave band' era of UK acid house. Y'know, when all those musicians would form groups making loved-up clubbing tunes you could as easily hear on Top Of The Pops as at the illegal barn party. Sunscreem wasn't a rock band per se, but they had all the accoutrements of a rock band: guitar, bass guitar, drums, singer, and keyboardist. Just a lot more emphasis on the keyboard guy, laying out those synth leads and piano licks and backing pads.

After Sunscreem though, successful 'rave bands' all but vanished. You might get a guitarist with the keyboard guy, but seldom the full ensemble. Meanwhile, most who tried carrying on past 1993 generally crumbled with their follow-ups, Sunscreem no less a victim, though that has as much to do with label bungling as it does with sounding dated in a few short years.

Said label bungling must be the reason we never see a reissue or remaster of this record. O₃ has five singles to its name, nearly all of them charting in some way. Several somehow hit the top spot on US dance charts, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Madonna, the Jackson siblings, and Whitney Houston. You'd think such prestige would place Sunscreem among the greatest rave-dance-house acts of all time, but no, all folks remember of them now is as a flash-in-the-pan success, plus a respectful nod from Sasha & Diggers. Even their biggest hits aren't brought out for regular trend-whoring remixes, as though Sony is indignant at keeping the master tapes all to themselves.

O₃ could use a remaster though, some parts of it definitely showing its age, mostly on the rhythmic end. Whenever I hear ol' skool breakbeats as heard on tracks like Portal, Perfect Motion, and Chasing Dreams, I can't help but compare to what Liam Howlett was doing and think, hm, yeah, these need more beef. They aren't important though, merely transitional tunes for the big songs with Lucia Holm bellowing her lungs out. Okay, Your Hands gets a pass for its proggy Balearic charms.

But yes, the highlights of O₃ are tunes like Pressure, Love U More (controversial rape lyric notwithstanding), Idaho, Walk On, and Broken English. Man, especially Idaho and Broken English, Sunscreem building and building those songs to eruptive peaks despite rather humdrum starts. Heck, the whole album plays out like that, with Release Me serving as a triumphant reprise of the earlier Pressure, encouraging that full play-through. Shame they tacked on one more piano anthem track after, diluting such a strong conclusion.

A classic album, then? Eh, not quite, if I'm honest. Despite showing plenty of personality in their singles, the surrounding tracks are treading well-worn anthem house tropes, such that you couldn't pick them out of a pile without Ms. Holm there. Given more time and evolution, Sunscreem could have grown into a real player in the 'electronica' era, but sadly, such was not the case.

Scooter - Age Of Love (Original TC Review)

Club Tools: 1997

(2018 Update:
My head tells me I should hate this. My gut tells me it. Heck, even my heart tells me it. Yet, there's something that always keeps me from hating this album like I'm told I'm supposed to. Some overpowering feels from the spleen? Like, I don't go out of my way to play this often, maybe once every few years, save a chance random encounter on my media player's shuffle option, but when it does play, I still get into it just the same. I think this album releases the same stoopid-fun endorphins tracks like Sash!'s Ecuador does, and there's nothing wrong with that. We all have our silly little pleasures within our musical tastes, and if you don't, then I imagine you're just a dreadful bore to be around.

As for how Scooter's career went after I wrote this review, the group jumped on the dubstep bandwagon. Of course they would.)


IN BRIEF: Scooter’s turning point.

As vehemently as they’ll deny it, it’s safe to say a lot of EDM’s followers went through a Scooter phase. For some it may have been a brief flirtation during their initial rave years, others a lingering dedication. However long it was though, the reasons for it tend to be the same: the group made some undeniably fun anthems.

Ah, you’ve noticed the use of past tense. I suppose I should explain. Y’see, friends, Scooter’s discography can easily be split into two eras, each with a number of name variations. For example: Bueller years/post-Bueller years; pre-excessive covers/post-excessive covers; pre-shit/shit. Whatever you call it, Scooter’s initial mid-90s output was a guilty pleasure for many. That all changed when Ferris Bueller (aka: Sören Bühler, H.P.'s cousin) left and the group and began relying more on covers rather than original productions for their hit singles. Accusations of ‘sell-out’ and ‘going to Hell in a cheese basket’ dominated many discussions, and Scooter became the target of every biting punch-line regarding the worst aspects of commercialized dance. They may not have much artistic credibility left, but who cares about that when you can fight with Cascada for top spot on the dance charts, eh?

Anyhow, a change of direction often has a catalyst, and their album Age Of Love certainly was that. Beyond the fact this was the last Bueller album, there’s a sense Scooter were aiming for larger audiences than their initial happy hardcore fanbase, and why not? This was 1997 here, folks, when everyone figured they just might have a chance at hitting the big time. So how does one go about doing so?

First, out goes the hardcore and in comes more of the trance; nearly half the album is dedicated to the popular club style of the era that wasn't too different from most euro-dance (re: pre-epic). Next, branch out into other genres that are garnering attention from the masses: big beat, jungle, rock hybrids -‘electronica’, in other words. And finally, have one of your singles feature on a major motion picture to grab that always lucrative non-electronic consumer. Perfect formula for success, right? Um...

Alright, the big single here, Fire, certainly did succeed in its aim. Aside from the fact it is a decent bit of hard dance fun, by featuring on sequel soundtracks to Mortal Kombat and Hackers, Scooter got to rub elbows with respected names like Leftfield, The Prodigy, and Juno Reactor. Along the way, the thrashin’ guitar riffs grabbed the approving attention of many metal-heads. I’d commonly hear “fuck, that fucking techno shit is fucking shit, but Fire’s alright” from long-haired associates.

Then there’s The Age Of Love. I’ve heard it called corny, cheesy, and a complete rip-off of the Terminator theme; in trying to combine the sounds of trance with the effusive sentimentality of happy hardcore, Scooter created a disgrace of a tune. Oh shut up. Yes, it is all those things. That’s exactly the point! It’s what Scooter did so well in those days: pure, guilt-free anthemic fun. This is ‘stadium techno’ as The KLF spearheaded, and The Age Of Love is just as effective as anything they did.

The rest of the album mostly amounts to agreeable filler. There really isn’t anything that is whole-sale awful, but nor does it leap out at you as essential either. Hit The Drum stands out a bit more by getting back to a ‘stadium techno’ sound, and includes one of H.P.’s more ridiculous lines: “‘Cause we are ready to shake the nation with another creation!” Also, Tonight’s take on ol’ school jungle and Return Of The Future’s standard trance execution are intriguingly entertaining, mostly for the fact they veer so far off the expected Scooter path; if you didn’t know better, you’d swear they were by another act. However, these examples didn’t win over their detractors then, and they certainly won’t today either.

Still, Age Of Love is probably one of the better albums in Scooter’s discography. Even when the songs are little more than simple dance pop, they present them with such infectious zesty energy it is hard to resist, provided you leave the Bitter Beer in the cooler before listening. If you are quite new to this whole electronic music thing, you could do worse (like Scooter’s recent offerings). And even if you aren’t, Age Of Love still has a bit of charm for those moments when you just need a reason to get up and shout. Nothing wrong with that, now is there?

ACE TRA-

Oh, wait. There’s one more track here. A cover of a Depeche Mode song. Hold on... *plays the ballad Leave In Silence*

I take it all back. Scooter are shit.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007. © All rights reserved

Absolutely Fabulous - Absolutely Fabulous

Spaghetti Recordings: 1994

I don't know much about the show Absolutely Fabulous - heck, I didn't even know such a show existed until I heard this Pet Shop Boys charity single. That isn't to say the famed British comedy about a pair of past-their-fame ladies trying to maintain their fame didn't make it to Canadian shores. I'm sure it aired on our Public Broadcast Services networks alongside other BBC gems like Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers, and Edward The Penitent. I think it even had a re-run slot on our comedy network, but again, I never saw it – are British comedies given the death slot of 8:30am? There's been a couple attempts at an American version of the show, but they never caught on, probably because Americans prefer comedies about low-to-middle class buffoons rather than upper-class twits. Okay, Frasier was an exception, but that show had a recognizable, admired lead, plus its upper-class silliness was tempered with gruff, middle-class sensibilities (y'know, real 'Murica how-to). Them Brits tho', they love mocking those who believe themselves better than thou'.

Of course, this has bollocks-all to do with this single. Near as I can tell, Pet Shop Boys were referenced in the show, which prompted Pet Shop Boys to make a charity single for the Comic Relief drive in return. Fair play, and it seems Misters Tennant and Lowe had some fun making a totally gaudy euro-dance tune replete with sampled dialog praising designer fashion labels while bemoaning “dull soulless dance music”. They even named their b-side remix the Dull Soulless Dance Music Mix, a thumping acid techno cut with that phrase endlessly looped along with the beat. I know they're kinda' taking the piss here as well, but they didn't have to hit the nail with such precision.

Really, the only reason I got this was for a full version of that utterly grand and daft Our Tribe Tongue-In-Cheek Mix, featuring a Rollo anthem at peak Rollo-iness. Take all the over-the-top, flashing lasers, epic gurning off your tits hits he did as part of Faithless, then bake the cheese into a cake of exquisite taste: it's so rich that you'll go sick from too much of it, but for the portion you're fed, *moi*. Sadly, the only version that came here was the mangled cut on Disco 2. Sure, maybe a local DJ might play it at a cheeky club night, but if I wanted a copy for myself, I'd have to import one from the UK, or mainland Europe, or South Africa (!), or Australasia (!!). No, seriously, the single hit the number two spot in both Australia and New Zealand! How'd that happen?

But sure enough, the CD came down low enough on the used market that paying for those extra shipping charges finally nabbed me my own copy. And hey, it even comes with an additional Rollo remix, Absolutely Dubulous. It, uh, does that Visnadi euro-house thing with the 'doo doo' organs. Kinda' dull and soulless, if I'm honest.

Various - 100% Energy

Quality Records: 1994

Another of my earliest CDs, and a very educational one at that. No, go ahead and laugh – it really is quite adorable what I learned from 100% Energy. It's something I would have learned rather quickly anyway, but there's always that first one, opening your eyes, ears, and brain to all that electronic dance music has to offer and is capable of. I am, of course, talking about The Remix.

Yeah, I'd come across remixes before. My exposure was so limited at that point, however, I just assumed rubs on tunes like Age Of Love, Obumbrata, and Dominator were the original versions, not variations. Even the few remixes of 2 Unlimited hits I'd heard didn't sound that different compared to the radio cuts, at least enough for me to think much of it (still, that 2 Little Boys go with Twilight Zone sure hit harder). When I picked up 100% Energy (was given as a Christmas gift? I can't remember...), I was already familiar with a chunk of tunes in the track list: Urban Cookie Collective's The Key, The Secret, BKS' I'm In Love With You, Bad Boys Blue's Go Go (Love Overload). There are several others too, but I hadn't counted on hearing versions of them completely different from what I'd heard elsewhere.

My main point of comparison was Radikal Techno – Too Radikal, where four tracks from that CD also ended up here. Both Mars Plastic's Find The Way and R.T.Z. Belgium's In The Name Of Love are shorter, which I didn't mind since both tunes are rather monotonous anyway. That Deadly Sins cut though, We Are Going On Down, why does it have an added bell melody? The main riff's different too, more aggressive sounding, and where did the roller-coaster samples go? If that threw me for a loop, then hearing the original version of TRF Rave Factory's Open Your Mind... well, opened my mind. Joey Beltram's remix on Radikal Techno was minimalist and almost trancey, whereas here it's about as ravey happy hardcore as you could get in 1993. Complete opposite ends of the dance spectrum, and I was so clueless it could be done at all! Oh, and the limp Let The Beat Control Your Body from 2 Unlimited is featured here in its more festive X-Out In Rio Remix form, another “wtf?” moment for yours truly.

Okay, enough anecdotal blathering. 100% Energy is about as typical a eurodance compilation from Quality Records as you'll ever find. Other names on here include Diva Connection, Apotheosis, Dance 2 Trance, Q-Tex, Cardenia, and Intermission. DJ Dero's mardi gras nod Batucada comes prior to the 2 Unlimited rub, and General Base's Poison hits all my eurodance endorphin triggers. The CD is also 'mixed', in that everything's got hard cross-fade slams, some tracks hilariously clashing with what came before. Since I don't have many of these tunes and mixes elsewhere, I've kept 100% Energy all these years, but it's honestly barely worth a used-shop pick-up a quarter century on.

Various - Pure Energy Volume 5

SPG Music LTD.: 1998

The Pure Energy series was one of the more successful runs of dance pop compilations in Canada, lasting a solid decade before folding after the ninth volume. Considering the Toronto label that promoted them, SPG Music, flooded the market with numerous such CDs, it's remarkable it stood out from the crowd at all. However, unlike long-forgotten series like Euromix, Warehouse Grooves, or Dance To The Underground, Pure Energy had one, key factor working for it: name recognition. For this series had all the big names of euro house and dance pop on its tracklists (plus a bunch of no-name locals), making them the must-have CDs in your shops should the other CDs that had all the big names of euro house and dance pop not be available. I rib, but I won't front either, my (sister's) copy of Pure Energy 2 an early favourite of yours truly. Mr. Vain, More And More, The Rhythm Of The Night, Shoop, Give It Up, Can We Get Enough?, Love Sees No Colour (Version 2)... hot damn, what a tracklist!

Fast forward a few years, and the scene has radically changed, new names and new sounds replacing the tropes of old. Except Culture Beat, they're on this volume again. And Shaggy too, who's got a feature credit on Maxi Priest's That Girl (ooh, yeah, That Girl, now you recall, That damn Girl). Yeah, for some reason, Pure Energy 5 isn't hot up to speed in its selections, some songs nearly three years old by the point this came out. That ain't no way to catch the iron while it's hot, boys, but whatever, it's the actual hits folks want that's important, so what's this CD got?

Spice Girls, Blackstreet featuring Pay-Day Dre, Aqua, Jocelyn Enriquez, “Not-Will-Smith” Space Factor. If I need to tell you which tunes, you sure don't remember 1997 well, do you. Oh, fine. Wannabe, No Diggity, Roses Are Red, A Little Bit Of Ecstasy, Men In Black. Ah, now the ol' memory membranes are firing, I bet.

Listening to Pure Energy 5 is pretty much a nostalgia trip to that year, so many songs generating, “Oh yeah, that one!” reactions when I played it back. Ultra Naté's Free, First Base's Love Is Paradise, Carrilio's Samba de Janeiro (such fiesta!), Amber's This Is Your Night, Tania Evans' Prisoner Of Love (La-Da-Di), Herbie's Right Type Of Mood... even Alexia's Uh La La La!, regrettably. It's honestly astounding how many songs here I'd completely forgotten about, but do recall them being major hits back when. Like, that Maxi Priest jam gave Shaggy his greatest mainstream exposure to that point (1996, for the record), but nowadays, all the radio stations ever play is Angel or It Wasn't Me, That Girl reduced to “Nineties Artifact” status. Poor Maxi Priest.

One last point of amusement before the wrap. The flip of the CD has a giant “DJ Approved” stamp, which is hilarious since this is a continuous mix compilation, rendering them effectively useless for actual DJing purposes.

Snap! - Welcome To Tomorrow (Original TC Review)

BMG: 1994

(2017 Update:
Not much else to add to this old review. My thoughts on it haven't changed much in the ten years since I wrote it, and the story of Snap! hasn't seen much else of note happen either. They did join in on those 'I Love The '90s' nostalgia concerts that sprung up a few years ago, which is cool and all, but nothing from this album made it into their short playlists - at least, from what I've seen on various YouTube clips. I never got to go to those shows, stuck on the continent that I currently am. I'm not sure how they could have included Welcome To Tomorrow or Rame or The First The Last Eternity anyway, so drastically different from the group's biggest hits as they are. Maybe Dream On The Moon could have fit, having a similar 'rugged' rhythm as their older hip-house hits, but would anyone know that one? Yeah, thought not.)

IN BRIEF: The first mainstream trance album? Perhaps.

(to their song Who Stole It)
So, Snap!, what happened to thee?
You’re once players in this industry.
But something happened along the way;
Now your impact is forgotten today.

Alas, something did happen to the power-house dance outfit Snap! With ultra-hits like The Power and Rhythm Is A Dancer, they helped popularize a euro dance scene into a global phenomenon. At the peak of it all though, when work on their third album Welcome To Tomorrow was soon to begin, a number of factors ended up drastically changing things for the group.

The most glaring one is the absence of rapper Turbo B. Much has been debated over his worthiness as an MC. Some found him wholly unnecessary and his rhymes silly. Others quite enjoyed his faux Public Enemy persona, lending the songs he was featured on a vitality that was often missing from the many copy-cat acts that followed. Whatever your impression of him was though, he undoubtedly gave Snap! much needed stage presence considering most of the music was done behind-the-scenes. However, Turbo B and producers Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti (or John “Virgo” Garrett III and Benito Benites, heh) had a falling out. He wanted to get back to hip-hop, whereas they had other plans. Thus their union came to an end for the remainder of the 90s.

Yet that’s not the end of it. Snap! could easily have settled on producing stock euro house with female singers, but the German duo never wanted to be caught rehashing their former successes in those days - hence the drastic differences between their first two albums. Once again, they decided to go for a new sound, but what?

Oddly enough, trance provided the answer. It was already blowing up in German clubs in ‘94, and two albums with Jam el Mar at the helm (Dance 2 Trance’s Moon Spirits and Jam & Spoon’s Tripomatic Fairytales 2001) had shown some potential in the genre’s crossover ability. Münzing and Anzilotti also had ties to the scene, having known tastemaker Sven Väth when they performed together as Off in the 80s. Perhaps at the time it seemed like the logical course of action, but sadly Welcome To Tomorrow was a few years too early to be a successful mainstream trance album, and it greatly hurt the public’s response to it (well, aside from in Germany, obviously).

The lack of Turbo B was the least of their identity crisis. Snap! retained a signature murky bass-heavy sound throughout most of their releases, but not this time out. Welcome To Tomorrow’s production is mostly squeaky clean, even to a fault in some cases. If they wanted to create the image of a future where everything is devoid of the grime and grit of the present, they certainly succeeded there, but this was not what folks expected. Small wonder the new singles from the album were mostly met with apathy from nearly all their fans: they weren’t even sure if it was the same group anymore (which, in a sense, was true).

On its own merits, then. As a mainstream dance album with trance influences, does Welcome To Tomorrow work? At times, yes. Some of these tracks contain all those vintage elements trance was built upon, and Snap!’s offerings are as fine as anything the underground saw. Most apparent of these is Rame, where the combination of stuttery synths, sweeping pads, and Rukmani’s ethnic vocals could have found a tidy home on any old school trance compilation. Elsewhere, It’s Not Over makes for a peppy instrumental, The First The Last Eternity finds similar elements to Rame in a subdued setting with lyrics provided by their new female vocalist Paula Brown (aka: Summer), and Waves dips into ambient’s waters with Ibizan-tinged guitar provided by Markus Deml (whom some may remember from his pairing with Ralf Hildenbeutel as Earth Nation around the same time - the ties to the underground continue!).

A bunch of these other songs though... I dunno, friends. I mean, I normally don’t have much problem with doe-eyed clichés but seriously, Snap! go overboard here.

Green Grass Grow, It’s A Miracle, Welcome To Tomorrow, The World In My Hands: my God, but what syrupy sap these are. The World In My Hands is at least somewhat tolerable with a moodier tone, but the rest sound like they were written with children in mind. In fact, I think they were. Münzing had a baby daughter at this point, and it seems like his paternal instincts drastically took over his music writing, such to the point he even gives her some ad-libs on It’s A Miracle, a song about the joys of childbirth. Yes, I admit whenever I think about holding my newborn nephew, the same sentimentality does come up, but not when I’m listening to a dance record. Here, I can’t help but be just a bit embarrassed, like watching someone performing simpleton-silly googly acts to a bemused baby. And this comes from the same group that just four years prior had Turbo B rapping about lamenting a broken condom?

Welcome To Tomorrow isn’t a bad album though. It’s just very different from what you’d expect: a Snap! album, a dance album, anything really. You can throw it on and, provided you don’t blush to death from the effusive emotions at points, be reasonably entertained. Unfortunately for them, it brought the group down, and despite their continued attempts at comebacks this decade, they have remained out of public consciousness for the most part, save the continued replays of The Power and Rhythm Is A Dancer. Not exactly the future they predicted, then. Ah well.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007. All rights reserved

Mo-Do - Was Ist Das?

ZYX Music: 1995

It's remarkable that I should know of Mo-Do at all. Not in any post-eurodance, “haha, irony” sense, but when the act was fresh and new, their single Eins, Zwei, Polizei invading European clubs and compilations to such a degree, it breached Canadian shores too. Certainly many eurodance acts made it here, but they always had one thing going for them making it possible: their music was in English. Much like italo disco before it, the native language of the British Isles was somehow decided upon as the de facto tongue of dance club commercial success in Europe, helping it find a foothold across the Atlantic too. Songs sung in Spanish or Swedish or Swissish likely found success in their homelands, but no way they were gonna' make any bank in Canada, nosiree.

Then along comes an Italian pairing of Fabio Frittelli and Claudio Zennaro, the latter of which eking out a tidy career making house and trance as Einstein Doctor DJ. That Fabio fella' though, he had a good look to him, his Austrian heritage lending itself as a natural front-man for modelling or movies or music. He'd even dipped his toes in a couple rock bands, but found dance music more his calling. Hooking up with one Sergio Portaluri led to a couple singles as F&F, though these didn't attract much attention, pretty much standard English-singing eurodance of the day. Sergio co-produced some music with Claudio though, and when Mr. Zennaro was introduced to Mr. Frittelli, they felt enough musical chemistry to try again, only with a different angle: go full Germanic on clubland. Claudio was already making trance with a German bent, and Fabio felt Teutonic speech suited his voice better than English (or, heaven forbid, ragga!).

The result was Eins, Zwei, Polizei, a tune that celebrated the succinct punch of the German language, wrapped up in an earwormy minor-key melody straight out of the German trance book. Despite the absolute glut of eurodance in 1994, it was enough of a unique angle that it propelled Mo-Do to the top of the charts across Europe. Other German producers had hits, but none so wonderfully captured the Teutonic charms of their dance music. And all it took was a couple Italians to get there. Hey, an Italy and Germany allaiance found a way to conquer Europe after all!

The following album, Was Ist Das?, is about as you'd expect from eurodance of the time. A couple follow-up singles recycle the same formula that made the first such a success (Gema Tanzen, Super Gut), Hallo, Mo-Do does that Stadium House thing Scooter would make bank off, and Liebes Tango offers up a tune with a little English in it. There's also the requisite ballad (Fur Dich, My Love), plus a couple attempts at 'artsy' music (Hamlet, Das Konzert). They're fine in spicing the album up, but yeah, you're here for those tasty minor-key melodies and catchy German phrases, even if you're mangling them into 'engrish' as you sing along. Mmm, 'salty cakes'...

Sash! - It's My Life (Special Edition)

Scandinavian Records: 1997

I got this for a dime. That alone is worth the price of admission for Ecuador, one of my all-time guilty pleasure anthems. And surely there’s something else across two CDs of Sash! music that will make my commitment of 0.10 Canadian dollars practical. Surely a better investment than getting the single, which features all the same remixes found in this special edition of It’s My Life. Two extra tracks of decent euro dance fluff, and I’ll have gotten plenty return on my 1.40 peso expense.

Eh, who exactly is Sash!, you ask? Oh come on, you know who these guys are. Even if you somehow missed the late ‘90s club boom, you’ve heard their tracks, or similar knockoffs of their sound. Really, Sash! was something of a knockoff themselves, aping the pluck-heavy riffs Rollo perfected with Faithless for their own use, as did many producers at the time. It was Sash!, however, that had the most commercial success with them, in large part thanks to aggressive marketing and licensing of their big hits off here (Ecuador, Encore Une Fois, Stay, and all those Future Breeze remixes), such to the point they’re the default association with plucking synth club anthems. And while the group has carried on in the commercial world to this day, nothing has replicated the undeniable impact Sash! generated prior to the turn of the millennium. Soccer highlight reels would never be the same.

But it all started somewhere, and that somewhere is their debut album It’s My Life, of which I spent six pence upon (and dropping!). A few versions with different track arrangements are floating about, but mine doesn’t waste your time, dropping the three main anthems in your lap right out the gate. The titular opener features the sounds you’d expect of Sash! (synth plucks, mild acid, standard euro club beat, looping vocal), but subdued compared to their heavy hitters. Encore Une Fois did much better, especially the trancy Future Breeze rub, but I’ve long been ambivalent to this hit – 2 Lips’ Je T’Aime did the same thing better anyway. Following that is Ecuador, and good luck getting that killer piano earworm and Sabine Ohmes’ glorious shouting out of your head for the rest of the day! (“Eh-QUAY-DORa!”)

As for the rest, you get a few club track retreads (MightyBreak, Cheating Twister, Sweat), a euro pop cut that I don’t remember but had a ton of remixes (Stay), and The Final Pizzi, another big epic pluck-anthem I thought was made by someone else. Hell, maybe it is, but I’m too stupid to recall who (they all kinda’ sound the same anyway). There’s also Hoopstar, a collaboration with d’n’b act Nonex, and sounding completely daft on an album like this as a result. Haha, now that’s worth the 0.51 Chinese yen spent.

Not that bonus remix CD though. A couple agreeable trance and house rubs of Stay aside, this one’s complete rubbish. It’s got Armand Van Helden doing speed garage, for God’s sake! Ugh…

Ferry Corsten - Twice In A Blue Moon (Original TC Review)

Flashover Recordings: 2008

(2016 Update:
Welp, so much for cautious optimism from the Ferry Fan Camps. Not only did he fully completely jump on the arena house bandwagon, but he did so in such a wacky way with Markus Schulz, you wonder if he was having a mid-life crisis regarding his DJ career. I get the reason for that whole New World Punx thing - what better way to capitalize on the ballooning festival market than as a 'supergroup' a la Swedish House Mafia - but man, did the PR for the 'project' ever look ridiculous for a couple of the scene's elder statesmen. Yeah, totally we can hang with the kids at these mega-events - they like cartoon ninjas, right?

That Corsten would abandon trance isn't a surprise though, as everyone with scene clout had to if they wanted to keep their profile high in a changing market. Nor am I surprised that ol' Ferry is inching his way back to trance now that the gravy train has started showing signs of deflating, most notably testing the waters last year with a new Gouryella single. Or maybe this was his plan all along, lure the kids in with modern cheese, then unleash his vintage cheese upon them, the cheese that you do so well. Who knows, though it leaves this album in a weird no-man's land between Corsten's different eras of music making. Does anyone even remember anything off Twice In A Blue Moon?)


IN BRIEF: Back on form, but…

When Ferry Corsten’s newest album - Twice In A Blue Moon - opened with a dull deadmau5 thunk-clap-thunk-clap beat, I instantly feared the worst. Although the famed Dutch producer had been accused of running dry on fresh ideas in recent years (even by our own resident Ferry apologist J’, no less!), you still believed he would never jump on a bandwagon. Yet, here he was, offering up a just-better-than-average mau5 tune with Shelter Me. The plodding rhythm, the bare-bones melodic execution, the bland effects: Zimmerman staples, all. Could it be that Corsten had succumbed to the pressure of following trends, that his days as innovator truly were long gone?

It’s funny. Despite opinions on Corsten’s music being contentiously split between fan and foe, folks seldom disagree on the merit of his ingenuity – after all, he made his name by being a leader in his chosen field. So when he appears to have become a follower, one can’t help but feel saddened by such a notion. You continuously root for the innovators to keep innovating, as they are the ones that push the arts into interesting new directions – even if you don’t personally enjoy it, such artistic evolution still creates a positive reaction in that it spurs discussion. In short, many may not have liked what Corsten did to trance, but damned if they didn’t like talking about it. If he’s become a mere trend-jumper though, then what’s the point in discussion?

All of these musings played out in my head for about the length of time Shelter Me played out in my player; which, despite a half-decent melody somewhere in there, should tell you how interesting the track is. The over-prominent thunk-claps continue into Black Velvet; fortunately, unlike typical deadmau5, Corsten writes a pleasant song featuring a rather inspired vocal outing from Australian singer Julia Messenger (given his years in the profession, you can count on Corsten being a stronger song-writer than the guy wearing a mouse mask). From there, I realized that my initial worries were for naught, as Corsten gets ‘contemporary’ only one other time, with the double-effort in Life - Doorn production (re: boring beats with non-climaxes; very anti-Corsten, really) coupled with whiney male singer.

The rest of this album finds Ferry going more to his popular roots. Aside from one last 80s gasp with the italo-inspired We Belong (which uses elements from the old hit Happy Town by Fun Fun), Twice In A Blue Moon features a good deal of simple euro-trance with energetic beats, the kind of sound many fell in love with when they were discovering the Dutchman at the turn of the century. Whether it’s because he’s grown nostalgic for his glory years or simply decided to provide what his fanbase prefers from him is open to debate. Bottom line is if you’ve been pining for the Corsten of old, you’re going to get a good amount of enjoyment out of this album.

For those who haven’t, however, you may end up approaching Twice In a Blue Moon more cautiously. In going back to the late 90s, there isn’t much here that is groundbreaking either. Corsten’s style has long been of simple punctuality, and the tracks on this CD don’t break rank from that; the melodies are mostly straight-forward and cheery, though hardly standout. Tracks like lead single Radio Crash and Brain Box feature prominent big hooks which will easily lodge in your head, although Brain Box will undoubtedly draw Zombie Nation comparisons (and what’s with that silly big horn blast? I swear I thought it was a semi-truck outside when I first heard it blare out). Meanwhile, he follows a more traditional melodically epic path with Gabriella’s Sky, Shanti, and the titular track, with each of these featuring a different twist on the formula: serviceable break-beats on the first, far-East vocal sampling for the second, and melancholy baroque with the last. These three tracks are easily the best on the album. Oh, and the final ‘outro’ track sounds like one of those piano interludes you might hear on an Enya album – again, whether that’s good or bad will depend on your preference for such musical doodling.

Unfortunately, much like his previous efforts, Corsten’s vocal offerings remain typically generic. Aside from the aforementioned Black Velvet, none of the singers provide anything memorable. Well, Maria Nayler kind of does, in that it has that cool vocoder effect on her voice, but her lyrics are rendered moot by it – she might as well be singing, “I’m blue, da ba dee!” Betsie Larkin, an obscure singer-songwriter from New York City, makes her major debut here with the other lead single, Made Of Love, yet another by-the-book vocal euro-trance cut. For those who can’t get enough of playing sing-a-long while jumping in one spot with their hand in the air, I’m sure this track is heaven – me, I take it as my cue to fuck off to the bar (especially so with the oh-so cliché supersaw breakdown, though thankfully kept brief here).

There isn’t much to fault with Twice In A Blue Moon, but neither is there much to highly recommend either. Aside from a few instances, it comes off like a rose-hued nostalgic trip to Corsten’s memorable years - which, of course, isn’t such a bad thing. However, Ferry’s music has always been generally limited in scope (big, epic, anthems! …umm…), and such limitations remain as apparent as ever.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009. © All rights reserved.

Jam & Spoon - Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 (2016 Update)

Dance Pool/Epic: 1993/1994

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review.)

And this CD. One of the earliest attempts at bridging the trance-pop gap. Also a bizarre blend of hypnotic German techno and sun-kissed beatnik Balearic vibes. Not to mention among the first trance albums I purchased for myself, though Dance 2 Trance’s Moon Spirits beat it to my primeval collection by at least a year. Still, I thought I was buying a euro-dance CD with the DJ Dag project, whereas I’d just started my trance indoctrination with Tripomatic Fairytales 2001, willing to take a risk on an LP full of unfamiliar tunes - Follow Me and their Age Of Love remix was about all I knew from them. And hoo, was it an ear-opener, going in weird, unexpected places that even folks already familiar with big singles Right In The Night and Stella were wondering just what the duo were smokin’ in their studio.

Clearly I was too young to know much about the European club scene Jam & Spoon were a part of, and there’s scant reports of initial impression from punters purchasing Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 hot off the shelves. I can guess they were expecting more of the recognizable hits, so how did folks react to the electro-tribal thump of Heart Of Africa as an opener? It took me by surprise only because I wasn’t well versed in much of anything these guys had done yet. Was this track a crazy double-take for those familiar with even their early, charmingly titled techno B-side My First Fantastic F.F.?

Interludes. Skits. How many dance albums did this way back when? Some brief instrumental pieces or drum loops, sure, but spoken word peices like Muffled Drums and Who Opened The Door To Nowhere were a rarity, especially for a supposed trance (or pop) record. Nor did Misters Mar and Spoon skimp on throwing whatever struck their muses into the pot. Ultra long builders like Odyssey To Anyoona and Path Of Harmony, standard (for the time) trance numbers in Nuerotrance Adventure and Paradise Garage, or indulging some ethnic sounds with Zen Flash Zen Bones and Earth Spirit.

Hey, I mentioned way back when that there were many different version of Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 - let’s delve into those! The original-original version had an additional interlude called Operation Spaceship Earth, mostly of orbiting sounds and giggling children. Yeah, I can hear why this was jettisoned for Find Me in the re-issues. A couple years after though, they jettisoned Zen Flash Zen Bones to add another new single with Plavka, euro-cheeseball Ibizan tune Angel (Ladadi O-Heyo). This was not such a good move, and was removed for the 2010 re-issue, along with Find Me. Operation Spaceship Earth was reinstated though, and brought along a bunch of vintage bonus remixes and the epic Follow Me. Huh, you could have gotten that track on a 1993 limited edition version vinyl release, along with The Tribe and all the Tripomatic tracks arranged in a different order. Bet that one fetches a handsome fee on the open market.

Various - Trance V.oice 2

Beat Buzz Records: 2003

I wanted some trance damn it, but my God was the selection in this particular store ever dismal. I could find my Turbo CDs and maybe a nifty techno album or two, but where was the trance, man? Where was the trance? On compilations with a Balearic beach, or a sunrise, or a sunrise on a Balearic beach, promising the latest and bestest in Ibizan superclub anthems, all tracks that, if I hadn’t already gotten, sure didn’t want, even in a different order.

It was then I realized whatever I’d enjoyed of the genre was truly, definitely gone, with no hope of return or salvation. The only thing left was to accept it full-stop, taking it as good as the cheese could give it. I scanned the shelves for the most overblown, chintzy, gaudy, ridiculous, nonsensical piece of cover art I could find, and hoo boy did I find a doozy! Just… what the Hell is going on here? Happy hardcore would be embarrassed by how cartoony this looks, and don’t get me started on the abomination that’s a double-gendered, two-headed plesiosaur. Too cruel to exist, yet too bizarre to erase from my memory.

And the trance. Oh dear God, the trance. Already you’re thinking we’re in for some rough vocal tripe, but maybe Trance V.oice 2 would present itself like those Trance Divas discs, a mix of the poppy euro fluff with more ‘credible’ examples of the sub-genre. Aw HELL n’aw! If I wanted something like that, I’d have gone with any dozen of generic trance CDs. I wanted the worst of the worst with this sucker, and Trance V.oice 2 fucking delivers!

The first track is DJ Sammy’s Heaven; welp, no sense pussy-footing this excrement. The next two have M.I.K.E.’s stamp on them, a Push remix of Zippora’s See The Sun, plus the collaboration Please Save Me with Sunscreen. If you like the Push sound, you’ll probably enjoy these, but as we’re dealing with radio edits, both tracks are utterly useless as examples of well-crafted trance (no time for subtlety). Fourth track is a lame hard dance cover of Supertramp’s The Logical Song from Solid Solution. Dear lord, just end this already.

No dice, Trance V.oice 2 carrying on with awful supersaws, flaccid pop, and wretched radio edits. As always, the closer vocal trance gets to euro dance, as with Futurz’ Let Your Night Shine Through and Sylver’s The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, the better it gets, but we’re at a pathetically low baseline here, my friends. All hope is gone once Trance V.oice 2 basically gives up on being a trance compilation after dropping a cover of BKS’ I’m In Love With You near the end. And the next track, Velvet Girl’s Promise U Heaven, why that doesn’t even have vocals at all! Zero out of Ten Jan Johnston Heads.

Seriously though, it’s the only decent track on here; once again Lolo provides some class on an awful CD. Respect.

Various - Trance Divas 2 (2016 Update)

Water Music Dance: 2005

(Click here to read a bunch of silly metaphors for love.)

So these CDs. I’m not sure why I kept a copy of them. Almost all the dance pop I reviewed for TranceCritic was quickly deleted from my harddrive, yet I still burned me some Trance Divas 2, even printed up the cover art. Considering how expensive ink jet cartridges run, that’s all sorts of daft for a pair of discs containing music I spent more time mocking than enjoying. Did I have some left-over need from my AudioGalaxy days of burning everything I could to CD? Might that desire for a big-yuuge show-off collection have clouded my impeccable musical judgment? Nah, most likely I felt having a back-up copy of Trance Divas 2 prudent for future reference, and as my computer of the time had a whopping 2.3 GB of memory, I sure as shit couldn’t keep it there. Little did I know I’d have to listen to these again for review, eleven years in the future. (holy cow…!)

That old review finds me soapboxing about ‘bad trance vocals’ and how they ruined the genre and a bunch of other dumb-ass nonsense that gives me serious cringes, folding me up into a fetal position of shame. Still, despite the rambling, my point remains that vocal trance – at least as found on Trance Divas 2 - is essentially where euro-dance of the ‘90s evolved to. The fact this compilation has equal shares of pure euro pop fluff with the ‘serious’ anthems from Very Important producers like Above & Beyond, Kyau & Albert, and ATB (*chortle*) only confirms the theory. And lo’, we even hear sprinklings of euro pop’s next evolutionary morph on here, that of the hardstyle knock-off genre ‘hands up’. Haha, I’m right, I win, Sykonee rules! *inexplicably drives off cliff*

Hey, here’s something I never talked about in that original TranceCritic review, the history of Trance Divas, the series! For instance, did you know there was a volume before this compilation came out? ‘Tis true, Water Music Dance releasing a first one just the year prior – how did 2005 Sykonee not mention that? The style of music is mostly the same, ‘serious’ vocal trance anthems mixed in with euro pop parading in eurotrance clothing. Quite a different roster of names in the track list though, including BT, Milk Inc., Matt Darey, Soda Club, Sinéad O'Connor, and Delerium. Yeah, Silence is on there, because of course it would be. Tiësto shows up twice more too, including his remix of Lost Witness’ Did I Dream, and his own track 643 (Love’s On Fire), the latter coming with a rub from… Oliver Lieb? On Trance Divas!? My head hath a’sploded!!

In case you care, a third volume of Trance Divas also made its way to the stores. This features such famous trance producers as Fabio Nobile, Paul Richard, Dutch Agency, Chris Nasty, and Rene Ablaze, and has no entry within Lord Discogs’ archives. Clearly no one wants to admit they own a wretched compilation like Trance Divas 3. Haha, hah.

B.G. The Prince Of Rap - The Time Is Now

Epic: 1994

As he was teaming up with DJ Dag and Mark Spoon to help invent some little genre known as trance, Jam El Mar also spent time getting in on that European hip-house action that Technotronic made all the rage. Heck, if Lord Discogs is anything to go by, his first production with Bernard Greene on Rap To The World beats out Dance 2 Trance’s We Came In Peace by at least a few months. And while the latter is hailed as a Very Important Record in the annals of trance, it by no means had the immediate success Rap To The World did. Eventually his work with Dag and Spoon would eclipse anything he did with B.G., but in the early going of his ‘techno’ career, Mr. Ellmer had himself a chart star with The Prince Of Rap. All the better for making that cash-money to fund his underground projects, yo’.

Fast forward a few years, and though trance has taken off in Germany, euro-dance took off bigger, and ol’ Jam and B.G. knew they had the foundation to capitalize on a scene that gave us Mr. Vain, Rhythm Is A Dancer, and Get-A-Way. Still, name recognition only takes you so far when dozens of new acts with hit singles are continuously shoved into clubs and radio. Perhaps they suspected a little extra oomph to stand out from the glut was needed, thus bringing in one Stefan Benz to the party. Mr. Benz had been making italo disco since the late ‘80s, moving onto euro-dance as many producers of that era did, even scoring another successful act in DJ Company. Then he went onto cheese-ball hard trance and ‘hands-up’ stuff through the ‘00s, but who cares about that.

Nay, let’s remain focused on The Time Is Now, and the three big tunes off here. Though none of them did as much action on the charts as This Beat Is Hot, Colour Of My Dreams did the best amount of damage, hitting top fifteen in Germany, and even scoring number one on Canada’s dance charts. It’s got the smooth rap from B.G., a catchy chorus from Paris Red (who did the bulk of vocals on the album), and punchy synth hooks. Better is Can’t Love You, especially as Jam El Mar’s vintage, buzzing sawwave synths drive this tune throughout. Can We Get Enough? was the lead single, something of a rough bridge between The Prince Of Rap’s earlier hip-house into euro-dance fare (that bass!). All are mint tunes of euro-dance’s peak years.

The rest of The Time Is Now is practically all filler though. Decent enough if you’re a hardcore collector of this stuff, but hardly essential material twenty-plus years on. Well, except for the curious two final tracks, actual hip-hop cuts, including a posse jam in This Is How We Do It. Guess the Prince Of Rap needed to remind everyone of his American roots. He sure didn’t have much chance to show off his lyricism on anything else here.

ACE TRACKS: March 2016

It feels so strange only doing this once a month now. Like, such a significant gap of alternate content on this blog, no longer breaking up the monotony of just reviews over and over again. Might have to come up with some other thing, but with the insane backlog I’m accumulating at present, I kinda’ want to keep trudging through first. At least finish off the last of these massive letters before venturing onto other ideas.

Speaking of, the first half of ‘T’ is almost finished, which means that big bundle of used CDs from another will finally be tackled. Including the music I was already gathering myself, we’re looking at a pile of nearly fifty releases. That’s a significant chunk of time this electronic music blog that’s gonna’ be spent talking about rock, folk, alternative rock, metal, dark ambient, pop, punk rock, and maybe a little techno too. I won’t blame if some check out until June, but surely few of y’all are just anxious to read my thoughts on bands like The White Stripes, The Cranberries, The Clash, and The U2s. Meanwhile, here’s the ACE TRACKS for this past month of March:


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Moodymann - Technologystolemyvinyle
Skin To Skin - Temenos
And, technically, a lot of cruddy compilations, but most of their tracks are on Spotify anyway.

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 25%
Percentage Of Rock: 4%
Most “WTF?” Track: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry - Crazy House (how could it not?)

Hey, diversity! Boy, it sure was nice to compile a playlist with more variety compared to the previous couple months. Not that I’m treading that far from my go-to fav’ genres like downtempo dub (Sounds From The Ground, Mick Chillage), ambient techno (Si Matthews, The Black Dog), trance-pants (Stephen J. Kroos, Legend B), and quirky outliers (Autistici, DJ Hell). But with house, funk, g-funk, Detroit techno, EBM, synthwave, and alternative metal all getting a look in, March turned out a decent, interesting month’s worth of music.

But just wait for what April has in store…!

ACE TRACKS: October 2012

Hey hey! Another milestone reached! Or achievement accomplished. Or task completed. Or obsession sated. Whatever the case, this marks the end of all these backtrack ACE TRACKS playlists. I mean, wow, October 2012. Such a long time ago now, isn’t it. I still feel like I only recently started doing this, yet here we are, nearing the end of Obama’s second term as President of Everything Forever – when I was writing these reviews, there was still some actual debate over Romney’s chances!

I had no idea whether this endeavor would sustain itself either, a lot of those October writings rather shaky to my eyes. Nor did I have any clue if I’d get any sort of significant audience for my musings, especially when I was so freely drifting away from what most would consider an electronic music blog right out the gate. I was mostly making up my format as I went along, and didn’t really find my groove until late in the month. I honestly feel the Asian Dub Foundation review marked my proper starting point, if nothing else because it’s always easier to rip into music than just discuss it. Or more fun to write and read, anyway.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Beat The Devil’s Tattoo
Octagen - Collected Works Vol. 2
Globular - Colours of The Brainform
Frankie Bones - Computer Controlled 2: Live In California

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 11%
Percentage Of Rock: 6%
Most “WTF?” Track: Nine Inch Nails - Closer To God (not that it’s shocking by any stretch, but it’s definitely abrasive compared to the rest)

Remember when it seemed like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony was a rap obsession of mine? Eh, probably not, since I’ve no idea how many readers here were even around for those early days of this blog. How about when I’d go from reputable electro to cheesy euro dance to prog rock and with a dash of house thrown in? Geez, was that first month ever all over the place. Still, with how settled a lot of my music purchases have turned these last few months, I kinda’ miss that spontaneity, that unpredictability of just what I might review next (trance? Ambient? Pants?). Maybe it’s time for another used shop haul…

ACE TRACKS: February 2013

And I’m finally done getting through albums starting with some form of “sound” at the start of its title. Who’d have thought so many musicians would associated their music with sounds, eh? And yet, even after going through a dozen of them, that’s still but a blip in the behemoth that is all of ‘S’ – we’re a long ways before getting out of this letter, my friends.

Speaking of lengthy runs of letters, anyone remember ‘E’? Man, that was a beast too, eating up nearly two month’s worth of reviews way back when. I also feel February 2013 was something of a turning point for this blog. It marked the half-year point, plus the 100th review too (what am I at now, 750?), convincing myself I could keep going at the clip I was without serious fatigue or disinterest creeping in. More importantly though, it got a lot of big albums from Very Important Artists into the archives, including BT, Prodigy, Underworld, Moby, and Madonna. Also, remarkably, this month was the first point of entry for two names that would come to fill many a month with their releases: Neil Young and Wu-Tang Clan. Wouldn’t surprise me if folks thought I got all my rock and hip-hop fixes from Pink Floyd and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony prior to that.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Various - Evolution Of New Sounds
Various - Euro Dance Pool, Volume 1
Various - Euro Dance Pool, Volume 2
BT - ECSM
Erol Alkan - One Louder

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 33%
Percentage Of Rock: 5%
Most “WTF?” Track: Busta Rhymes featuring Mystikal - Iz They Wildin Wit Us & Getting Rowdy Wit Us (because like Hell you’ll keep up with the words they spittin’)

BT’s ECSM is not on Spotify. How is BT’s ECSM not on Spotify? Every other BT album is on Spotify. Okay, neither is that drone ambient neo-classical album Nuovo Morceau Subrosa, but that always struck me as a pure pet project, not intended for major commercial release. Then again, neither is This Binary Universe, another arty album but far better regarded than nearly anything Mr. Transeau’s done in fifteen years. So his super-serious music doesn’t get on Spotify, is that it? Still doesn’t explain ECSM’s absence though. Get with the program, Perfecto!

Not much else to say about this Playlist. As the opening number of tracks indicate, it’s a very ‘90s assortment of tunes, but then the ‘90s has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to electronic music. Yes, including the overplayed tunes that you just can’t get out of your head, even while transcending to outta’ space. (can you find another place?)

Snap! - Snap! Attack: The Remixes

BMG: 1996

Look, you know the hits, but their omnipresence within radioland, videoland, and sports-arenaland may have soured folks who'd been swayed in by The Power and Rhythm Is A Dancer. Why should they bother with a remix of a dance tune they only tolerate as it is, then? They wouldn't, hence clubland the only place having much use for a remix CD, and even then it’s suspect. Maybe DJs were wholly on board the Snap! train early on, but all that success tainted the underground's perspective of them. Thus, jocks that could get mileage out of Snap! remixes likely weren't having them in their rotation - not even the pop DJs, who'd just play the originals anyway.

That leaves the hardcore Snap! fans that’d collect everything they put out (*cough*). Yet such a following had significantly dwindled by the time this came out, concurrently with a ‘Best Of’ CD (dying career alert!). Not to mention the messy departing of rapper Turbo B excised his vocals from all of these tracks, including in an updating of The Power, titled The Power 96. As this is post Welcome To Tomorrow Snap!, gone are any sort of rugged, hip-house rhythms and urban vibe, replaced with standard eurodance beats and trance pads. The tune needs a rap though, and as ragga still had some popularity, in comes Turbo B’s replacement, Einstein, a euro rapper who’d been around since the late ‘80s. He’s adequate for what the tune’s accomplishing, but Snap!’s production had definitely lost an edge. The following two remixes are also by Anzilotti and Münzing (Snap!’s producers), and also aren’t much to get fussed about: Cult Of Snap! tries getting a deeper, tribal feel going, limply so, while Welcome To Tomorrow is... Look, the tune was already hammy to begin with, and ain’t no way they’d make it any better.

Fortunately, Snap! Attack: The Remixes turns remarkably fantastic following that, featuring a list of remixers that have to be heard to be believed. Oliver Lieb is here! Rollo and Sister Bliss are here! Dance 2 Trance is here! David Morales is here! Torsten Fenslau is here! Stonebridge is here! Even Resistance F’n D. is here! How on Earth did Snap! ever court such an A-list roster of house and trance producers? I’ll grant a bunch of them are German, and Snap! seemed buddies with just about every well-regarded name in that scene (remember Off with Väth?), so maybe it’s not so surprising after all.

Nor are the quality of these remixes either. Each lend their distinct sounds to their respective tunes (Resistance D. do the acid, Rollo and Bliss do the arena anthem, Dance 2 Trance the squalling, pitch-bending sawwave synths, Morales the bumpin’ New York garage, Lieb the... Lieb, I guess), with only the proto-Faithless rub of Rhythm Is A Dancer coming off weak (that ‘kick’ ...ugh). This unexpected (undeserved?) all-star cast of remixers is about the only selling point for Snap! Attack, but hoo, what a selling point it is.

Culture Beat - Serenity

Dance Pool: 1993

Serenity is one of the classic albums of euro-dance, with one of the all time biggest hits of the era in Mr. Vain. Oddly, its fame has diminished in recent years, trendy remixes and rehash efforts going to other hits from back in the day. A peruse of Lord Discogs reveals barely an update of the ‘90s’ club staple, the Abfarht team simply letting the tune fade from public consciousness (CJ Stone remix doesn’t count because… yeah). On one hand, I admire forgoing quick, cheap cash-ins with their back catalogue, but surely Culture Beat’s legacy deserves more than a mere afterthought two decades on. They were right up there with 2 Unlimited and Snap! at one time, so what happened?

The unfortunate death of Torsten Fenslau, sadly - the Abfarht team never recovered from his loss. Until then though, he, Nosie Katzmann, Peter Zweir, and various others were on an unprecedented run of ace euro singles, expertly straddling the line between crossover dance and underground trance long before a pile of Dutchmen tried pulling the same trick. In some ways, Serenity was their peak, a successful album from front to back in a scene where most acts were only good for a hit single or two. Yes, I did just claim a euro-dance LP solid all the way through – come, let me show you the ways.

First off, Mr. Vain. Damn, but this was the anthem of ’93. It hits you with an impossibly catchy, buzzy euro synth riffs, a remarkably heavy rhythm, and a perfect sing-along chorus provided by newcomer vocalist Tania Evans (one Lana E. had the duties in the original line-up). Meanwhile, Jay Supreme, seldom that notable of a rapper, gives memorable lyrics, playing up the gaudy clubber lifestyle with just enough charm to sell the idea of a Mr. Vain in your presence. I’ve no doubt you could still play this single today and it’d get just as strong a reaction as when it was new. Dare it, festival DJs!

Even with the juggernaut that Mr. Vain is though, Serenity is hardly a one-hit euro album. Follow-ups Got To Get It and Anything, higher paced Rocket To The Moon, the pure trance-out of the titular cut, an epic Rollo tune with Mother Earth (environmental message!), and dreamy house anthems The Other Side Of Me and The Hurt are all solid tunes, and could easily have been the lone-hits for any number of the Abfarht team’s other projects. Elsewhere, the requisite downtempo tracks (World In Your Hands, Key To Your Heart) eschew any attempt at sappy balladry, instead cribbing from the Soul II Soul template of groovy urban music. About the only duff track on here is Adelante!, a drab slice of Italian-flavored euro, likely intended for that market and nothing else.

Convinced? Don’t front, I know you’re itching to hear Serenity in full now. Forget that Night At The Roxberry soundtrack, this album captures early ‘90s euro at its absolute best!

Benny Benassi - Rock'N'Rave (Original TC Review)

Ultra Records: 2008

(2015 Update:
I recall hating this, but upon re-listening to Benassi's sophomore effort, it wasn't as bad as I remember. Surely it was within the review itself that my bile had been expunged, snarky quips galore shot upon one of dirty electro's founding fathers. Nay, t'was not here either, generally positive things said even while remaining properly critical. Hell, I even gave some praise to I Am Not Drunk, and that song's awful. Maybe taking on a temporary douche-bro mindset truly does help in seeing things from the other side, an appreciation for the trashy dumb-fun aspect of club culture. That, or I suspected things would only get worse with the advent of disposable EDM in the following decade.

Speaking of, no surprise Benassi's hitched another wagon onto the festival anthem house scene. His recent singles could be any number of Guetta/Hardwell clones though, not even retaining the sleazy charm that marked his early work. Makes some of the tripe on this album come off far more original. Still, if you've got a hankering for the old Ed Banger 'maximal' sound, stick with Boyz Noise.)

IN BRIEF: Marginal satisfaction.

Oh dear, we aren’t actually going to do this, are we? Oh yes indeed we (or at least I) are (am). After so many months of giving the collective nu-electro house scene the thumbs down, we’re going ahead and reviewing the new album from the man that propelled the sound into the stratosphere of popular taste with his hit single Satisfaction. No good can come of this, right? Tsk, you wound us with your petty assumptions.

Thing is, most of our criticisms of the genre tend to fall upon the stagnant Swedish side of things, where farting basslines dominate; but we here at TranceCritic have remained rather neutral where Benassi and his sleazy side-chaining clones are concerned. Chalk it up to a kind of love-hate relationship with Benny: he has undoubtedly produced some fun house music, but due to his catering to the tastes of mainstream lowest common denominator, not much of it holds up when placed under scrutiny. Still, he knows his role, and we know he knows his role, so we often let his brand of nu-electro go; let him enjoy his success while the sound is hot.

Popular trends are fleeting, however, and a little over two years ago, when last we talked of Benassi [at TranceCritic], we predicted the sleazy side-chaining gimmick would be wearing out its welcome. Sure enough, Benassi's nu-electro has been usurped in clubbing circles for a thrashier trashier kind of sound, feeding off the arena rock vibes acts like Justice brought to the forefront of dance music. Never being one to innovate but always one to capitalize upon a hot trend, Benny’s hopped on this latest bandwagon, and offers us his second album titled Rock‘N’Rave.

And he (plus producing partner Alle Benassi, remaining in the background while his brother Benny’s grabs the spotlight) does whip up some suitably rowdy numbers that’ll work perfectly fine in your typical weekend club; however, when stacked against much of the dance-rock material released this past year, it pales in comparison. Far too much of it sounds like Benassi approximating what he figures to be the Ed Banger aesthetic, hitting you with blunt out-of-tune riffs permanently cranked into the red; sometimes it works (Rock‘N’Rave, U Move U Rock Me) but most of the time it’s a noisy annoyance - which has often been the main criticism of this genre right from the beginning anyway.

Benassi hasn’t completely abandoned his bread and butter, though, and whenever he brings the harlots and side-chaining out, the tracks surprisingly fare better. I Am Not Drunk, for example, is a fun bit of boozy-woozy hedonistic-dance indulgence. And then there’s My Body and Who’s Your Daddy, which prove Benassi a capable producer when he plays to a chick’s sense of tease. Unfortunately, they also have their problems: despite My Body’s fun rowdy nature, the side-chaining in its main melody is atrocious, some of the worst I’ve heard in a while; and compared to the original version of Who’s Your Daddy, this Pump-kin mix lacks spunk.

Still, those bratty girls are far more entertaining than most of the guest vocalists Benassi has brought in. Aside from Come Fly Away, which features euro-dancey pop lyrics courtesy of Channing complementing old-school rave riffs (sweet! ...until you realize the track doesn’t really go anywhere), it seems we’re in an emoting boy-band audition session. Good god, it’s bad enough we’ve been having to hear it in bad euro-trance, but now in dance-rock too? Enough already.

Ah, hell. I’m getting too critical over this music, aren’t I. That’s not the right frame of mind at all for Benassi’s type of music. Hold on a moment while I slip into something a little more suitable...

*Downs half-a-dozen jagerbombs; shot-guns a Rock Star; rails a line of blow off the ass of a trampy twenty-something gal wearing tacky sunglasses; spikes hair into frosted tips*

So, bro! This Benassi shit, man! Fuckin’ killer shit, eh bro? Oh fuck ya’, man! Listen to those fuckin’ FAT beats and... oh fuck! Dude!! Check out those two sluts fucking frenchin’, bro! That’s fucking AWESOME! Yeah, you go, bitches!! Wooooo!!!!! Oh, hey, bro! Benassi’s fucking the SHIT, man! Look how he gets those skanks wet and horny. Damn, I’m gonna get me some pussy tonight, I shit you not, bro! Benny Benassi, woooo!!! This shit’s off the HOOK!

Hey, bro, got any blow?

*sobers up*

Ugh, what happened? Where was I? Ah, right. Guest vocalists. If you like your male vocalists sounding overly emotional and earnest, you’ll probably enjoy the guys on Rock ‘N’ Rave. And I have to admit Shocking Silence isn’t too bad of an offering, even if it’s merely style-biting Marco V’s False Light.

The second disc is mostly remixes and some of Benassi’s ‘vs’ projects assembled together. None of the remixes are worth your time (Eclectic Strings is a dub of My Body, and sounding woefully inept without Mia's skanky vocals). The rest sounds like Benny’s attempt to replicate the success of Bring The Pain by capitalizing on some other current trends (classic house revivalism in the case of Black Box, and punky indie rock in the case of Iggy Pop); Bring The Pain actually is some fun, even if I can’t help but be reminded of Jason Nevins and Run DMC, but the other two are wholly unnecessary and uninspired reworks, making me just want to listen to the originals instead. Pretty much a toss-off, CD number two is.

So, perhaps this was to be expected after all. There’s no doubt Rock ‘N’ Rave has moments that’ll entertain, even if it’s mostly in a drunken-dumb kind of way. As an album, though, it isn’t the kind of thing you’ll be playing much from front-to-end. While you may whole-heartedly accept Benassi’s change of direction, his execution of it all sounds uncertain, as though he’s only doing this in order to keep up with contemporary clubbing consciousness. Whether his fanbase picks up on this remains to be seen but, in the long run, finding any kind of Satisfaction on here will be difficult. Oh yes, I went with the bad pun; deal with it, bro!

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

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?