Hello...
I realize right off the bat that I may be far behind many of you in
finding out what is good, due to my locale and the tendency of my local
record store's inability to get what is good...or for that matter,
anything anyone wants at all...but I must put my two cents in on a
compilation that is new to me...actually a couple of them.
This weekend I bought some new discs since I was sick of all my
old stuff. I decided to not wait to go to a city and I went to my local
store (the aforementioned)...I looked through their recent addition (Dance
music section)...I bought a compilation called DRAGONFLY, one called
HARTHOUSE, an album from a group...DEEP FOREST...and the 777 collaboration.
Here are my opinions.
DRAGONFLY...
This is probably the best compilation of hard trance I have ever
heard. I could not believe it when i put it in the player. If I had the
disc with me I would tell you the individual tracks and why they are
good, but I dont so I will repeat that this is the best I have ever
heard. The samples are unique...the beats are on the whole derivatives
of hip hop standards...or they are evolved house grooves...the sounds are
not annoying as they are on some of the more popular rave compilations.
Before this, I thought of the technomancer series as being the most
reliable as far as consistent quality was concerned. Maybe that makes me
ignorant...but hey...im in mississippi. Hypp and Crimson have nothing on
Youth.....next.
HARTHOUSE...
This is another hard trance collection with which I was similarly pleased.
One group I was interseted by was Spicelab. They have about three
tracks on the disc...(By the way if anyone knows where to get their
singles or full discs, I would be very happy to hear that) The harthouse
disc seems to feature three tracks at the most from about five to sevn
artists. I have not had time to look at who is doing what cause I am too
busy listening to it. I would reccomend it. I think there is also a
second volume or at least a single release...the name was familiar to me
when i saw it in the store...
(Also, the dragonfly was a volume 2)
DEEP FOREST
this is an album release, i think. The sounds are almost like canned
techno...like some newage artist geting into the music for thrills. It
is mellow. Samples from african chants and strange choruses and
rainforest sounds. It is a good one to chill to.
777
This one is a coolaboration by a number of big name techno/ambient artists...
I think it was overhyped to tell you the truth. They made a mistake in
blending in actual vocals to some of the tracks..they also ruined the
best track by adding disco piano...itt was a trace track with whale
sample but underneath was that cheesy piano...that made me mad...they
also make these mad attempts to blend in guitar music with the ambient
tracks. It is an album that is going to have to grow on me I can tell.
The style is quite atypical.
I think I wiill end this now, for I dont know the protocol of this list
and there may be a limit on the length of the mail we can send...I would
appreciate any feedback and any reccomendations that are parallel to
these discs. I will also write again on indidual tracks as soon as the
initial euphoria wears off and i can actually learn what group is doing
which track.
later.