Category: Reviews

REVIEW: Bob Sinclar – ‘Disco Crash’

By: Ben Norman

So my first real exposure to Bob Sinclar as an artist occurred way after his beginnings in the early/mid-90s. I wasn’t familiar with “The Mighty Bop” or Africanism, but 2005’s ?Love Generation? was a groundbreaking track to me. The world of circuit music was the dance landscape I was indoctrinated into in the late 90s and early aughts, so something this stirring and beautiful, pushing the messages of love over body image, sex, and drugs was something that touched me very deeply. That, and Gary Pine’s island vocals were the perfect touch to make the track distinctive. So when ?World, Hold On? was released in 2006, I was eager to absorb everything about the track, as I had with ?Love Generation.? Again, Sinclar was riding the wave of good feeling, this time using the powerful vocals of Steve Edwards, the simple whistle melody just the right touch to this driving club track. So any Sinclar track since has had the standard of those two tracks to live up to, and with 2012’s Disco Crash album, I’m left with a gritty, sour taste in my mouth. Instead of lyrics of good will and love, we have Sophie Ellis-Bextor f***ing with you, Snoop Dogg as a ?Wild Thing,? and Mr. Shammi who is…?Not Gangsta?. Either something is lost in translation or Bob Sinclar is looking to be David Guetta’s replacement.

Realistically speaking, I get the idea behind the album. Disco Crash is Sinclar’s effort to showcase himself as a highly marketable producer who should be working with A-list stars. But let’s take a look at a duo of European producers and their effect on the mainstream landscape. First is David Guetta, who’s sound has become so commonplace, so typical, that it’s hard to interpret his music any longer. Where tracks like ?Stay? and ?Everytime We Touch? called out as brilliant Guetta tracks, his music now is synonymous with Nicki Minaj, The Black Eyed Peas, and Usher. This is great for his bank account, but potentially bad for him as a credible artist, his material straining at every stitch. On the flip side, we have Martin Solveig, a spunky producer who has really gotten a fantastic amount of attention by just being himself. With the huge success of ?Hello? with Dragonette, Solveig has branched out recently producing tracks on Madonna’s new album. ?Give Me All Your Luvin’,? while not the earth-shattering Madonna track the world expected, was distinctively catchy, offering Solveig a chance to flex his mainstream pop muscles a little further. So where does Sinclar fall in this? Sadly, more akin to Guetta’s side of the meter and further from Solveig’s ingenuity.
Disco Crash is 12 tracks that run the gamut of popular dance styles. ?Wild Thing,? the aforementioned Snoop Dogg track, reminds us of ?Sweat,? the track the Dogg did with David Guetta. ?Far L’amour? with Raffaella Carra and ?Not Gangsta? both emulate the highly successful bouncy Italian sound of ?We No Speak Americano? and its derivatives. And the ?Tainted Love? interpolation in ?Put Your Handz Up? with rapper Hot Rod might as well have been used in a Flo Rida track. Similarly, ?Rock The Boat,? Pitbull’s contribution to the album (along with Fatman Scoop and Dragonfly) doesn’t sound much different than any of Pitbull’s current tracks on the radio, begging the question of just how much toward originality Sinclar was trying to put forth with this album. And as much as I love her, Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ?F*** With You? is nothing truly special.

The rest of the album’s tracks fall into even more obscurity than the tracks that actually sound like something else. ?The Network,? a deep house track featuring KC Flightt, sounds engaging for about 30 seconds before it loses interest. ?Life? and ?Tik Tok? both lack anything that truly makes them stand out, although I have to wonder just exactly how relevant Sean Paul is anymore. His vocals on ?Tik Tok? make it a little intolerable. And although Ben Onono tries his best on ?Life,? it’s the track that samples a classic club favorite that does Onono the most justice. ?Rainbow of Love? has a good vibe and flow similar to Sinclar’s mid-aughts tracks, putting Armand Van Helden’s ?U Don’t Know Me? strings to good use. And it seems it’s the strings that work the best for Sinclar, as ?Magic Fly? may just be one of the top tracks on the album, and it’s an instrumental.
Disco Crash begs a lot of questions, but the biggest question is ?Why?? If the album gets Sinclar the attention he needs to get his name into the mainstream production roulette wheel, then more power to him. But when it comes to quality of an album, the majority of Disco crashes and burns. ?Rainbow of Love? and ?Magic Fly? are my picks for standout from what is sadly a One Star album.

Released April 2012 on Yellow Productions.

Disclosure: Review copy was provided by the record label.

 

REVIEW: Morgan Page – ‘In the Air’

By: Ben Norman

It’s 2012, and in April, Morgan Page will be releasing his fifth studio album. In the Air, the follow up to Believe, is Page’s most ambitious album to date. But let’s take a look at where the DJ/producer has been. The LA-based Page has received two Grammy nominations over his career, the first for the deadmau5 remix of his massive track with Lissie, “The Longest Road,” the second his captivating remix of Nadia Ali’s “Fantasy.” His albums and remixes have pushed the progressive house agenda on dance music in one of the most gorgeous ways ever, lush productions and entrancing vocals gracing dance floors across the globe. His remix work has always been forward-thinking, Page never shying down from getting his hands on a worthwhile song simply because the resulting mix wouldn’t be dance floor-tempoed. This is evidenced in his mixes for Leigh Nash, Regina Spektor’s “Fidelity,” and most notably Jenny Owens Young “F*** Was I.” And while Page’s albums haven’t always pushed his own evolution as exampled by other producers, he’s still had a good grasp over what defines him as an artist. This would serve him well on In the Air.

Where is Lissie?

The biggest thing to note is the lack of singer Lissie on this album, a voice that has brought him success, not just with “The Longest Road” but also with the Pete Yorn cover of “Strange Condition” and “Fight For You.” Her absence marks the first forward step on In the Air, not that the Page/Lissie combination wasn’t entertaining- but it yielded music that lacked an edge. Their collaborations were engaging but melancholy, especially for dance music. His music has taken a turn for the pulsating on In the Air, his work with different vocalists allowing him to explore different songwriters and vocal styles. Although it should be noted that, for a few tracks at least, the featured vocalists on this album are ones he has remixed for in the past. Tegan & Sara pair up on the single “Body Work,” a deep and affecting meeting of minds that yields a sparse production with the twins giving a performance worth singing along to. In 2010, Page remixed Tegan & Sara’s “Alligator,” the duo’s second single from their 2009 album Sainthood. Since it was a great remix, the twins pay him back twofold, appearing also on “Video,” a more complex track adorned with 8-bit instrumental flourishes. Nadia Ali, who you may recall from her work with iiO and, most recently, the big track with Spencer & Hill- “If You Believe,” hops on for “Carry Me.” Deeply melodic and filled with emotional tension, “Carry Me” gives us Page at his most effective, working with a stellar vocalist who knows how to write an excellent dance floor ballad. Not to say his track, “Gimme Plenty,” with ex-Dirty:Laundry singer Shana Halligan isn’t just as effective, but it takes a different slant. Page employs more electro in his music with Halligan, compensating for her soft vocals. Both tracks are excellent examples of Page working with the right people on the right tracks, and along with his Tegan & Sara tracks, give us four incredibly strong singles.

But we shouldn’t ignore the new vocal talent he brings to the table. On In the Air, Page brings to the forefront excellent male singers in the forms of Coury Palermo, Richard Walters, and Greg Laswell. He also gives us Shelley Harland, a welcome addition to the album with her captivating track “Love Mistaken.” Richard Walters gets two tracks with Page, “The Actor” and “Light Years,” which honestly come across as more about Page than Walters. The singer’s accented vocals are not very effective, but Page’s production is top notch. Laswell’s one track, “Addicted,” is gorgeous with organic instruments, vulnerable vocals, and electronic production woven together into a typically gorgeous Page number. It does recall his previous work, but who’s complaining? Palermo also gets one track, “The Only One,” aimed at getting people on the floor. His vocals are smooth and sound great echoed to oblivion. Personally I feel Shelley Harland comes out the best here, but take a close listen and find your favorite. Then go out and research the singers, especially since Shelley Harland and Coury Palermo just released new albums.
Page also teams up with two dance music aficionados. Angela McCluskey, no stranger to the recording industry at large or Page as a dance producer, hops on the album’s title track and rocks it’s socks off. While Page (teaming up with Sultan & Ned Shepard and BT) does an exemplary job creating dramatic tension on “In the Air,” it’s easy when working with such a capable vocalist as McCluskey. Having also worked with Telepopmusik and Deep Forest, McCluskey and Page first paired up on his 2010 album, Believe, her vocals gracing the track “Tell Me Why.” Jonathan Mendelsohn, also a veteran of dance music having worked with a variety of producers including Dash Berlin, Laidback Luke, and Laurent Wolf (to name a few), sings to the aggressively catchy “Where Did You Go?” This track works for a slew of reasons, one of which includes co-production from house maestro Andy Caldwell, the trio of talented artists giving one heck of a club stomper. Finally, Page teams up with another singer you may not be entirely prepared for – himself. On “Missing” and the Police cover of “S.O.S. (Message In A Bottle),” Page warps his own voice enough to mask any potential faults. While “Missing” sadly isn’t what could have been- an awesome progressive house rendition of Everything But the Girl’s awesome classic, it’s enjoyable enough, if a little reductive. The Police cover, however, is all sorts of distracting. It’s definitely hard to connect with all the effects thrown on this rendition. If the production had been a little more faithful or aggressive, the vocal effects could be a lot easier to overlook. I would love to hear this remixed and see what other artists can do with it.

Summary

Page’s Believe was a bit of a letdown for me. Being a Morgan Page supporter, I found a whole lot not to love about that album, and commented on it in my review. I’m immensely satisfied with In the Air. The production has a lot more energy, the songwriting is a lot tighter and the variety of singers gives enough of a variety. Page’s sound seems to exhibit some evolution as well, especially considering the caliber of talent he worked with on the title track and “Where Did You Go?,” one of the obvious standouts of the album. Other standouts include “Addicted,” “Love Mistaken,” “Carry On,” and “Gimme Plenty.” Basically, the majority of the album is a standout. There’s still a couple soft spots, but this is a solid album and worth the time looking into.

Released April 2012 on Nettwerk Records.

REVIEW: Above and Beyond – ‘Anjuna Beats Volume 9’

By: Jax Spike

Originality, quality, creativity, and innovation are terms one could use in describing the Anjunabeats compilation series from the famed trio of Above & Beyond (and the other musicians, producers, and record label owners that have been involved over the years). Previous Anjunabeats releases have had some really epic, uplifting moments and have set the standard in which most other compilation series should emulate and strive to be like. I personally count the sixth and seventh volumes of this amazing series as some of my all-time favorites and always look forward to each new release. With that being said, sometimes when you set the standard so high, you eventually fall short at times; that can be said, to a certain degree, with Anjunabeats Volume 9.

Now don?t get me wrong, this newest Anjunabeats release is chock full of great tracks, and Above & Beyond have provided a superbly-mixed listening experience. This album seem to have less epic moments than the previous releases. I am sure many of you remember the first time you heard such tracks like ?Battery Life,? ?Aurora,? ?Madness,? or ?Air for Life? from previous releases. Volume 9, though, still provides a very enjoyable experience from beginning to end, and you’ll never be tempted to skip forward to the next track.

Volume 9 comprises two discs; the first is the more laid back of the two, utilizing modern, melodic, and emotive sounds. It opens with the ambient track “Tokyo,” by Above & Beyond, which sets the progressive tone for the next few songs, including Breakfast’s “Median” and Andrew Bayer and Matt Lange’s “In and Out of Phase.” The set starts to pick up intensity and energy with another Above & Beyond-inspired track with the inclusion of the futuristic anthem “Formula Rossa,” before sliding into the electro-infused trancestep sound of “On Our Own” by Maor Levi and Bluestone. Toward the closing of the first set, we are introduced to the big room thunder of Genix’s “Higher State,” while Above and Beyond’s “You Got to Go” is remixed by Kyau and Albert into a lush, atmospheric trance opus that helps usher the end of the first set.

Disc two is the star in this set, filled with many high energy tracks made for the dance floor- especially the tracks from Mat Zo and Arty. The set starts with the techy electro drop of Zo’s “Electrified,” followed by the rock-like synths of “Bipolar.” The set continues to progress with the hypnotic sounds of Jaytech?s ?Overdrive? and synth-frenzy of Nitrous Oxide?s ?iPeople,” even though I do miss the more epic, uplifting style from “Aurora.” Andrew Bayer and Molly Bancroft’s “Secrets” is the best vocal track on this compilation, while Arty’s piano-driven “Kate” follows up nicely afterwards. What is arguably the defining moment of Anjunabeats 9 is the collaborative effort between Mat Zo and Arty on “Mozart.” This track picks up where “Rebound” and “Around the World” left off, with rattling percussion and staccato big room synths that creates an explosive funk-charged house fusion sound that cannot be denied. Genix makes a final appearance with Mike Koglin on the wobbly trance outro track “Dyno” that signals the end to this release.

While Anjunabeats Volume 9 may lack some of the luster of earlier volumes in the series, the mix and transitions between tracks are masterful and absolutely seamless, harmonious, and at times completely unnoticeable and very well thought-out from a technical and track selection standpoint. If you are looking for a more vocal-heavy and uplifting trance release, then get Above & Beyond’s Group Therapy from last year. Every track on this compilation series is really good and absolutely enjoyable; it’s a great addition to any trance and progressive lover?s collection.

 

 

Review copy provided by the record label.??

CD released October 2011 on Anjuna Beats Records.