Review: "Trance"
Karen Silkwood's car
Various Artists - "Trance"
Rumour Records CDRAID 508
11 tracks, 74:16 playing time
This compilation is subtitled "progressive house/tribal
beats/adventures in dub" and that's a pretty accurate description of
the contents. I'll review each track individually and rate them on a
scale of 1 to 5 stars.
First some global comments: this is a damn fine comp, and surprisingly
up to date. My only complaint is that on a CD compilation of this
type, it's really not worth putting the full 12" mixes. For instance,
the Boomshanka track is close to 10 minutes long. Fine for trancing
out, I suppose, but it can get fairly boring. I suppose for DJs with
CD players (hi pete) this is a godsend, but for the rest of us normal
humans, it's irritating.
Sound quality ranges from fair to good.
HERBAL INFUSION - The Hunter (herbal club mix)
A great track with organ melody and tribal chant samples.
Makes a nice opener with a midtempo swingy track. *****
HAVANNA - Schtoom
Has a nice transformed chord progression which moves into a
conga driven drum section laced with deep bass and tribal
samples. Stella-ish synth chords top it off. ****
THE AGE OF LOVE - The Age Of Love (watch out for stella club mix)
Jam&Spoon remix, hence the subtitle. Starts off fairly
similar to the original, being only slightly deeper and more
flutey. Eventually some nice choir melodies come in and the
whole thing takes off. ****
BOOMSHANKA - Do What U Wanna Do
Sounds the same as the Hyper Dub mix on the 12". Very long
and very spacy. If you're unfamiliar with the original, it
has a dub-ish bass line and some sampled sax honks over a
clanky beat. Transformed sweeping chords and acid sounds come
in halfway through and take the track higher. ***
REACT 2 RHYTHM - Intoxication (dubfield mix)
I can't recall the original for comparison but this one has a
pleasant enough piano chord based theme. Doesn't really move
me though. **
THE ALOOF - On A Mission
Although I greatly prefer Fabio Paris' 13 minute trance
workout on the 12", this mix is still pretty good. It is
smooth and housey rather than minor key and tribal like the
remix. If you can track down the 12", the Paris mix is *****.
This one is only ***.
UNCLE BOB - Uncle Bob's Burly House
A rather minimal piano + bleep excursion. Burly is probably
the last word I'd ever use to describe it, but who ever
believed in truth in advertising anyway. Fractured vocal
snippets add trippy interest. ****
BIZARRE TRACKS - Sensory Delight
Major chords superimposed over minor key bass line for
interesting dissonant tension. It all comes together 5
minutes in. Sporadic dub-ish vocal snippets thrown in for the
hell of it. Nice and weird. ****
THE DRUM CLUB - U Make Me Feel So Good (the deep 'n hard mix)
Definitely deep, with subsonic dub bass and that vocal "ow
wow" sample that was used in the Orb's "Blue Room". This
would really shake your bones in a club. Yum. *****
ACORD ARTS II - Body (the zoom snake charmer mix)
A staple of the SF rave scene. Loads of tribal drumming and
vocal samples on top of a hypnotic bass groove. Hard to
explain but easy to dance yourself into a trance while
listening to... *****
MIND OVER RHYTHM - The Crossing
Frantic but deep, building to an uplifting chord progression.
Really really good. ****
That's it. This one will transport you to another dimension, and I'd
unhesitatingly recommend it.
--
Jon Drukman (God's personal DJ) uunet!sco!jondr jo...@sco.com
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Always note the sequencer - this will never let us down.
David Kelly
> Various Artists - "Trance"
> Rumour Records CDRAID 508
> 11 tracks, 74:16 playing time
> That's it. This one will transport you to another dimension, and I'd
> unhesitatingly recommend it.
I'd second that.. And I like the fact that they left full mixes on it..
I saw a compilation the other day with 28 (!) songs on it and each song
had like a 2:30 playing time! Who can listen to a song that is 2 minutes
long?!
The Trance compilation is especially good for those people who are saying
'what is this progressive house stuff?' because I find more of the stuff
on there to be a lot closer to the (incredibly bad term) progressive or
dub house realm..
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'I'll take your brain to another dimension!'
'Pay close attention!'
___________________________
kel...@cybernet.cse.fau.edu