Hot on the high heels of Boy George’s recent Essential Mix disc comes this compilation Pete Tong’s Essential Mix (London/Sire) from “Britain’s best-loved dance DJ.” This non-stop 15-track dance mix represents some of the best “modern electronic music” on record. Quintessentially hip, Tong mixes the familiar (Photek) with the unfamiliar (Rui Da Silva, Planet Funk) for an exciting dancing and listening experience. Standout cuts include “American Booty” (Jakatta), “Always” (Mr. DJ), “Muzik” (Trisco), “Deliver Me” (Sister Bliss featuring John Martyn), and “Chase The Sun” (the aforementioned Planet Funk).
Beginning with the sound of applause from a live track sample, on the song “You See The Trouble With Me” by Black Legend, circuit DJ legend Lehman earns the manufactured ovation on Circuit Sessions 4: Manny Lehman (4 Play). Here’s a man who won’t stop until you get enough, and that means making sure that the dance floor isn’t still for a moment by spinning a mix that includes Amber (“Love One Another”), DJ Donut (“All Mixed Up”), Morel (“True”), a classic vocal track such as “Check It Out” by Karmadelic with Sandy B, and “Cheeky Armada” by Illicit featuring Grandma Funk. This circuit is in session!
You may not know Jack Dangers name, but you probably know his work with the futuristic semi-industrial band Meat Beat Manifesto. On Hello Friends! (Shadow), he unravels remixes of Tino Corp. tracks by the likes of MBM, Tino, Loop Finder General, Bo Square, and Dimensional Holofonic Sound for a truly unique and diverse collection of sounds and styles. For me, the biggest surprise is that no matter how experimental many of the tracks are, the disc is very accessible. Highlights include “Christmas In Hawaii,” “Structures,” and “House Of God.”
Fauna Flash’s Fusion (Compost) is an album of drum’n bass with a German accent which also fuses with other musical styles. “Mother Nature,” for instance, with all of its references to Jah, is electronic reggae dub. “Percussion,” a “tribute to Tito Puente,” has a percussive Latin beat that’s hard to resist. “Ten” is classic dance music in all its glory, while “Sunday At The Getty” is post-modern jazz and “Question” answers with hip-hop rhymes.
The remaining tracks are fast-moving drum’n bass that suggest and encourage both fusion and contortion.
Before I say anything else about the gorgeous Solace (V2) disc by Mandalay, I want to acknowledge the dazzling taste of this British duo (Saul Freeman and Nicola Hitchcock) for their cover of Phoebe Snow’s “I Don’t Want The Night To End.” That said, I want to strongly recommend this atmospheric disc for the way that it establishes and maintains a mood that is alternately emotionally warm and eerily distant and cool. Opening track “Not Seventeen” sets the tone and tracks such as the appropriately titled “Beautiful,” “Deep Love,” “This Life,” and “Kissing The Day,” offer variations on the theme, which always involves Hitchcock’s breathy but bold vocals. If you like what you hear, the album is available as a double disc set, with remixes by Cevin Fisher, Victor Calderone, Alex Reece, and Wagon Christ (a/k/a Luke Vibert), to mention a few.