A CD mixed by 2 up & Coming DJs that proclaims to take us on a \'journey\' is given the once over here, will it live upto expectations or will it be a non-starter ? For all Hard House Fans.
Described by the Website as :- One of the biggest events on the clubscene in Scandinavia is Clubbers Journey 2002 held this August in Norway. The theme this year is UK clubbing. We have asked the 2 top Dj's Loop and Subsoniq to compile and mix a cd each with the best of the best from the dancefloors this summer. The result is this 2CD deluxe digipack "Clubbers Journey 2002". If you have tried real clubbing you will find that this is the real stuff - No pop shit! Dj Loop is well known as a mixer for Trancentury and Klubbheadz and his own releases on the UK label Freezing Point.
Dj Subsoniq is one of the fastest rising stars on the clubscene. His has already played a vital role in party concepts like Plur and Paragon.
Full Tracklist
Disc 1: Mixed & Compiled by Loop: KNUCKLEHEADZ ft. JUSTIN BOURNE Funky Ass Bassline, F1 The Music, CENOGINERZ Git Down (Bad Habit Boys Mix), ORGAN DONORS 99.9 (Pagano Dirty House Mix), PSYCLONE Good Side (Andy Farley Remix), NICK SKITZ Excalibur 2001 (Ballon Remix), RR FIERCE Neuronex (Nick Sentience Remix), UNTIDY DUBS VOL. 4 R.I.P., DJ LOOP Fascinate (Prime Mover Remix), PRIME MOVER Black Dogs, ALI WILSON Dirty Tranzing, LEE HASLAM Music Is The Drug, GREG FERGUSON The White Stuff, JOHN WHITEMANN Annihilation, INGO Like This, PAUL GLAZBY Motherf*cker
Disc 2: Mixed & Compiled by Subsoniq: QUESTION MARK The Birds (Paul Maddox Remix), LISA PIN-UP Rock With Me, TIDY GIRLS PRES. LISA LASHES Unbelievable, WOODY Da Beat, MUZZ AND BIG NODDY Beat Of The Kick Drum, BEN KAYE & SYNERGY Hard Pop Sausage, VINYL COUP To The Bone, SUCCARGO Once Again, INGO Move, E-TRAX Let\'s Rock (BK\'s Nukleuz Remix) RR FIERCE & DMF Rock Da Spot (Original Mix), ANNE SAVAGE Real Freaks (The Hoodlums All Freaked Out Remix)
CD1 Starting with a typical Heavyish Hard House beat & Bass, the \'journey\' is underway with a tune by the name of \'Funky Ass Bassline\' and although quite catchy, I\'m not sure if I\'d call it too funky, but then 3 minutes in it gets better after the breakdown and is a nice tune to begin with. A virtually Seamless mix takes you into the second tune, \'F1 - The Music\' which although I\'m not the biggest hard house fan alive, has my slowly tapping my head so it must be doing something right. A real heavy beat in this breakdown reminds me of something that if pitched up a lot would fit into an old gabber techno song. The synth in this is fairly basic & repetitive, but with a beat like this you don\'t really notice. Next up is Untidy Dubs - Volume 4 (R.I.P) with a title reminding me of the great Tony De Vit, lets see if the tune matches the masters style.... A nice beat and breakdown later and the weirdest sound comes into it, I don\'t know how to explain it, but then the bass kicks in and it\'s a good tune, the rolling bassline carrying into the next transition, and a tune called \'Get Down\' with a crowd sample and a slow beginning which with the clever use of a breakbeat sounds really good, progressing into an amazing breakdown, almost DJ Scot Project-esque, and afterwards the tune doesn\'t really get any better, just a beat and a simple bassline taking us onto the next level of the journey, a remix of an Organ Donors song, which begins with an extremely heavy low bass sound, and then onto a catchy higher bass & beats taking us eventually into another low bassline like at the beginning of the next song, which is remixed by one of the top UK Producers, Andy Farley and has a typical sound of his, a nice progression of sounds, a great tune comes out and then the usual beat to accompany such a tune, but this is more complex than most of the others so far, and fits nicely in, hopefully the rest of this cd will now follow suit. Sure enough the next song is the familiar \'excalibur\' sample which used to be on a film I\'m sure, although the name eludes me right now, and a nice breakdown later I\'m gagging for air, but the tune that comes in grabs me by the neck and shakes me some more.
The Journey is definitely getting better now onto some really good songs, will it keep it up ? I hope so. On paper the next song should be good, remixed by one of my personal favourites, Nick Sentience, it has a familiar start and a nice voiceover sample progressing into a funky ass bassline, which would be more reminiscent title for this than the first tune! A typical Nick Sentience tune this is, nothing amazingly special, but fitting nicely in at this point of the mix. At this point I notice another good transition, which has been top notch so far to the point that I\'ve hardly noticed them whatsoever. A Remix by Prime Mover of this song follows, the song actually being written by the DJ for this cd, DJ Loop. Very bass heavy, it does take a long time to get going, but when it does I really like the sound, stabby and pretty ear pleasing too. The next tune is actually by the remixers of the last, Prime Mover, and I don\'t actually notice a lot of change in the bass sounds between the two, although this one gets going a bit faster, less emphasis on a long buildup, and it pays off for the time being, with more nice synths used and this carries on into the next mix, which is much heavier and funkier on the bassline, rolling more than the last one which was longer and deeper. Although the title of this tune is \'Dirty Trancing\' it still retains more of a hard house sound to it in the elements used, bar the bassline which is really good and justifies the use of the great \'T\' word....
Up next is one of my personal favourites lately, and definitely more of a Hard Trancer than the previous one, Lee Haslam - Music is the Drug. With a voiceover about how the music sounds 51 times stronger than cocaine, hallucinogenic than acid, and 51 more times explosive than ecstasy, like getting \'a personal visit from god\' Well I don\'t know if that\'s true, but what is true is that this tune does rule and I want to go back and hear it again just for the great tune it has, but I must continue... The next tune is definitely more Hard House though with a minimalistic bassline and a squelchy sound bringing the main bit of the tune up, \'ground zero\' is apparently where we are now, and a really deep bass line and drumkick try to bring that point up, and do so in a fairly effective manner into the next tune, aptly entitled \'Annihilation\' and my god the bassline does that the moment the song begins, really loud and then it goes deep and the \'pull back\' effect of a DJ into a really funky sounding tune, which once the bass accompanies it again does give a fairly good justification for the title. The next to last song is the popular Ingo - Like This, using a voiceover I\'ve heard many times, the sad thing is that this tune actually lasts less than 2 minutes, which is a shame because it\'s good, although the way it\'s been used, as a prequel to the last song, Paul Glazby\'s \'Motherf*cker\' is good, as the bass and beats mix well. A good track this is, but I never really got the feeling that the journey peaked or even ended to be honest. Overall the mixing is top notch, and I\'ll rate this 8/10 because it does provide a journey, but all journeys have to end, and I\'m yet to actually feel the end of this one!
CD2 The second coming of the journey begins with Question Mark - The Birds, using a familiar 1 to the 2 to the 3 sample in it, with a fairly simple bassline which brings us into the birds sample, which is effective if after a while a little irritating, but it\'s not bad by any means, mixing nicely into the second song, Lisa Pin Up\'s \'Rock with Me\' which is a really familiar tune to me and I\'ve actually realised I was first hearing this back in 1999 when Helter Skelter was going strong, and I really liked it, so thanks to the CD for giving me a song ID! Anyway it does sound good to get the journey going, it has an effective sound and is really catchy tune which is nicely mixed into Tidy Girls Presenting us Lisa Lashes and her monster hit - Unbelievable which is fairly basic to begin with and although it progresses nicely is nothing floor breaking but fills in nicely, but wait, the tune suddenly shows why its unbelievable, its got an ending I have to describe as awesome, it took its time, but now its rocking, and this cd is really pumping out and I reach to turn it up....
The next song in the mix is basic but after a while again gets going, although it\'s not really taking me anywhere at the moment sadly, would\'ve probably been better before the previous two tracks as it does get better but is eclipsed by them in my opinion. It has a typical hard house bass which some people use in a derogatory manner saying all of it sounds like this, and I\'d tend to agree that it\'s not really great so I\'ll go onto the next tune which although it takes a good 3 minutes to warm up is really good with the use of the bass in it to the matter that I\'m turning it up to test my speakers with it and it does a great job with the low sounds, add a beat and bleating bass to it and you have the rest of the tune which mixes nicely into the weirdly titled \'Hard Pop Sausage\' which makes me think the tune may well be weird too and the tune incorporated into it does has ocassional moments when that is true, the next tune begins immediately with a heavy bassline and beat which has some funky moments to it every so often, reminding me of work from BK & Nick Sentience and this one has the weirdest breakdown which I can\'t really put words to but does a great job of the journey we\'re being taken on.
Following on from this is another good tune which has a typical 4/4 beat and a high pitched sound used to good effect, to really pump on into the next tune, by Ingo, with lots of \'move dammit\'s being heard it doesn\'t do it for me personally but I know from the sleeve that we\'re in for a treat next, E-Trax and let\'s rock which is a personal favourite of mine and with it being the BK remix, you can bet it\'ll rule and it sure does, bringing back memories for me of old CDs I\'ve not dug out for a long long time. The next to last song has a typical beat once again which isn\'t exactly inspiring, and maybe why some hard house producers are incorporating more trancier sounds into their songs lately. The final Song is by Anne Savage and is called Real Freaks, and although really nice and using a variety of beats , I don\'t feel that this has been as good a journey as the last one, don\'t get me wrong, it\'s well mixed, but maybe the title of the compilation shouldn\'t be journey because I don\'t feel like I\'ve been on one and won\'t be having any jetlag tonight. This CD earns 6/10, good mixing but no real journey on it.
Ian
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