John Digweed brings the latest volume of the great Classics compilation from Azuli, so what tunes have made John Digweed?

Azuli presents John Digweed - Choice - A Collection of Classics (Azuli)

There was Tenaglia, Jeff Mills, Tony Humphries, Lil Louie Vega, X-Press 2, Frankie Knuckles and Derrick Carter and add another name to Classics mix album and his name is John Digweed

John Digweed is certainly a name that needs no real introduction, from his humble Hastings beginning from his famous residency with a man named Sasha at Twilo Renaissance and other places, his Bedrock label, the Bedrock productions with Nick Muir, his own nightclub to his busy deejay commitments to his ever popular Kiss 100 show. He has certainly spent the last twelve plus years, crafting his name into the worldwide draw that it is, he can play anywhere he wants, whenever he wants and that just goes with being Digweed. He played legendary gigs with Sasha, from Twilo to Space to Renaissance and not to forget the world famous Delta Heavy 1 tour in 2002. He has certainly become a clubber’s favorite, from some or all of what has been listed earlier. From his easygoing personality to his intense concentration while deejaying, he is certainly a unique character. Digweed has achieved nearly everything in his long by deejay standards career.

Azuli decided to ask John Digweed if he would do a Choice – Classics compilation and the answer was yes. This series has become famous because it is where deejays pick what tracks that inspired them and which ones they might have grown up with or played a lot. The reason that it has become so popular is because people love to see what deejays consider to be the tracks that made them.

CD 1

Voices of Africa – Hoomba Hoomba
The Grid – Floatation
T.Tauri – Joy To The World (No Felt Mix)
Hypnotone – Dreambeam (Ben Chapman 12” Remix)
Smith and Mighty – Dark House
The Peech Boys – Don’t Make Me Wait
Propaganda – Your Wildlife (Red Zone Mix)
The Beat Club – Security (Midnight Club Mix)
Sheer Taft – Cascades (Hynotone Mix)
Euphoria – Mercurial (Euphoric Original Mix)
One Dove – White Love (Scott Hardkiss’ Psychic Masturbation Mix)
Dance 2 Trance – We Came In
Desert Storm – Desert Storm
Abfahrt – Alone Its Me (Alley Cat Edit)
Underworld – Mmm Skyscraper I Love You (Jamscraper Mix)

CD 2

Babble – Beautiful (Blue Mix)
Waterlillies – Tempted (Apple Crumble Mix)
INXS – Disappear (Morales Mix)
Megatonk – Belgium (Nintendotone Mix)
DSK – What Would You Do (8 Minutes of Madness Mix)
Reese and Santonio – Back To The Beat (With The Sound)
Jody Watley – I’m The One You Need (Def Dub Version)
Saint Etienne – Cool Kids Of Death (Underworld Mix)
Hi Bias – Drive It Home
Young American Primitive – Young American Primitive
DJ H – Come On Boy (Larry Levan Remix)
Secret Knowledge – Sugar Daddy
The Cure – A Forest

CD 1

The compilation starts with the forgotten classic “Hoomba, Hoomba” with a such a mighty powerful piano line that just starts you off on the journey. “Floatation” takes you back to when progressive house was really good (ie early 1990’s) with a powerful woodwind instrument. After T.Tauri – Joy To The World (No Felt Mix), we move to the late 80’s track in Dreambeam that oozes that late 1980’s house. Who knew house could sound so good and I love classics because they take you on a musical journey. From that point, we move to “Dark House”, which is even earlier 80’s that uses percussion with a beautiful well place piano line to move it, certainly a good album so far.

The famous refrain from “Don’t Make Me Wait” will jog some people’s memories because this is the original and the funkiness of the original sends some of back to our sets of the late great Ron Hardy, who most of us never saw because he died young and we were too young to recognize house music at that time. “Your Wildlife” comes in at track seven and we are back to the 1980’s here, with you guessed it, a great piano line, it seems John Digweed loved the early house records that pushed that sound. “Security” then hits you with that Italo house sound, it reminds you of the Blackbox days!. “Cascades” hits you with a calm massive opening, with solid bassline. It has that hip house feel from the mid 1980’s and you can’t help dancing at this point. John Digweed is taking you on a musical journey with tracks that some of us were not old enough to want to hear when they got released.

Euphoria’s Mercurial continues to bash you with the happy stick, as this entire album has, the opening here is just driving and for a 1993 record that was released on Guerilla, it shows you how progressive house used to be, hypnotic and melodic and just plain driving. Scott Hardkiss’ mix of “White Love” comes in at track number eleven and while I am still recovering from “Mercurial”, Digweed does’nt let you have any rest here. You get pummeled by the driving “White Love”, released on FFRR in the early 1990’s. Which was just ahead of its time, like most things from that era.

Dance 2 Trance starts leading us into the homestretch, which is the Digweed re-edit. I think it is a nice piece of trance history and it solidly builds on each track here. Another bunch of forgotten geniuses arrive in Desert Storm, they were so ahead of their time and so was this tune, which just oozes early 90’s trance with that evil riff in the background, which is just incrible. There has been some lovely stuff from Mr.Digweed for this album, it is certainly the best Classics album so far from Azuli. We pass the groovy house by “Alone Its Me” to the final track here.

The Jamscraper Mix of the Underworld track “Mmmm Skyscraper" ends disc one here. The 1993 release on JBO shows how great Underworld were in the early parts of the 1990’s. A truly forgotten gem of music history and more people need to hear this beauty.

CD 2

Disc two starts with more progressive house from the 1994 release called "Beautiful" on Reprise featuring Babble, the haunting melody takes over, just picking up where CD 1 left off. Spooky (Charlie May and Duncan Forbes) show up in track two as the remixers for "Waterlillies - Tempted", which is from 1994, which has such an even more haunting vocal. No wonder they went from nothing to superstars, they made tracks like this and it does’nt sound that dated, even thought it is eleven years old. Now to the first song that I cannot stand, the Morales Mix of “Disappear” makes me remember why I disliked INXS, oh yes, they were an awful band and this did nothing for the song.

Digweed now takes us more into early 1990’s house, with “Belgium”, the riff is so addictive, even thought it is probably at least thirteen years old. We head next to “What would you do” as track number five and the funky house is so addictive, who knew listening to old music, could be so much fun. I rather take a ride to old music than listen to the new tripe. The amount of fun that this tune oozes is just off the hook. We skip the “Back to the Beat” as the well put track six and move into track number seven.

Jody Watley is a name that I have not heard in some time but boy could that woman sing and she brings you "I'm the one you need" but this is Def Dub Version but it allows you to realize some of the genius that Jody Watley had. Track eight sees us move to an underworld mix of a Saint Etienne track called "Cool Kids of Death", which is another track that I just loathe, I don’t see why Digweed thought it was anything special. Hi-Bias’s Drive It Home comes in at track number nine, it pushes a slow house groove on you but still nothing exciting.

What would a Digweed Classics album be without throwing in Young American Primitive? Answer not a Digweed album because he can’t resist not throwing in one of their tracks. This is just one of Young American Primitive's great hits, he is such a genius, he was last seen working with Jimmy Van M in 2001, I hope he comes back to the scene. Track number eleven features a Larry Levan remix in DJ'H - Come on Boy, he is known as the disco Godfather and someone who helped push the sound till it took off as house. Now if anyone wanted to know why Larry Levan (RIP 1991) was so good, you only have to hear this track and you instantly know that Larry was the man. He loops the vocal so well and the world really lost a legend, when his lifestyle caught up with him.

The second last song brings us “Sugar Daddy”, which is more house than trance but the vocal gets on my nerves but the compilation has been solid except for two tracks. The final track is Robert Smith’s led “The Cure”, which was another artist, that I never understood why people dug him and his voice always made me reach for the mute button.

Conclusion:
Digweed brings you a lot of forgotten gems from his real growing period as a deejay, when progressive house and trance where amazingly good. Disc 1 is incredibly solid, while Disc two slips with some lacklustre songs, Disc 1 is certainly the best of the Classics series and remember this is John Digweed. Certainly check this out, if you want to see what made Diggers and what influenced him, he rocks or you want to see how good progressive house was in the early 90’s