ThE DaNcE ReViEwS
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Marcus Austin sticks one hand in the air and the other down his underwear and prepares for a big night out with a few tasty soounds.
From the opening track Rhapsody in Red you know that Archive One isn't going to be an ordinary album, and no way could it be after all it's a Dave Clark album and Dave Clark is famous, massively famous, and all over just one small set of recordings; the red series. And if you've been to any club in the UK in the last year then you'll have heard at least one of them, often copied and never bettered, the red series stands up head and shoulders above the rest of the dull and pedestrian techno normally on offer in most clubs. However there's one drawback, to get maximum enjoyment or even for that matter minimum enjoyment they have to be played at full volume and preferably in a club for you to get the best out of them. Outside a club they don't work to quite the same effect.
Archive One has the red series on it and 8 other tracks stretching from the ambient opening track, to the (very) old school hip-hop of No one's driving which contains samples from Grandmaster Five ie we're talking extremely old.
The album was supposed to be released in October but was held back as De Construction wanted to add Southside to the record. Which is no surprise, without the 4 minutes 33 seconds of Southside's techno bounce the album would be not only resting a bit too much on it's laurels, but it would also be resting on and some very naff tracks.
Southside is just too good for words, it's 4 mins 33 of the finest techno you're ever likely to hear, when it finishes you just have to reach straight for the rewind button. Another major standout track is 'Wisdom to the wise' which as a techno goes doesn't so much truck along as surge along like some rocket assisted steam train with an amphetamine loaded driver at the tiller. The track does totally unspeakable thing to you when you play it loud and that's just what we like.
The inclusion of the vocal version of Storm is a major crime against humanity, why ruin a perfectly good track with some absolute bollocks kids cartoon series voices, I half expect it to say something like "now Earthling you've seen the power of my weapons you have just 20 minutes to surrender the Earth". Then to follow it with the deadly dull 'Miles Away' which only really get's going in the last minute is an even bigger crime. Then to top it all there's 5 minutes of 'Splendour', which is anything but.
Although this has been out a few months we thought it was worth a mention anyway. Up yer Ronson and Vague are the two of the best clubs in the World as far as we're concerned and surprisingly they're both in Leeds. They were both formed out of frustration with the local music scene, tired of shite DJ's both clubs decide that what Leeds really needed was a good venue a good ambience and above all bloody brilliant DJ's. Vague was the handbag mixed with TWA's eclectic tastes and Up yer Ronson was the slightly smoother more commercial sound. Hence the Up yer Ronson collection includes two CD's mixed by Jeremy Healy and Graeme Park, and features mixes of sure fire commercial monsters like Loni Clark's 'U', Sounds of Blackness 'I believe', Nush 'U girls', Livin' Joy 'Dreamer', M-People 'Someday' Crystal Waters '100%'. The Graeme Park CD is more piano and vocal based and less bouncy than Healy's mixes, but it still gets you in the mood and it's worth every penny. It's not quite as good as the Sasha and Digweed Renaissance 1 collection the different tracks are more thrown together rather than mixed together in some places but it's still up there.
Another oldie that we missed out form the last issue is this neat little double CD collection that covers the best of hardbag from 1995 and what a bloody good year that was for hardbag. The first CD is probably the best starting off with the completely rude version of the Candy Girls Fee fi fo fum and ending on a swell with Mrs Wood Joanna and Liquid Sweet Harmony (way out west mix). This is the CD we play the most in the rage offices, bar a few minor selections, like The Grid Diablo and Reel 2 Real Conway every track is a winner The inclusion of JX son of a gun, Yosh It's what's upfront that counts and Bump I'm Rushin' and the already mentioned tracks make the CD set well worth the price. CD 2 is a bit too populist and eclectic in it's choice of tracks. The dull remixes of Felix Don't you want me and New Order Blue Monday are simply there to pull in the punters, but unfortunately they're both crap. The first decent track is track 6 Tony De Vit Burning Up followed by the excellent Blu Peter Magic, then the only other decent tracks are Li Kwan I need a man, and the mellow Justine Want me Love me.
Baby D has been big on the house front for quite some years and justifiably. The mixture of good times Essex girl and house is totally infectious, but as with all the other artists at the forefront of commercial house there's always the need to prove that you're up-front and in with the kids. The latest way is adding a bit of jungle, Simply Red Fairground, and even the bloody Christmas charity song have all had there token bit of jungle. Baby D are not that sort of band. If they're going to do Jungle then they're bloody well going to do it right.
Deliverance is not just the standard couple of ballads, four dance tunes with jungle break beats added as an afterthought, and a couple of fillers. The whole album has jungle as a central part of each song and each one has the marks of a master craftsman. Having said that they're are some duff tracks on the LP, Casanova the live track is awful. Listening to some jerk of a DJ saying "all the massive in the house" is bad enough live, it's ten times worse at home. There are also the inevitable dull ballads but surprisingly the hit track (Everybody's got to learn sometime) I need your loving is not one of them. The old Korgis classic actually translates quite well to the drum and bass riff. Other hits on the album are the Let me be your fantasy, and the current hit So pure.
