If we had a pound for every album we reviewed by a ‘DJ at the top of their game’, we’d have £37.50; that’s £30 pounds for actually being ‘at the top of their game’ and £7.50 for any additional benefits we accrue from them being ‘one of the world’s leading DJs and producers’ on top of it. Just how many leading DJs and producers can ye have for heaven’s sake? That’s a bit like having all 338 teams in your English Football League in your Barclays Premier Division. Your Conference National, your Conference North – all the way down to your Ryman Football Leagues – and what kind of a Pyramid’s that, eh?
Not that there’s out wrong wi’ Wink, mind; he’s alright and although things might be a bit slow in kicking off this 30 track double-disc selection, by the time the frisky, rubbery funk of Sten’s ‘Back Four’ and the frothy depth-charges of Steve Bug’s ‘Summer Nights’ kick in the game is well and truly open. Not a game of two-halves exactly, more a game of thumping, heavy techno, bright and cheery acid-house given space by some sparse and uncomplicated beats.
Having already remixed the likes of Depeche Mode and Sting, indie-fans are doubtless likely to be chuffed by the inclusion of the rare Radiohead ‘Everything Is Fine’ Josh Wink remix included here; paranoid, trancey and bristling with a Caffeine rush of energy. Other rarities include Matthew Johnson’s rather nice ‘Higher States’ and The Orb’s ‘Masterblaster’.
Disc 2 opens with the spine-tingling x-filery of DJ Yello’s moody and subtle acid vial, ‘Elusiv’, breezes through East Side Scientific’s beat clipping ‘Nowhere’ before launching into a big, bright and beautiful squidgey orbit with Levon Vincent’s love bomb acid-house ‘Love Technique’. And from here on in things only get hornier: the brash latin tabs of Octave One’s ‘Blackwater’, Jeff Mill’s ‘Expanded’ and Mateo Murphy’s splendid, mind-altering ‘Shadows’ amongst them.
All courtesy of Crud: one of the world’s leading music rags with writers at the top of their game.