yohankiwi Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Artists: D-Nox & Beckers (+ guests) Title: City Lights Label: Progress Tunes Release Date: March 2008 Tracklisting: 1. Spielen HATFIELD AND BECKERS 2. Where Is The Love BECKERS 3. Crazy People (D-Nox and Beckers rmx) LOGIZTIK SOUNDS 4. Keep On HATFIELD AND BECKERS 5. Toronto D-NOX AND BECKERS 6. Paperboy (D-Nox and Beckers rmx) LUETZENKIRCHEN 7. Inside out (D-Nox and Beckers rmx) VISIONARY FT. MYKEL 8. What Is Real (Make U Move Mix) D-NOX AND BECKERS 9. Blew (Beckers rmx) ANTIX 10. Don't Sleep (D-Nox and Beckers rmx) SUGIURUMN 11. Something For Your Mind D-NOX AND BECKERS 12. Look At That HOMERUN 13. Alphavella VELKRO, D-NOX AND BECKERS As mentioned in one of my posts earlier, it really took a while for D-Nox & Becker´s new direction to click with me. I got Left Behind quite a while ago, listened to it a few times, thought it was cool but didn´t really pay it that much attention. When I saw their new compilation, City Lights, I thought I might give that one a try as well so I bought it, again listened to it once and thought the same thing. However, the second time I put it on (I was pretty stoned at the time I must admit), the music suddenly clicked: all the beats, bleeps, sounds, melodies, the amazing rises and falls in the music, everything all just melted together and I was completely hypnotised. I listened to the whole album straight through (something I rarely do) and loved every track. Later I also put on Left Behind again and the same thing happened (even though I wasn´t stoned that time ), and it´s now probably my favourite album of last year. And City Lights is proving to be my favourite so far this year. I personally don´t understand why people who reviewed Left Behind said they didn´t find this style of music to be psychedelic at all as I find to have lots of nice psychedelic undertones: it really sucks you in, has lots of weird sounds and bleeps that are constantly morphing, changing, rising and falling throughout the tracks. City Lights still very much follows in this vein. I´m not going to go into detailed descriptions of D-Nox & Becker´s style, because 1) I actually find it pretty difficult to describe/pigeonhole. It definately has a good minimal vibe throughout but I find them to be quite a lot crunchier and more upbeat than most minimal artists I´ve heard; and 2) because the vibe is still very similar to their previous album (if it ain´t broke, don´t fix it eh?), so those who are familiar with that album should know what to expect. I also think that Goannes nailed their style on the head with this few words describing Left Behind: it's so very dam'n good! So playfull, groovy, intriguing, refreshing, funky, maximal, minimal...perfect. That description is most definately applicable for City Lights as well. However, there are some noticeable differences between the two. I´d say that this album has a more upbeat and funky feeling to it than the last album, with more housy elements and more grooves than Left Behind (think of more songs in the same vein as Pick Up). Ít´s also has a more ´bleepy´ feel to it in general than Left Behind (think Shanghai), which is good for me as it´s all these crazy bleeps that I really enjoy about D&B´s music. Therefore, it's safe to say that City Lights is more club/dancefloor orientated than its predecessor, and as such is a little less experimental and one could say a little more commercial. But to be honest, if that´s the case then I really don´t really care as this music is currently top of my list to hear played on a big soundsystem dancing my ass off to it All in all, I think I prefer this album to Left Behind: it´s another absolute stunner of a release by two of my favourite producers of the moment. Favourites: 1 (!), 2 (first two are wonderfully hypnotic), 4 (!), 7 (so funky this one...), 8 (!!), 9, 10 (! jazz and minimal, love it!) 12, 13 Score: 9/10 NB: There is little new material on this album, it is basically a mixed compilation of some of their best tunes and remixes from last year. However, it's still worth picking up if you already have most of these tracks IMO, if only for the lovely mixing on the album that gives it a wonderful flow and makes it easy to listen to your favourite D&B tracks one after the other Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkeletonMan Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Nice review! How's the mixing done? With room for oneself to mix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yohankiwi Posted April 9, 2008 Author Share Posted April 9, 2008 Nice review! How's the mixing done? With room for oneself to mix It´s like the mixing of the mixed version of Left Behind, but yeah there´s definately room for oneself to mix with Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkeletonMan Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Perfectomundo Hmm, I wasn't aware Left Behind also came in an unmixed edition ... Oh well, the mixing there leaves room for mixing too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzzman Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 I have listened to this once! And my first impression is that this album is boring as hell! Sounds completely similar all the way through... Maybe i need some more listens to find the beauty of it, since you are talking so good about it here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goa Bill Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 There are a few gems here. Unfortunately most of them were played to death already in the last year. Yet with such killer mixing and flow it's a winning package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaySatanicHippie Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 this isbasically a mixed collection of singles and remixes, right? not a "real srtist album" of new tracks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yohankiwi Posted April 16, 2008 Author Share Posted April 16, 2008 this isbasically a mixed collection of singles and remixes, right? not a "real srtist album" of new tracks? yas, that be right. i´d never heard any of the singles before though, so it was all new to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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