Guest Dr. Krelm Posted July 19, 2004 Share Posted July 19, 2004 Artist: Compilation Album: Chosen #2 Label: Hadshot Genre: Progressive Trance Year: June 2004 Tracklist 01. Tiefschwarz – Ghostrack 02. Tomcraft on Yellow – The Race 2003 03. Pierre Hiver – Da Funk 2K4 (Pierre Hiver Rework) 04. Haris – Fashoinist (Turbo Hoover Mix) 05. Dark Monks – Insane (Steve Murano Remix) 06. Mara – Desanitize (Terminalhead Remix) 07. Designer Tech – Get Ready 08. D-Formation – Starstuff (Simon & Shaker Bladerunning Mix) 09. Marc O’Tool – DJ Poetry 10. The Dominatrix – Sleeps Tonight (Black Strobe Remix) With the second (and with any luck not the last) installment of the Chosen series, Yaniv seems to take more of an Elektro track with his selections. There are the in-your-face straight-up electro pieces (Tiefschwarz, Dominatrix) bookending a wide range of similarly-influenced bastard children. Intentional or not, Chosen #2 takes a step back from the dancefloor and really challenges the listener. This is absolutely compilation for the open-minded, but once you get into it - damn, what a ride. 01. Tiefschwarz – Ghostrack The CD opens with a track from Tiefschwarz – a legendary act in German electronics through their endless years as globe-trotting DJs producers, and remixers. A funky house bassline combines with elektro klangs & bells, and kitcshy samples forming an exercise in feel-good funk. This isn’t a peak dancefloor track, but watch people try not to groove early in the night. This is electro-house at its very fucking best. 02. Tomcraft on Yellow – The Race 2003 No matter how many times I hear this track, I have no idea what to make out of it. Absolutely over-the-top in all aspects, but it still somehow manages to stay intriguing. I wouldn’t play this in a set (ever), but it’s cool – in a 7am post-gas huffing, sucking stale beer out of the carpet sort of way (that is meant as a compliment for any otherwise sane person who should be confused ). 03. Pierre Hiver – Da Funk 2K4 (Pierre Hiver Rework) Hellooooo guitars. I’ll say it now – I’m not a fan of electric guitars in dance music, and this track is pretty much just that. Very simple, lots of guitars – not much else to it. This one has me hitting the forward button 3 minutes in, but then again, I’m probably not the best person to judge it. Waiting for a Skazi remix…. 04. Haris – Fashoinist (Turbo Hoover Mix) We are redeemed from guitar hell. Bubbly funky house-trance crossover is on the order for this track. “Fashionist” is an extremely simple, straightforward track. It gets to business in the groove and doesn’t have any huge surprises. Bubbly acid-bassline and a repeating vocal sample drive the track through various percussion schemes. This one will absolutely burn up a progressive dancefloor – granted it would get boring for the nearly 9-minute duration of the track, but in the hands of a DJ who knows how to drop this sucker in at the right moment, watch out for your legs. They will be in flaming pain. 05. Dark Monks – Insane (Steve Murano Remix) “Insane” starts out with a nice tough agressive tekkish groove – before it gets destroyed with a huge dramatic vocal breakdown. This track is not for the diva-weary - alas, I’m not one of those. The progression and groove are good here, but unfortunately the vocal kills it for me. Were there a non-diva version of this track, I would be cleaning up my boxers – as it is, this one is so sadly not my game despite one of the sweetest electro-tech grooves I’ve heard in awhile. 06. Mara – Desanitize (Terminalhead Remix) Now onto my favorite track on the CD. I’m a breaks fiend, no secret about it. Terminalhead create a deep sultry breakbeat masterpiece designed to rock all the world’s dirty backroom sound systems. While Mara’s original pieces have never excited me, they are one of those artists who create the tools that a talented remixer can turn into a unique opus that transcends the styles of both artists (browse my vinyl collection for examples ). This is no exception – Terminalhead’s minimalistic percussive breaks meets Mara’s twisted moody abstraction, with a small dose Sarah Whittaker’s voice sparsely sampled throughout to perfection. Wicked. 07. Designer Tech – Get Ready While the best track is past, the CD fortunately doesn’t take a rest. Next up is the dirty tribal of Sascha Andres’ Designer Tech. This is a fantastic tribal-tek piece that would be fitting of the Electribe or Mutekki sound. A massive throbbing bassline and deep percussive groove drives the track with tiny hints of melody throughout. Very strong. 08. D-Formation – Starstuff (Simon & Shaker Bladerunning Mix) Continuing the tribal groove are the Spanish progressive masters – Dimas remixed by Simon & Shaker. If you have heard a progressive DJ in the last year, then certainly this track has rocked your ass, even if you didn’t know it. Nevertheless, it hasn’t lost any of the original luster from its initial release on Intenso. A driving tribal-tek groove builds into a massive melodic breakdown which explodes in a floor-killing climax. This track is destined to still be rocking floors for years to come. Progressive trance doesn’t get any better than this. Period. 09. Marc O’Tool – DJ Poetry It’s time to wind things down. Keeping us in the mood is German man o’ the moment Marco O’Tool with his trademark dub-tek sound in “DJ Poetry”. This displays Marc’s usual quality, but nothing revolutionary compared to his usual sound. The vocals are a tad grating but *just* spase enough not to ruin it. Save this one for the after-hours – it’ll work, trust me. 10. The Dominatrix – Sleeps Tonight (Black Strobe Remix) Closing the compilation is a bizarre retro-EBM-influenced elektro track. This is certainly not for the dancefloor, but it’s fun, even if only for personal reasons (too much Skinny Puppy & Frontline Assembly as a teenager ). Very original ending to an extremely varied story. Overall, this is a very nice compilation. There are definitely a couple “easy” dancefloor hits (#7, 8), but this one also also ventures into deeper territory (#6, 9), and also into some sicker tracks that are also just enjoyable for pure listening pleasure (#1, 2, 10). This isn’t going to be a CD that just ends up as a “useful tool” in my CD case – it’s found a space in my discman as well. 8/10 And – just in case anybody was worried, Hadhot assures “We only use real girls on our covers!”. Whew, what a relief. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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