Various Artists - Absolute: Mixed by Craig Burger Queen & Sample Gee

(SonyDance/UniversalDance)

A new release from SonyDance / UniversalDance, ‘Absolute.’ gives us some of the fresh hot tracks out of the DJ bags, all mixed by two of Australia’s own talents, Craig Burger Queen and Sample Gee.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of a release like Absolute, whether I was going to be really disappointed or very surprised, so when I slid the first disc into the car stereo, I opened my ears of what was to come.

Starting off with a nice laid back track from Chocolate Factory remixers, Crazy Penis, I was instantly calmed. The lounge beat / guitar and subtle female vocals making up the track ‘You Started Something’, flows well as an introduction to the CD.

As the song nears it’s end, the mixing from Queen begins, into a more upbeat tracks from Saffron Hill, Jamiroquai and a more recent favourite on the radio waves, UKNY with the familiar Jackson sound, ‘I’m In Heaven’. However I felt something was really wrong…

I discovered that it was the mixing. It still felt like your regular compilation mix – Just crossfaded from one track to the next. It’s noticable that’s for sure. And I am easily swayed to bad opinion because of it.

I let this thought go however as the beats of UKNY are faded away with a popular track from Tim Deluxe, ‘Less Talk More Action’. Going with a little more drums, and some wacky, catchy vocals, I was again bopping to the music.

This continued for quite some time, as the house tracks became a little more electronic, but never losing the vocal aspect which kept the mood going. Suddenly, the music went more into my field of interest, with Kurtis Mantronik delivering an always fluid electro / classic original ‘How Did You Know’. I had never heard the vocals attached to this track, but I was very happy indeed… Supporter Chamonix gave it a more euphoric style, and belted her voice way over the music (an excellent effort).

Junior Jack and Junkie XL then head the charge with their own dance tracks, suddenly bringing in a harder feel, but retaining the disco nature of the first disc. Here I am, now in another room playing these tracks, but not stopping to shake my head all over the place.

It wasn’t until the next track, with that ‘Satisfaction’ sound in a different melody, that brought me to a thought. Will this song be too repetitive? In fact, I was wrong. Although the mixing wasn’t that fantastic, the KMC track that began to echo into my ears was superb. The melody is far suited to this style, rather than it’s predecessor which is playing far too much on the radio right now. ‘Get Better’ continued to play flawlessly with Electric-Madonna vocals and a dark bassline.

The CD pretty muchs finishes on a standard note with ‘Feel Alive’ from Pure Orange and local heroes, Rogue Traders with their recent hit, ‘Stay’.

The second CD I was hoping something better from. Having heard a couple of CDs from Sample Gee before, and being a more Trance orientated disc, I was sure to pleased… However again the mixes faltered by being just standard crossfades with everything sounding too clustered at times.

Starting off with a somewhat mixed opinon of a track, Alex Gold’s ‘L.A. Today’, I actually found it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but with the vocals from the lead sounding very anthem-ish. Further carrying on with the radio fave ‘U Know Y’ and a recent hard revamp of the classic ‘In & Out’ (Feat. Adeva)’, I was really happy with the ordering in tracks.

They flowed well despite the mixing (I’m sorry I keep stressing this), and the inclusion of the harder songs in the middle (including ‘Who Said’ and ‘Loneliness’) was a far better setting for the mood.

But with the hard, must come the uplifting. Three Drives’ ‘Carrera 2’ makes a grand debut in the mix, and is always a treat after a remix from Tiesto with ‘Never’.

Being a fan of progressive trance, the tracks that followed seemed to lack a bit, with exclusion from the floaty vocals of Charlotte Church and 4 Strings piercing the already exhausted ears.

The CD began to end again on a more standard point, after gaining so much composure in the middle. And as I removed the second disc from my player, I knew I had something that was for the mixed crowds…

There was definately tracks I enjoyed (more so on the first disc surprisingly), and others that I thought were pure cheese. But in the event of a party, I have an excellent tool to keep everyone…

...‘Absolute.’

You need to be logged in to add comments... Login Now

There are 0 user comments