(Sony Dance)

I looked forward to this album with interest. Ben Korbel is an exceptionally talented and well-respected Sydney DJ, but my only personal knowledge of Craig Burger Queen is from his involvement with the Sydney launch and rapid demise of Miss Moneypenny’s. The music there was glam, happy, and to my taste, a bit handbaggy – what would this album, billed as a “genre-busting mixture of the best of breaks, electro-clash and punk house”, sound like?

Both albums were apparently mixed live – Ben Korbel kicked off CD 1 with some electro from Marina Topley-Bird and into the electro-punk of Mirwais’s Miss You. Can’t say I’m a fan of electro-clash – to me the clean electro sound of Gus Gus (whose David is remixed by Medicine 8 here) appeals so much more. Things get darker and harder soon, with two fabulous remixes from Moguai – a new remix of X-Press 2’s Lazy, and a superb version of Planet Funk’s Who Said (Lost in the UK). This is where the album really takes off – tough, funky, and impossible not to dance to – Which One is Which from the Clones picks up the pace some more with some impossibly fast, catchy Island rap, and segues neatly into a Stanton Warriors mix of Apollo 440’s Dude Descending Staircase. Yum – I’m developing a taste for this kind of breaks – I will have to find out more about it. Korbel doesn’t let up with the genre-hopping, and isn’t scared to mix up some classics with the ultra-new, and both Prodigy and Leftfield happily share the album with their 10-year younger brothers. This is a superb CD, successfully forcing a wild mash-up of sounds into an enjoyable and danceable album that really works as a concept.

I enjoyed the second CD less – it was both more vocal and much lighter in tone than Korbel’s – Craig Burger Queen clearly enjoys the disco side of dance music more. Unfortunately I can’t stand it, and Stereo Soundclash’s Stand Back was enough to prejudice me against the whole CD. As the “title track” for the whole concept album, it was clearly important to Burger Queen, and I do understand the intention to mix disco with electro and some tougher music as well. It almost works – when I relaxed and went with what he was trying to do, I could enjoy the vocal house of Pure Orange’s Feel Alive (especially the Gary Numan samples) as well as the awesome Three Girl Rhumba from Klonhertz. But Mustapha Dance by the Clash?!? Too much of a sound clash for me…That said, this was Mrs Technogeekery’s favourite bit of the album, it brought out the 80’s punk-ette in her, and I’m sure this CD will appeal to others far more than it does me.

This is an interesting and varied locally-produced double-album by two talented DJs – give it a go, I think you’ll be pleased you did.