(Resist/Inertia)

The Notting Hill Carnival is nothing less than the biggest free street carnival in Europe. Held over two days the event attracts over a million party-goers – the main feature being the streets littered with sound systems blaring a wide range of music.

Norman Jay and his brother Joey have become the un-official ambassadors of the festival as they operate the most popular sound system – ‘Good Times’. The ‘Good Times’ series reflects the material Norman and Joey have become well known for – a varied sound consisting of a blend of funk, rare groove, soul, disco, hip hop, reggae and house. Its formula to success involves a splattering of feel good less-obvious tracks combined with some bigger tunes of the time to keep the masses interested.

Over two unmixed CDs ‘Good Times 4’ offers some fine lesser-known material from the likes of The Impressions (with Curtis Mayfield), James Brown, Nextmen, and Ten City. There is some easily recognisable stuff here as well such as Bomb The Bass’ ‘Bug Powder Dust’ along with Norman’s remix of Shapeshifters Lola’s Theme (yes, the track that is being belted right now by radio stations such as Nova).

This is a good uplifting party mix to put on for a varied crowd. It moves the tempo around nicely from a loungy laid back groove to a more peak time vibe for the more commercial dance floor. The wide ranging climate of this mix is both its strength and its weakness. Nice for some light hearted entertainment, albeit frustrating at times for the more ‘discerning’ listener (I repeat again – Lola’s Theme!).