Before I write this review, I’d like to tell you what I knew about Sandy Rivera before I received this CD. Sandy Rivera is a house DJ… Right, other than a vague idea about the type of music I thought he might play, I actually knew nothing about him. My initial reaction was to post a thread in the forums asking if Renaissance were branching into a different field of music, which seemed like a strange move for their signature Master Series, or if Sandy Rivera had actually started playing a different style of music and was now a “Renaissance” DJ.

The reaction was almost unanimous. Sandy Rivera is an awful DJ who serves up the worst kind of cheese-laden rubbish and his choice as the DJ to mix the latest Master Series is a mistake to rival the captain of the Titanic ordering “full steam ahead”. Well, seeing as everyone had already made up their mind, all I had to do was write a couple of hundred words and sprinkle in a list of adjectives such as ¬_useless, garbage, awful_ or terrible and my task would be complete. Then I did what I should have done in the first place: I listened to the mix.

In all honesty, the first half of the first CD, for me at least, does nothing to debunk the views of the majority. The first three or four tracks just don’t appeal to me. Some have a great sound, such as the Jamie Lewis & Michael Watford track “It’s Over” but are spoiled by inane lyrics or voices that grate on your nerves; others have insipid or boring music that is barely saved by nice lyrical content. This early period of mediocre (un)easy listening culminates in the truly bland “Forever More” by Moloko which is the sort of 1970’s-inspired soul disco number that I would normally walk to Vladivostok to avoid!

Then, just as I was about to give up on this mix entirely, I was hit for six by a track that I am now absolutely smitten with – “Strong” by D-Pulse. The vocal on this track is simple, yet hauntingly effective, a combination in a dance track that never loses its appeal. Moreover, the riff that practically skips through the track is so infectious that I’ve been calling people just to say: “Can you hear this? Buy this track NOW!” The next section of the first mix has moments when I thoroughly enjoy listening to the music and there are other times where my concentration wanders. To say I was bored would be overstating the case, but I’m not as thoroughly engaged as I would hope – and like – to be. “Nocturnal” by Klement Bonelli for example is a tribal house track, which is always a positive, yet it takes a while to warm up, gets you to start loving it and then it rather overstays it’s welcome by dragging out far longer than is required. Still, I feel myself enjoying the music enough for my finger to stay well clear of the ‘off switch’, which is a positive.

The back end of the mix really lifts the intensity with a mixture of driving, energetic funk fuelled house and some tech edged progressive sounds that I absolutely love. Admittedly, there are some moments that cause me to cringe slightly at the lyrical content, but all in all it has a feel good vibe that would go down perfectly on a dance floor. The first disc winds down with the wonderfully named “Malteser Geezer” by Rowan Blades and Chris Lake. I am left wondering, if I’m enjoying this mix more than I anticipated, does that mean Sandy is playing vastly different music to what most people would expect or do I just have really, really terrible taste? Well, maybe I’ll really hate the second mix and get some credibility back. I guess it’s time to find out.

If the first disc was about morphing a classic (and somewhat cheesy) house sound into a more driving and at times progressive sound, the second mix begins as a purely progressive affair. It kicks off proceedings with the brilliant “Luminaire” by Buick Project, which featured on Dave Seaman’s Master Series 7. As much as I love this track I do question the logic of including the same mix as was featured on an earlier compilation in the same series, but I am willing to overlook this minor misdemeanor!

Deep tech fused sounds with dark bass lines that I would normally expect to hear in early parts of sets from Steve Lawler or John Digweed are the order of the day. In fact the sixth track, “Neontrance” by Tiger Skin, actually appeared on Digweed’s recent Transitions release. The point I am trying to make is this is not the cheesy old rubbish I had been expecting. I recognise three or four tracks on the second CD, so I hardly consider this to be a ground breaking mix. My main gripe, however, is that it takes far too long to gather momentum. After a nice opening, the pace drops off far too much for my tastes. Admittedly the music in this “lull” is quality stuff, but I’d have preferred (and expected) a more up-tempo programming. It’s not until the brilliant track “The Drill” that this mix reaches it’s potential.

From a programming point of view, the first mix is a better proposition; but I prefer the music in the second mix. However, this is more a personal preference of mine rather than a criticism of the DJ’s taste. I am sure that there will be a considerable amount of resistance from many fans of progressive towards this compilation, especially as a large section of the progressive fan base will have a preconceived notion that this mix is going to be terrible. I admit that the choice of DJ is a strange one for Renaissance and the compilation does have its faults (such as some of the mixing) but it’s much better than I expected.

Admittedly, it isn’t going to set the world on fire or add another spectrum or direction for dance music to experiment with, but it does provide some exceptional moments that somewhat dim the lowlights. This is a mix that is more likely to make you smile while you dance or listen to it at home, than make you sit up all night contemplating the message behind the music. But then, at the end of the day, isn’t that what dance music is supposed to be about?