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Mark Farina is one guy who knows how to push the sound of house music, namely that sophisticated, energetic house that he’s known for. He has the ability to deliver fresh beats with attitude or redefine the boundaries of modern funky house while maintaining the smooth sophisticated sounds of traditional deeper and more soulful house. His latest album is part of the House of Om Series. A fresh take of aligning bass filled beats, technical mastery and the soft touch of absolute sophistication together.
I guess for those well travelled house music lovers there wouldn’t be any defiance to enjoying this sound. Imagine enjoying a martini (shaken, not stirred of course) at your favourite house club and asking the bar tender what particular track is being spun forth through the speakers, no doubt that it has a good chance of possibly be a track from the House of Om series or even this particular CD. A CD that encompasses fine music guaranteed to be heard in the great underground bars/clubs of San Francisco, Chicago, New York and of course Sydney. Or even at some of best dance festivals around the globe. From the sounds of modern, up-front in your face, “can’t wipe that smile off your face” deep, soulful house to the meatier, new age, sassy and bass-filled funky infused house. You just can’t go wrong with this CD.
When you think of it, when you have a track like Lurob’s Dubalicious starting off the album you know it can only get any better. Smooth, sassy and gripping are only some of many words to describe the sound. The track gets your right foot moving forward with your left foot closely following in arrears. The calibre of track selection doesn’t end there though. Gavin Boyce’s Stick with it calves up your aural senses and adds some meaty beats to the album further followed on by some personal favourites that stood out from the compilation including a very funky and daggy disco-laced track A Brighter Life by the White Coloured Criminals, followed nicely by the bass driven forte of really funky jacking house with the track Takil by Soydan.
Soydan’s Takil has “Part-aay!” written over it. Think “Put Your hands Up for Detroit”…actually don’t even think that, what was I thinking, trying to compare a real jacking musical masterpiece to some second rate Ministry of Sound excuse for a song. No offence to Mr. Le Grande of course but Mark Farina is in a league of his own; his passion is distinctly seen through his track selection and the emphasis that differentiates him from the mundane norm. Maintaining a style that is varied and well contrasted throughout the logical flow of the album. The purity of fine music doesn’t end there though. Mark Farina’s own track, Cosmic Melody makes an appearance and is only one example of the technical wizardry of multi layering and Capella’s used throughout Farina’s mixing. For the less bass driven tracks with simple melodies, King Kooba’s Bleu gets a worthy mention as to does the final track on the compilation, Wrong Turn by Ben Armstrong and Randal Soeung.
From the particular tracks that bring you the natural synthesized splendour of the sound of piano keys to the “I need a new subwoofer to handle this much bass” sounds as well as the saxophone infused, jazzy melodies in some tracks, a varied approach sees this maestro elegantly bring out the best of modern house music bundled in one of the tidiest compilations of 2007.
