Last reviews of the year...

DJ Lillyanne-Live @ Lost On Main 10/26/07
About the only thing bad about this mix is that it's only an hour and a quarter of a two hour mix and those last 45 minutes were so good y'all blog to all your mates about how damn good it was. As it stands the first 75 or so minutes of DJ Lillyanne's live mix here in Chico are good enough for me to blather on about to all of my mates. Smooth and sleazy meets druggy and desultory this mix is what the new West Coast sound is all about-ECLECTIC. Lillyanne is always taking chances and it doesn't always make sense but this live mix does point clearly to a West Coast "beard science" invasion that Rub N Tug and Prins Thomas must surely admire.

Kaliber feat Elodie-Is This For Love single (Toolroom Trax)
Brand new single from Toolroom who have been responsible for some of the summer's biggest tracks. This one is from the mysterious Kaliber, who is actually John Dahlback (cousin to Jesper), and has churned out about a bazillion numbered tracks in the past two years under the Kaliber alias that up til this point had been self-released. The original is a beautiful string laden vocal track heavy on the glitch. Nic Fanciulli's remix is a disappointment offering little new insight into the song or any shocking re-calibrations of the original. Toolroom-er Mark Knight, fresh off of his smoking remix of Underworld's "Beautiful Burnout", turns the in the best mix of the bunch with a clicky, tribal stomp reminiscent of Peace Division's new work on Crosstown Rebels. Paolo Bolognesi gets all Luca Bacchetti with his melodic interpretation while Phatjak offers yet more shades of minimal (blech!). Alex Celler closes things out with a dreamy slice of dream motorik techno that hums with the crisp (and memorable) melodic hooks of an Aril Brikha.

Little Louie Vega-Back In The Box 2xCD (NRK)
Please read my upcoming blog posting about how generation two of edm fanatics are having a look back with Gen III getting in on the craze in a big way. So here we are twenty years into the game and now suddenly we are looking back to the the last decade when grunge ran out of gas and millions of alt rockers jumped ship for the greener pastures of mid 90s house music. This disk is a salute in a big way to all of those second generation dance music fans in the mid 90s who thought their love could save the world. Good times. Disk one is for the circuit music fans and is a little more on the commercial tip with irritating tunes like Nick Holder's "Summer Daze" and Crystal Water's "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless). Disk two is like a vintage night at the Paradise Garage nears its final closing with master at work Louie Vega in charge. The tracks are all underground as f*ck and still tear up dancefloors to this day. If you are looking for a good nostalgia trip this disk will fit the bill but is a second gen revisit necessary whilst we're still in the midst of a twenty year reunion?

Manic One-Live @ Lost On Main 10/26/07
Two mixes from the same party?! It sure was a good one and that's rare no matter where you live. Local spinner and longtime DJ veteran Manic One serves up a stew of nu booty that bobs and weaves like Ali in the ring. Okay, it peters out a bit at the end with some jungle but that's personal taste more than stated fact as I would have prefered Bonde Do Role or Edu K instead. Mostly it's just an amazing ghetto party mix that conjures up the muscle bound spirits of Modeselektor, Tayo, Switch, Soul Slinger, and Timbaland and gets seriously rugged all upon de mix. F*ck minimal this is what made 2007 so great-MAXIMAL. I think some folks missed the boat with all of their German techno lovin...

Mr. Rogers-Ooze System (Geomagnetic.tv)
It's hard to justify pressing a CD up these days what with costs and such, especially for a debut release. But 530 artist Mr. Rogers is a hard-working and talented mofo and must of conned some industry fat cats with tons of blow and hookers to get his debut out. I kid! Actually, Ooze System is the first of what is sure to be a resurgence of the West Coast outdoor sound back into public conciousness beginning in 2008. Actually only eight of the ten tracks on here are really good so I am not sure if Rogers will be manning the charge himself but those 8 tracks are worth talking about with lots of attention to detail and wicked synth proclavity. This guy must spend a lot of scary alone time to come up with some of those melodies. The melodies aren't the problem here, it's the breaks and basslines which don't do much and show that Roger's has some homework to do before his sophomore release.