luke fair - os.0_3
.. and so ireallylovemusic gets to hear the famous dance groove from the bedrock family.
having known a few progressive house djs over the years, many times have i heard passing mentions of the bedrock style, with faces aloft and a knowing grin of pleasure induced memories. this release forms part of the subtitled 'original series' and is a mix cd put together by canadian luke fair, a man who is being hailed as a real master of the art by such leaders of the pack as danny howells and deep dish, so you would like to think they know what's going on.
the mix is kind of what i expected, happy grooves, very funky, but a little bland for my ears. well, that is until we get to the fourth track, 'mode aint no' by arcade, where the electro spark is upped a level, a certain more edginess begins to creep into the melodic smoothness. from then on, this track then seems to lift the mix out of the usual 4/4 sound, and direct the rest of the seamless mixing into more interesting areas. though the appearance of the old/new version of 'Rondo Veneziano' made my ears somewhat prick up, especially when considering the fact that prior to my musical awakenings, i bought that dreadful album on cassette having been fascinated by the concept of robots playing a disco-fied version of chamber music. though i have not heard the music now for over 20 years, the appearance of the well known 'La serenissima' was a little too close the edge of childhood pain, so let's move on. i will admit that i dont recognise many of the artists featured throughout the 14 tracks, but, unsurprisingly, they all work together. from the happy old school italio-piano house groove of 'when in rome' by skylark, the spiky techno enhanced electro of 'leger electric' by recent annie remix guru sebastian, to the superbly moniker'd mashtronic and the funky electro trance beast that is 'supernova', towards the excellent driven bass funk motions of torley's 'wong xristophan' (!) which brings the mix to a wonderfully pumped up dramatic conclusion, before the natural comedown that is lifelike's 'waves;
having not stepped in a club for many a year, i can easily admit that if i were to be subjected to this type of set at ear splitting, bass defying volume, i dont think even i could resist a shake of the spine, which is surely the point and a cant say fairer than than that now can i?