Sábado 7 Nov 2009, 13:24

Jesse Roses' second stab at an annual round up, featuring mixed and unmixed CD's of tracks from the labels nine releases in the last 12 months. Whilst certainly not as prolific as others, Mr Rose clearly has his finger on the quality control pulse. Moving away from the fidget house sound he created as soon as it became a formula, his restless appetite to find and develop talent is demonstrated aptly by handing Electronic Beats favorites Zombie Disco Squad mixing duties, and including two of their productions on the unmixed disc.

The unmixed versions of these tracks serve as a handy addition, but I can't really see people buying this for the individual songs unless you are label collecting obsessive or DJ. I am more than happy to have the full length versions of songs such as Riva Stars' awesome 'Squash' which updates Derrick Carter's boompty template for the 21st Century but I want to hear this in context, and that's where Zombie Disco Squad really come into their own.

Mixing from a limited pool of songs to make such an effective mix can't have been and easy task for the Pan-Berlin-London pair. Whilst not exactly groundbreaking, the sequencing and flow really show Nat and Lucas' skills as DJ's, gleaned from an increasingly hectic touring schedule. Never boring the mix starts out with low slung electro of Jan Drivers 'Rat Alert' before gently tightening the tension screws bit by bit with a brace of Oliver $'s before dropping the first bomb of their mix, their very own 'Vie'. From then the house gets woozier and wonkier, crunching from Jesse Rose & Action Man's 'Wind it up' to Idiotproof's crowd pleasing 'Gorilla'. As a label compilation this serves admirably, as a DJ mix it excels itself.

TEXT: GARETH OWEN

electronic beats
Derrick Carter
Jan Driver
Jesse Rose
Riva Starr
Zombie Disco Squad