Customer Reviews

Backspin: A Six Degrees 10 Year Anniversary Project

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I read a certain reviewer's comments about this disc, I have to smile to myself. "World music purists have never been happy with the Six Degrees label's pan-cultural mash-ups or the fact that western rock has a global influence." Pan-cultural mash-ups? How about cutting-edge musical hybrids? Purists? There is no purity in music, that's a myth.

Some public radio shows, once vibrant and influential, have now become old fashioned and stagnant, clinging to the model of space music and noodling new age, failing to see that Six Degrees is putting out some of the best music of our time. It's too early to tell how important this music will be, hell, it's too early even to find a name for a genre of this music, but one thing's for certain: this is an exciting time to be listening. Purists need not apply. You have stopped growing in your listening. Music moves forward.

"Backspin isn't meant to be profound, but it does underscore the global-village ethos that has brought the music of the world as close as the click of a key."

Translation: they aren't navel gazing here and the internet has made the world a "global village." How original, dude. Go back to sleep.

To my ears, Six Degrees is an important label that is on the cutting edge producing artists that skillfully are creating a new world music.

Sleep time with drono synths is over. Time to wake up to the next step in world music.

Six Degrees label artists cover some of their favorite tracks.
The first 3 tracks on this cd are worth the price alone. I was very happy to see that dZihan & Kamien had put out a new track and Rockit fits them well. The suprise on this cd is Bombay Dub Orchestra doing a track that is so very different from their own extremely mellow cd. Their track here is very danceable and reminds me of the late, great Lost At Last. I can only hope BDO heads in this direction and puts out an dance album.
MIDIval PunditZ work Led Zep's Four Sticks - a perfect match. The Real Tuesday Weld track took awhile to grow on me (not being an ABBA fan) but I think it is brilliant. The simplicity of Shrift's God Only Knows gets to the heart of the Beach Boys track and it works beautifully.
Weak tracks for me are the flamenco Marley cover and Banco de Gaia's Pink Floyd cover. Don't care for the vocoder and it just is too much of a Floyd copy without adding much. However, the tracks aren't bad, just not up to the strengths of the others.
If you are a fan of any of the Six Degrees label cds or artists, go to your nearest cd store and buy this now.

A solid, ambitious 10th Anniversary project that hits its target more times than it misses. I'm a big fan of this label and a great deal of its artists, so this was a no brainer. I also love good covers of older songs, reinventions of classics, as well as the very rare occasion when the cover is actually better than the original. While none of these tracks meets that mark, most are highly enjoyable. Highlights are Karsh Kale's 'Spirits In The Material World', 'dZihan & Kamien's 'Rockit', Bombay Dub Orchestra's 'Get Carter Theme' (the most obscure track in this collection, it's from the 1971 British gangster flick starring Michael Caine and DOES sound better than the original - I stand corrected), 'MIDIval Pundits 'Four Sticks' (excellent rendition of a Led Zep tune) and MNO's version of John Lennon's 'Julia', an instrumental with gorgeous vibraphone playing the melody variation. So pick this one up, and play your own 'Six Degrees' of separation.

This will take you back....Extreme re-mix versions of some of your favorites you'll recognize.
Puts whole new perspective on the original versions.
And....new songs you'll equally enjoy!
Definite purchase!
The entire CD is wonderful from track 1 to the end...hard to say that about ANY CD!

Earlier this summer, I stumbled upon Niyaz's version of The Cure's "Love Song" on Azam Ali's Myspace page. I quickly fell in love with Niyaz's lush interpretation of the classic Cure song. Not long ago I decided to buy the album BACKSPIN: A SIX DEGREES 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY PROJECT. I have to confess that I wasn't really familiar with a lot of the songs that the artists covered except for by the songs Karsh Kale, Niyaz, Jojos de Brujo, and Shrift done. Of the tracks that I wasn't familiar with, my personal favorite is The Real Tuesday Weld's version of ABBA's "The Day Before You Came". I really enjoyed the melodies and the singer's vocals on that song.I also enjoyed Shrift's cover of The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows". I really liked the delicate vocals. Most of the songs were alright but they didn't capture my heart like Niyaz's version of "Love Song" did. I think the reason why I am so blase about the rest of the album is because I am not familiar with a lot of the songs so I couldn't compare them with the original versions. I will say that it is great to hear artists from Six Degrees acknowledge their pop influences by covering a particular song from their favorite pop artist/band.

I originally bought this for Azam Ali's voice but I found my favorite "tranced" version of Rhys Fulber's, Conjure One, "Center of the Sun" cut. It is beautiful.