Customer Reviews

Cape Town

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

alright, I was not going to write anything but I am just sick and tired of all these elitist technofiles labeling everything that has a melody as 'commercial.' Why is melody bad? what world are you guys from? Melody is what music is all about. Sure, minimalistic stuff that digweed spins (example: Hong Kong and LA) is good but it is not as accessible, and you need to be in the right mood to enjoy it. Seaman tries to appeal to a wider audience, and so what? This notion that if your tracks have some sort of melody, no matter how good, then you are not a 'true' dj is nonsense. by the way, Seaman's selections, while more accessible than those of, say, sasha or digweed, still do not represent mainstream dance music. seaman is very good at mixing minimal with melodic tracks. I love this compilation, and if you liked seaman's Renaissance Awakening, you will too. enough said.

If you look back the last couple of years at the dance music seen, there is one label, Global Underground, and its flagship series of "City" albums that stand head and shoulders above the rest of the industry in terms of releasing quality house and trance mixed by top name DJ's without caving in to the temptation to produce cheesy compilation CD's filled with nothing but highly commercialized music. In fact, Global Underground has also been party to one of Dave Seaman's best previous works, Global Underground: Buenos Aires.

Needless to say, then, any album released on the GU label has some pretty big shoes to fill. Dave Seaman's Cape Town, while certainly no slouch and no doubt a pretty good album, is simply neither his, nor the label's, best work - for that I highly recommend GU: Buenos Aires or Renaissance Awakenings - two superb albums - in fact GU: Buenos Aries is my favorite of all the GU albums.

Both of Cape Town's two CD's share a common flaw - that one of the beginning tracks is a bit out of place on both discs. Without these two tracks, I'd likely award 4 stars for disc 1, and 5 for disc 2. As it is...

On disc 1, its the Futureshock remix of Moby's Porcelain. Not only doesn't it really fit, but the sound of this track (which to me seems neither housey or trancey, really) dominates almost the entire first half of the disc, and the disc never really recovers. The disc does have a good moment or two -the Ananda Project's Cascade of Colors has a nice vocal, and Vellum's Inertia and Wuarp's Gloat are both notable. In the end, though, this disc deserves 3 and a half stars at most - a bit of a dissapointment for a Seaman album.

Disc 2 is a marked improvement and for the most part ranks up with just about any other single disc from the GU albums. The only problem is that again, one track, in this case Luzon's Bagio Track, does not fit in well with the rest of the CD. Fortunately, this track doesn't dominate the sound of the CD as much as Porcelain does on disc 1, and its possible to listen straight through it without getting too distracted. On the plus side, this disc features some utterly lovely tracks and some great female vocals.

Disc 2 starts with Sacred Cycles - a nice track with a sampled narrator talking about religious tolerance in the background. Planisphere's So Many Ways is up next, which probably isn't quite up to an 'anthem' level of energy, but is none-the-less a very good hard driving track. Bleachin's Peakin' provides about a 2 minute segway from Luzon's Bagio Track into 4am by Ballroom, which is one of the discs highlight tracks in my opinion. Here some great female vocals convey the scene in a club at, you guessed it, 4AM. Eventually the disc makes it to Way Out West's The Fall - probably the most recognizable track on the disc. The energy level picks up a bit over the next couple of tracks, peaking with Zerotonine by Junkie XL, another stand out track that mixes in perfectly with what follows, Highland's No Way Out. No Way Out is hands down the best track on the disc. It lowers the energy level as to bring the listener a bit back down to reality from the high energy level of Zerotonine, and again features one of Seaman's staples - gorgous female vocals.

So, disc 2 would heartily qualify for 5 stars if not for the Bagio Track being thrown in out of place. As it is, I think disc 2 deserves 4.5 stars.

Overall, I give this album 4 stars, though disc 2 saves it from a much worse rating. And lets face it, the price of this album and its two discs is similar to most other single disc albums - so even if you don't like CD1 as I don't, disc 2 is still probably worth it for the money. None the less, before buying this album I recommend checking out most of the other CD's on the GU label - especially Hong Kong, Ibiza, San Fransisco, and of course Buenos Aries, or any of the other works I've mentioned in this review, most of which are truly deserving of 5 stars or more.

Representing the pinnacle of the evolution of Dave Seaman's trance sound, GU 016 - Cape Town is the logical extension of GU012: Buenos Aires. Showing the onward movement of the underground sound to encapsulate chunkier, darker rhythms, Seaman paints a superb soundscape with both discs.

Disc 1 is mellower, but characteristically bouncy. Starting with the high, reedy strains of Rui Da Silva, Seaman explores some quite accesible melodies, typified by Moby's "Porcelain". The disc moves into high gear with the superb placement of Mandalay, almost entirely to facilitate a mind-blowing mix into The Ananda Project's "Cascades of Color". After leaving you in high-energy-mode with the remaining tracks, Seaman progresses onto Disc 2.

There's a colloquial Tamil term that my mates and I use to describe blazing, searing, music that glows with incandescent energy - "adi-thadi". Few discs deserve this description more than Disc 2 of this mix. From the moment the spoken vocal sample of a Hindu ascetic dissolves into the fast, booming drums of Pete Lazonby's "Scared Cycles", you know there's no going back. Every track on the disc is perfectly placed, and is stand-out by itself. By the time Seaman provides the perfect closing sequence of James Holden's "Horizons", Junkie XL's "Zerotonine" and "No Way Out" (I forget the producer's moniker), you're ready to empathize with the female vocal in Ballroom's "4 A.M" - ".....I need a cigarette".

Disc 1 : Solid, melodic, without being overwhelming. 3.5 stars
Disc 2 : Adi-thadi, period. 5 stars
Reviewer's Tilt : 1/2 star
Overall : 4.75 stars. Well worth your time & money.

It is very unfortunate that people are so easily washed away by trends these days. I have always believed that true music is a product of boundless perceptional beauty, and this 2CD set is no exception. This Cape Town set is full of beautiful ambient scenery tinged with radiant trance riffs and cool progressive breaks. (If Banco de Gaia would ever spin a DJ set, this is how it will sound like!)

And while it is a very sensual set to listen to, I don't agree with many reviewers here who denounce the tunes as being "cheesy" and "commercial." Now, I could accept DJs like Paul van Dyk and Tiesto as being "cheesy," but Dave Seaman? They must be out of their minds. Dave Seaman is one of the few DJs in the world that is capable of creating a mesmerizing soundscape while maintaining stylistic integrity at the same time. I own virtually every Global Underground releases (including Deep Dish's recent Moscow set), and I rank this record second to Sasha's Ibiza set for that sheer reason. I think that the man's musical knowledge will become evident when you listen to his "1-800 Ming" production.

Cape Town is an one-of-a-kind set, given that Dave Seaman is one of few elite class DJs (not including Paul Oakenfold) who continued to play melodic tunes after majority of the industry turned to deep house and other progressive musings. Now it has been two years since deep house took over the underground mainstay: the sounds have become more and more subliminal, and use of male vocals has popularized, but there has been nothing really revolutional. Although the concept of "progressive" was interesting at the beginning, it was never abstract enough to reach the state of automatism-and now with all the beatniks riding the band-wagon, the term is almost as worthless as "alternative."

And those who lambaste Dave Seaman are no more than imbeciles who can accept only what the industry offers them. Besides, it wouldn't make any sense to call the tunes "cheesy," since many of the producers (Ian Wilkie, Marc Iletschko, Neil Himmons, John Graham, James Holden, etc.) on this CD are also the key driving forces in today's "progressive" movement. And If you still think that they are commercial, why are you even bothering buying a CD? Why don't you just go to a local club and listen to local DJs spin local tunes?

Given all that, I think that a set like Cape Town really stands out as a timeless set in the world of dance music. It's the "Future" of progressive trance that never happened...

I went back and bought this album after buying Renaissance and being blow away. In fact, I've gone back and bought a lot of Seaman. The cd is off to a slow start and picks up a little bit with Moby's Porcelain. It also has Way Out West, James Holden and Junkie XL. The second disc is a superb set but the first disc falls short.

First CD's a bit loungy but picks up very well. Dave's got a lot of energy in his mixes and the beats are a tad bit faster than the usual.I love it very nice!! The 2nd CD just picks up right into the climax and is excellent listening. And as in most cases please make sure your Sound System is upto spec to handle the sounds and aura in these mixes, ...else this is not for you

This is a very good CD. I liked that he put Sunburn by Timo Maas on CD 1, that is one of my favorite songs. Overall the CD is awesome, this is the first Dave Seaman CD ive listened to and I have to say that I'm very impressed. The other GUs I have are Sasha, Digweed, Warren, and Deep Dish and I have to say this is up there with the Nick Warren CDs which I also liked a lot (Brazil, Reykjavik, Shanghai). Highly reccomended.

Seaman essentially got me interested and got me buying Global Underground CDs. He also got me into trancier types of music such as Nick Warren and Sasha/Digweed. This is really classic to me, it never gets old and feels fresh every time i listen to it and i reccomend it to any trance or GU fan. If you like this Anthony Pappa's Nu Breed is great too.

This is one of the few GU's from 1999-2002 that is not sounding dated. Play it today, and it will keep you groovin' to classic trance/prog. house selections.
For some reason it's not available anymore new on Amazon, so some of the GU's may finally be going out of print. Get your copy now, as this one still has years of play life left in it.

I absolutely love this 2 disc set. Dave Seaman does an absolutely amazing job. His mixes, seemless. His track selection, memorable. This is what trance is all about. I still can't decide which cd I like best. They are both amazing. Cd 1 starts out really housey but goes into some really dope trance. This is a really strong cd. The second Cd is just as good or better. It has strong melodies and catchy riffs all the way through. This is what trance is all about. Some of the highlights are WOW - The Fall, James Holden - Horizons, and of course Luzon's The Bagio Track. This compilation is a most own. I actually prefer this album over his newer Global Underground release...Melbourne. I give it two thumbs up. :)