Customer Reviews

Choice: A Collection of Classics (2 CDs + DVD)

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

 

 

All in a row and it works really well... Very interesting combinations but moves and grooves... Super Choice!!! The GU Miami was great and this may actually be better...

Just in case you missed the fine print (as I did) this is the UNMIXED version. That is, the tracks are not blended together as in usual DJ mixes. They are standalone, and separate.

The page notes this at the very bottom of the text description. It's very easy to miss if you're not paying attention.

1-star just to make sure that it's clear. Otherwise Danny Howells is an incredible dj. One of the best in the world. And this is a great CD. The mixed version is also available elsewhere on the site, with an interview DVD.

International DJ, Danny Howells, fresh off of one of the best years of his career, is the latest artist to showcase his diverse range of tastes via Azuli Records' Choice Classics series, an ongoing project that finds influential musicians and asks them to compile all of the songs and tracks that have inspired them most over the years.

Disc 1 provides the most uniformity in this package, with its progressively smoother melding of genres. The record starts with some classic house samples, redolent with crooning R&B ("Alright" by Urban Soul) and alive with salsa back beats ("Carino 90" by T-Coy). The disc drives this energy forward, growing heavier and heavier, hitting near-techno levels of metallic fervency ("12 Min To Do It" by Pleasure Dome). Howells steadily reduces the amp on the final five tracks, keying down through the stomp-heavy "Hocus Pocus" (by the band of the same name) and into the gorgeous gull-call scenery of Ready For Dead's fluidly flavorful song of the same name.

The second disc is fun, as well, but also much more uneven, probably owing to its heavy helping of old school funk and rock. Howells attempts the same sort of seamless arrangement that he pulls off perfectly in Disc 1, but that's hard to do when you're trying to blend The Temptations' "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" into a three minute drum solo by Iron Butterfly (don't be fooled, "In A Gadda Da Vida" is on the track list, but all you'll hear is beats). This is passable, though, given the invigorating energy of the rest of the record. Sub Sub's high-pulse "Space Face" segues dreamily into Coldcut and Hexstatic's "Timer," one of the best deep house tracks I've heard in a long time. With the exception of "Why" by Carly Simon (a great tune that plays awkwardly as the closing track on this disc), the rest of the album is a rhythm-tribute to deep, funky house that will almost make you forget the earlier weak spots (which include the fourth track, Japan's "Ghosts," a synthetic pop number ruined by too much mood).

I guess disc 1 is one of those "you had to be there" kind of things, and since I wasn't there, it didn't really grab me. And then......disc 2. If you're familiar with Mr. Howells' work, you'll know that his best work has a cetain unnameable quality to it (think Day disc of Global Underground's 24/7). If you know what I mean, then you'll find what you think I mean in full display on disc 2 of this collection,know what I mean? It's deep,kinda creepy and excellent. I can't seem to stop listening to it, and I don't mind if I don't. Get this disc, you won't be sorry. Hell, get 24/7,too.