Customer Reviews

Essential Selection

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

 

 

Being a Pete Tong Hater is not always easy, but it always enjoyable. It is like people that hate the BackStreet Boys, or Brittany Spears. We hate them becasue of what they represent. They are the hacks that tap into the highest peaks of cultural popularity and try to make it their own. On 2000, Tong has struck again.

Like the old Ronco Greatest hits that we used to buy at Kmart when we were kids (remember all the best songs, no hidden gems) Tong does the exact same here, taking the life away from some great songs. His track listing is a Greatist Techno Hits (as he has always done) and peices them together for our listening enjoyment. To make matters even worse his mixing is not the least bit inspiring.

Such current house hits like (well every track) Koochy, Time is Now, Tell me Why are throw together just so Pete can make a quick buck. Do yourself a favor, just say no, and find some techno that will challenge you, but also move you...unless N'sync really are your hero's.

The other reviewer here is referring to the 1999 Essential Spring Collection...I think that one is better.

Tong comes up short here. The tunes are great ("Woman Trouble," "Koochy," "Must Be the Music"....) but it's like he's trying to cover too much ground. So many styles to capture...garage, trance, house...Following tradition, Disc One is house, and disc two is more trancey.

Pete Tong's always been more of a cultural mover/shaker than a DJ. The man's got skills, but his compilations don't always show it. Check out the 1999 Essential Spring Collection - it follows more of a groove with the soul-house-thing going on.

Tongey just played a show here in Seattle as well...will club culture ever catch on in America? Only time will tell.

Perhaps the most genious House mix ever released, Pete Tong mixes together three beautiful disks of music, beginning with the throbbing History of Disco, to the beautiful Flowerz/I'm Lonely, evolving into two more mellow and beautiful disks. If you're looking for an introduction to London Vocal House, start right here!

I find it hard to take disc one of this set off my cd player. I had never heard of this dj before and I must say I am impressed. It's a rave party in a box.

I purchased a "new" CD. Unfortunately, the CD that arrived doesn't have the sealed plastic cover which we usually see when buying a new product. So I really do not know if this is a used cd or a new one.

Pete Tong, along with Paul Oakenfold and Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim), is among the top DJ's from the UK dance music scene.

This double CD "Essential Selection Spring 2000" is the latest in an ongoing series of Essential Selection recordings. This set is absolutely turntable-ready. It is subtitled "the soundtrack to your weekend", and this is quite appropriate. Just pop it in and hit the nearest dance floor. Considering it contains more than two and a half hours of music (about the length of a typical disc jockey's set), and includes just about every white-hot name in dance music, it is well worth the money.

The Chemical Brothers' "Music Response", Artful Dodger's "Woman Trouble", Moloko's "Time is Now" and "Pure Shores" by All Saint's are just a few of the gem/jams on Disc One. "Koochy", by Armand Van Helden (also included) opens with a loop of Gary Numan's "Cars") - but behind it, of course, is a standard big beat drum sample, which makes it infectiously danceable. Also, a version of the Bob Marley vs. Funkstar De Luxe smash hit "Rainbow Country" makes an appearance here.

Standout selections from Disc 2: "Don't Give Up" by Chicane; "Cry", System F; "Tell Me Why (the Riddle) ", Paul Van Dyk and Ondar's "Tuva Groove". This last one is interesting in that Tuva is a Siberian vocalist whose style (Tuvan Throat Music) is extremely unique and something from the past. Think the late Wolfman Jack or Tom Waits on a humming bender backed by a fierce dance feel.

The booklet has a photomontage of young partiers, looking beautiful primping, laughing and flirting, and probably feeling beautiful. The pictures are accompanied by a stream of consciousness narration of the evening's events. ("Bars, dancing, snogging, drinking, dropping. Get to club, huge queue's ...")

Pete Tong's new Essential 2000 collection is one of the best releases this year. The selections on this double CD colection consistantly surprise and delight it's listener. In fact, I'm finding it difficult to get through each side because I find mylelf endlessly repeating each selection. Pete Tong's interest seem as eclectic as Moby's as he samples 80's new wave sounds like the into to the song "Cars", or other samples by none other than Steely Dan, seamlessly mixing genre's which one would not expect to work together. And surprisingly, they not only work, but you find yourself jumping up and down and smiling from ear to ear his beats takes you on a house journey that doesn't stop until you are out of breath and wanting more. He sure knows how to pick a good tune and a good vocal because the voices from Barry White type smoothness to House Diva Ladies to Bob Marley, to More "Amber" type vocals follow each other but never seem to fight the mood or seem out of place. He gets Acid Jazzy, and Chicane like smoothness and not once do you feel like he is trying too hard to pack in too many different styles, just because he can. Yes he can, and he does, and it works and it works and it works again, just fine. And there is a consistancy that I find rare when it comes to DJ compilations. Often there is a feeling of stopping and starting, stopping and starting, which frankly, gets on my nerves. To consider what Tong has done in this collection, one would think that it would be close to impossible to mix such varied types of sounds without getting that sticatto movement, but what he does achieve is an endlessly listenable, breathlessly exciting, constantly entertaining collection of songs. Trust me on this. I own many, many of the collections made by world reknowned DJ's, and some of these are very good. My tastes are also quite eclectic and I appreciate what is good in all types of music. But when I find myself unable and unwilling to change discs from my player for as long as I have now with Tong's recent collection, that is a rare thing indeed. I believe that in the world of DJ collections, Pete Tong has created one of the great classics of our time. If you love house music, if you love dance music, if you love great vocals, dance diva's, beautiful sounds, catchy samples, if you like to be surprised each and every time you hear the same set of songs, you must pick up this collection. You will not be sorry. In fact, it will become the gift you bring to all your friends over the next year. Enjoy.