Customer Reviews

Global Underground 030: Paris

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I usually do not like house or mixes as they are so repetitive. It seems like every kid with some software thinks that he can be a DJ. The result is a lot of junk. I am 51 years old and do not buy a lot of music but this is the third Nick Warren album I have bought. It is great driving music, headphone music, etc. The mix is rarely dull and always great background. Nick Warren always delivers.

This CD rocks! It calmly and magically drives you to do whatever you want to do, whether it be dance, work, play with your kids or pets, relax, or celebrate. Not being an aficionado for this type of music (read the other reviews for their takes), I can't analyze this CD further except to confirm that it has struck a chord with me and the rest of my family (including our young children). Kudos to Nick Warren!

Thank God for Nick Warren. CD 2 is by far the best thing I've heard in years, mixed to perfection as always. CD 1 is a really good chill-out lounge CD....CD 2 instant classic.
Buy it don't copy it. Support the industry.

Everytime I put up some progressive sounds on my stereo, people tend to ask: "whats that kind of music, its neither house nor techno .. but I like it"... Its electronic music that rocks the mind - GU28 was already excellent, and GU30 surprisingly hits the spot again, with calm yet uprising moments and sounds.

This mix is awesome. Disc 2 is one of the most original sets I've heard. Disc 1 sounds similar to Reykjavik and Ulrich Schnauss Far Away trains passing by but Disc 2, oh man, production is top notch.

This Cd starts out a bit slow, a bit trippy, bit druggy. But that's ok because its a just a warm up for the real bread and butter of this 30th in the series of Global Underground. Cd2 is faster, harder, stronger without sounding too cliche. If you havent heard Nick Warren live recently, you can get a good taste of his style with this mix. I recently saw him twice duting Winter Music Conference in Miami. First time at Mynt and second at Shine. Each time different styles, much like cd 1 and 2. I highly recommend this CD, excellent music by a master of his craft.

I would spend some time writing about how each CD flows but other reviewers have done a good job of that already. I'd just like to say that this album was my entry into the Global Underground series and it remains my favorite. CD1 is an amazing mix of melodical, almost ambient minimal house/techno that still stays upbeat throughout. CD2 has a higher tempo and is flawlessly mixed as well. I would recommend purchasing this album regardless of whether you are a fan of this subgenre of electronica or not, since it has a lot of musical offerings across both mixes.

Nick Warren rescuing the GU franchise has become a bit of a cliche by now. So it's no surprise that this latest effort is nothing less than excellent.

Nick generally follows the same formula as his GU024-Reykjavik, with disc 1 a downtempo mix and disc 2 more of a peak time set. However, both discs are very different from their GU024 counterparts. Disc 1 is at times heartbreakingly beautiful, with some tracks that take a while to fully appreciate. It's really all good, but particular standouts for me are "Strange Parallels", "Whiskers", and the end sequence of 3 tracks with "Lonely Planet" as the centrepiece. Lonely Planet is the one part of the mix that turns serious and dark, with a brilliant mix-in of the next track.

You might find Disc 2 to be a bit of a mixed bag. It's probably not the start-to-finish club set that some are hoping for. It starts off pretty low key for the first few tracks, gets moving for a while, and then chops and changes between banging house (eg Five Five Zero), melodic ("One Morning.."), and even some dub. The individual tracks are again frequently brilliant, the moody opening pair of "I Miss" and "Sweep", and the infectious electro-house of "Head Down" just to name a few. The melodic stuff is sad and beautiful, and some of the prog house is epic and excellent (eg Pole Folder track).

Disc 1 = 5 stars, Disc 2 = 4 stars. Overall 4.5.

Nick Warren introduces the first mix of his seventh Global Underground endeavor, "Paris", with an airy and wholly atypical collaboration of beautiful melody - songs from across the globe grace this spacious display of harpsichord, piano, acoustic guitar and subtle electronica. The first mix is quite literally everything an international release should be: A perfectly built musical machine churning out melodious fantasy with fanciful precision. Indeed, this is the disc to kick-back and close your eyes to. "Strange Parallels" is a title reflective of the mix's composition: Oddly enough, selective beats and sweetly tempting basslines move the mix forward with the casual gait of a winemaker inspecting his vineyard in the waning sunlight of Southern France. However, unexpected instrumentation complements - one might say, `parallels' - this rhythmic movement. During "Zusammenallien," I found myself recollecting ancient memories of gazing upwards inside a planetarium. "Sedatives" and "Whiskers," two of my favorites on the first disc, dash away my mental space exploration with acoustic guitars, reverberated and garbled vocals of some sort, violins, with xylophonic rhythms to boot! These tracks truly feel like discovered treasures in ways I have not been exposed to since the epic and stunning 1996 release of "Northern Exposure."

"Being Around You" ushers in the atmospheric fluidity with which Warren had acquainted us on GU024: Reykjavik, yet there remains a mature and distinctive tension between the two sounds. Reykjavik babbled like a winding brook, and did so with great beauty; on Paris, Nick Warren has created an immaculately straight path along which he guides us. Looking far back into his Prague mixing days, such a concept would have been inconceivable for him - but just as we have watched Nick's style change with every release since 1997, so too have we seen a remarkable decisiveness reoccur in the ebb and flow of his track selection. Of further notable mention are tracks such as "Love Movement" (a lovely remix of Ulrich Schnauss'), "Roll Your Own" (perhaps one of the most uniquely melodic pieces on the first disc) and "Lonely Planet." Rounded out with what one might call musical hypnosis alongside an atmosphere more deftly crafted than that of both Reykjavik and Shanghai, Paris' first mix encompasses the very premise of an artist's necessary maturation - and the listener's, as well.

And so, after a glowingly poetic critique of disc one... what, then, of disc two?

The second mix begins quite elegantly; the second track, Blue Foundation's "Sweep," is a beautiful rendition of the slick track which is also featured on Hernan Cattaneo's upcoming Sequential: Volume 2 (although vastly reworked on the latter album). The pace appropriately quickens - a deserved metamorphosis after the wonderfully ambient first mix. Following an articulate "Cosmopolitan Drink," (which I believe serves its function well in upping the BPM in preparation for "Head Down"), the pace picks up nicely, ending up feeling more comfortably electro than the first mix. In this regard, disc two's forte is consistency; the quality of every track is there - and, standing alone, each would fare very well as a single track. "Buenos Aires / Bokoto 10 PM" and "Neptune" are both entirely driven by bass and beat - the characteristics of attractive club music. Remarkably, the instrumental melody (however much it has been converted to "electro" as opposed to the first disc) continues to move the mix forward - only, in disc two's case, "propel" might be more fitting a word choice.

After the second mix's undeniably subdued five opening tracks, the infectiously dirty grooves of "Neptune" finally blast the collection off the launch pad. "Non Verbal Language" is certainly another title befitting of its context, driven by its slick and extending bass and layered with epically scaled instrumentation that continues to cascade over the mix's numerous electronic eccentricities. This is truly a club mix that speaks to the listener without ever really saying a word. The next several tracks remind me of the later tracks on Shanghai's second disc - truly beat-oriented; it's as strict as that. And yet, there is something more; something in the way the music intrinsically moves you. A prime example is "Five Five Zero," which is heavily laden with thick, rhythmic electronica - blaring and booming from the stereo while never losing its agility. Like an overweight trapeze artist, the combination is able to work with shocking precision. Did I expect Nick Warren to drop the ball this close to the end? Well, no, but it's always nice to have my expectations met (and, in this album's case, far and widely exceeded). "One Morning by the Riverside" eases the force by introducing an entirely different piano-laden overture with prominently crisp hi-hats to keep the relentless pace from losing its edge. It segues into "I'm Lost," which for the most part abandons the beat entirely and relies on the tasteful planetarium aura until Tenaglia-like tribal beats drop and the track starts to take shape. "I'm Lost" begins the pulsating, crisp and beautiful descent into obscurity, and Ohmna's contribution should thus be considered a rich necessity. Concluding his masterpiece with "Blackout," Warren weaves the final thread in the most intricately designed musical fabric of its kind in many years.

Nick Warren and his style seem to mature with every subsequent album he releases. Like a finely aged wine - perhaps originating from the most prized vineyards in France itself - Warren's "Paris" is an undertaking which will certainly grow better with each passing day, and is truly meant for the EDM connoisseur within each of us.

~Lex

From my 4 star rating for this GU 30 executed by one of the world's most renowned DJs - Mr. Nick Warren - you can obviously tell that I really like this release. However, my quibble here is not directed at his artwork or form because nobody does chill like Nick Warren, which is apparent in CD1, and I mean nobody. Furthermore, Nick has a style all his own when he decides to move you and delight your mind, which is also apparent in CD2.

Anyhow, back to my quibble; I wonder if the boys at "globalunderground" still TRULY REFLECT the vibe, feel and flavor of their gigs in the many different cities around the world. What I mean is that Nick could not have started his Paris performance with 70 min. of chill (no matter how good the tracks were); this just doesn't happen in real life. At one time there used to be a sentence in GU sleevenotes that states "Each of the tracks on this CD has been selected by the DJ himself to give a retrospective view of his recent sets in xyz city" and I believed it, but not anymore. It is now released as a night in a certain city at a certain venue but with full focus on commercial objectives; henceforth, chill tracks you would never hear being played in front of a massive crowd waiting to get high on life and dance to a frenzy.

I have no problem with that actually, good music is never bad. And GU 30 is good music. But I have my suspicions about it being a true reflection of what happened in Paris.