Customer Reviews

Global Underground 21 - Moscow

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album is quite good. It doesn't funk as much or as well as Yoshiesque II, but it fits right in with the GU line. Moscow is very much new-school and intelligent. Personally, I prefer the album mentioned above, but this is a five-star set also. It is just a little bit of a different genre, which only adds to my fanhood of Deep Dish. I would have to agree that they are the most versatile and talented in the industry right now. I would also argue intelligent and progressive, but that is an opinion.

I got this on the 28th and just finished with it. It took me so long because I wanted to make sure I was not interrupted while listening, and it can be difficult to do this while at your desk at work pretending to be productive. Many look to these reviews for comparisons with things they are familiar with, so here goes: The album I own which this is most akin to is Digweed Hong Kong. Anyone have any notes on how Yoshiesque II compares with Deep Dish's Renaissance discs? I haven't heard any Renaissance things yet so I am curious. Any words would be appreciated. Final thought: Deep Dish make so many bigger-name djs look like clowns. Thanks!

these guys can't miss... they are the cockiest, most conceited producers/dj's in dance music, but probably two of the most talented - deep dish know what quality house is. i own many of their remixes on 12", and throughout all of their work, a distinctly "deep dish" quality is present. for me, the hallmark of a great dj is having an unmistakable sound. digweed, sasha, tenaglia, emerson - they all have it... that's why they are great.

the deep dish sound is chunky, tenaglia-like, dark, driving, vocal, funky, and edgy. their committment to choosing quality vocal house shines through on this moscow effort. though yoshiesque 2 was a bit more jazzy and laid back, moscow is driving, and it takes you on a pounding ride that makes you feel like you are truly in an underground club. you can almost feel the smoke and sweat rolling off the russians' bodies in this mix.

disc one starts off with 16B's "driving to heaven" with the slick, ultra-cool vocals of richard morel. the next several tracks pump and jump, and are (like a breath of fresh air) NOT from the typical batch of over-played producers. this disc features some lesser-known artists, but the quality is out of this world. their mixing isn't as razor sharp as say, digweed, but this disc is a party, and the energy makes up for any lapse in mixing. every tune is so CHUNKY that unnoticable mixing is truly impossible... some highlights are the G-Pal track (#3), "hold that body" (7), "dub session" (10), "rapture" (11), and dakota's gorgeous piece, "lost in brixton" (12). the dido remix is really boring, but so what?

disc 2 ups the energy level with PMT's spacey, sexy "deeper water," and italian magante Dino Lenny's "i feel stereo," which samples some old chaka khan, but funks it out into a pounding, infectious tune. the "bird of prey" remix is a bit odd, with morrison's haunting vocals, but catchy and well-produced nonetheless. however, "skin deep" and "wish you were here" feature mega-talent at its very best. i was blown away by 16B's remix of the creamer/k tune, and went out and found my copy of it IMMEDIATELY.

vocal house has the potential to be cheesy, and the potential to ignore the quality of the music itself, but deep dish picked perfect tunes for this compilation. the right balance of funk and chunk, along with well planned, sexy vocals bring the listener into the club and onto the dance floor. this mix is nothing short of brilliant, and though a bit more commercial and clubby than their studio work, rememeber, this is live, and these are the dj's in their element. all in all it was a nice respite from the usual prog trance that GU pumps out, albeit great, but warren/sasha/seaman, etc. all use the same tunes. deep dish is fresh, quality, and different.

buy this

Back in the 70s everyone owned Eagles records. See, you might disagree over the merits, of say, Frank Zappa, but everybody liked the Eagles, I mean, what was to object to? In the same way, everyone into clubbing likes, or at least has heard, Deep Dish; and everyone's collection will and should have one or more Dish compilations. Its good stuff, and most people are going to at least tolerate it.

What Deep Dish do well is impeccably prepare some progressive house with a sprinkle of other styles trance, a littledisco, soul, funk, tribal and electronic, and mix them in such a way that you can taste the different flavors without having to spit a track out, er as it were. They then bake this with an eye for truly catchy beats and hooks. There is plenty of aeration in the mix and a consistent mid tempo that doesn't get intrusive. All right, enough of the doofus food metaphor.

Now, although Deep Dish appear on "dark deep/progressive house/trance" favorite lists in Amazon quite frequently, this collection is at best twilight than dark. It chunks and floats peppily, rather than dives truly deep, although its pretty sexy and atmospheric. Its free of glow stick anthems or happy! happy! house or club tracks; its midtempo. But its certainly not in the same deep, dark and dirty nay scary, category as Digweed, Graham (aka Quivver), Lawler, Saeed and Palash, etc. and cannot be compared to the same. However, "Moscow" is relatively deep and it won't have your "hip" friends complaining about "this dumb dance music."

Be warned that just under half the tracks are at least somewhat vocal (beyond just samples) including remixes of well known artists, Dido etc. In part that is why you can give this disc to someone not into club music as a good entree, ("look Constance, it has a Dido song on there, you' like it, really!") Sady, this is where the cheese/fromage can enter, in part because club/dance vocals tend to be utterly banal and corny ("groove with me!" -yawn--). But still, if you can bear vocals in your dance mix, this one works quite well. (A note for all you dance musicians, give us some interesting words, for goodness sake.)

The opener "Driving to Heaven" does just that. This a classic piece of cubby techno pop, really, a real song with a hooky chorus and suitable late night theme, so evocative you want to play it over and over: "My eyes were so dilated, the traffic seemed syncopated, and my car, turned me on" - indeed. I will let you figure out what its about.....Certainly an understated, moody, dark anthem for your pre or post clubbing drive.

This then transitions into three catchy mid tempo progressive house tracks, before the sexiest female vocal in the history of the world whomps you on track 3, (albeit with one sentence, over and over). At track 6 through 8 Deep Dish move seamlessly off in a more tribal direction with a little move up tempo. Track 8 nips at you with an impossibly catchy tribally beat structure and panting percussion effects. On track 9 a pulsing more techno beat, moves into the fray. Track 10 is more of a forgettable bridge that keeps the mid-tempo vibe going; segueing into yet another very sexy, if a little cheesy, and overplayed, vocal track: "babe I have got my eyes on you, and everything around me moves". At least the mix is done in a minimal, techno and catchy way compared to the original mix. All of CD1 works well and is the best, 4 stars.

CD2 gets a little more sappy, or a little more accessible and crowd pleasing, depending on your point of view. It launches into a pleasing late night techy groove ruined by the "alone in the dark...she came again" type lyrics, and an occasional Euro pop echoey piano sounds. Things then chunk along in a prog house way nicely, each one involving vocals, peaking at track 6 with "Autoporno" a manic, trance-pop, classic. The disc then takes a dive for the worse, with track 7 built around a sampling of the 80s Chaka Khan hit, i.e."Chaka khan I really feel for you" etc. I'm not kidding. I presume this meant to be so uncool its cool, but I think is a misstep, and ruins an otherwise fabulously mixed uptempo groove. The mood gets more spacey, intense and sexy through track 9, which has an evocative eastern style vocal sample, and is one of the best tracks. Sadly more ill advised too cluby vocals sully otherwise pleasing deep chunky house/trance.

See? Something for everyone, and not irritating in any way, get the idea? Even I, as a deep dark trance/prog house fan find myself playing at least CD 1 of this compilation. That's the trick of Deep Dish: a knack for pleasing--or at least not annoying--a broad cross section in a dance music scene increasingly fractured and sub-genred to death. Still, too many cheese sprinkles on CD 2 for me, so only three stars. And I mean evaluated by the kind of up tempo progressive house compilation I think this is trying to be, not by comparing it to the deep and dark boys like Max Graham or Saeed and Palash.

"Moscow" is the kind of CD you would recommend to someone who doesn't have any club music and is going to have a party; or some easy listening for the car with a few intense moments you can crank up when your not on your cell phone. I am sure it has, or will, sell millions and good for the Dish. Just be wary of its appearance on those dark deep prog house/trance lists, OK? And if you do want the "deeper Dish" try their "Yoshieque 2" instead, yes these boys can do it all, a more pure rather more grown up slab of progressive house.

I'll be the first to say it -- you wouldn't expect much from two funny looking guys whose moniker is the equivalent of a personal pan pizza. But beyond the characters themselves and their funny name, Deep Dish mean business.

Deep Dish spin a distinctly fresh progressive house blend akin to that found on the latest GU releases, including nuBreed. Any semblance the GU sound once had to trance is wearing thin, as progressivism and dark, brooding tribal beats are definitely the order of the day. The sounds of GU: 021 can almost be organic at times, reminiscent of something you might find in Danny Tenaglia's neck of the woods.

But what sets Deep Dish apart from their peers, including all those in electronic music, is the sheer ability and depth with which they spin. Their ability to layer is phenomenally complex. As euphonious as their CD is initially, it gets better each listen through, revealing intricacies not even entertained by other artists. Having sifted through their two sets several times over, I can only marvel at what they've able to pull off. If you're familiar with the popular "Rapture," then you're in for a real treat when you discover what Deep Dish managed to pull off with it.

Whether you enjoy the changing face of electronic music comes down to your emotional response to it, and in the end, it's really a matter of personal preference and taste. If you're looking for something spiced with a bit of trance or dancehall, I'd suggest you take a look at Paul van Dyk's latest release, "The Politics of Dancing." I personally dig progressive more, and so for me, Deep Dish is going to spend more time in the player than van Dyk's release, although both are probably equally quality releases. If Deep Dish is the future and van Dyk is more representative of the past, then I personally couldn't be more excited about the state of dance and electronic music at this point.

you won't be able to stay sitting while playing this awsome new set ot tunes from our favorite guys DEEP DISH! everytime i buy a deep dish cd i saw oh man this is the best cd i've ever gotten, but this time it's true, from the moment you push play you are drawn into their world and sent to another planet, they open with 16b featuring MOREL- escape (driving to heaven) a beautiful track that gets you going, the first cd is a nice trip that keeps your head bobing and your feet tapping all the way through, nice touches are number 5- mechus's hot and number 9- dido's thank you, the unrealeassed deep dish mix, stay tuned after the cd for a bonus hidden track, MOREL's cabaret, and well the second disk just blew me away, the first 7 songs are unstoppable, i was sitting in the train listening to it and i wanted to get out of my seat and start dancing, BT's shame starts it off and then there's no turning back, number 3, PMT's deeper water is incredable as is number 7, dino lenny's i feel stereo, then they totally switch gears, and it practicaly like they've begun an entire new disk, 7 ends completly and 8 begins again, a new more laid back mood, the first 7 songs had you moving and were pumpin and then they come down and end off the second disk with a stylemuch more like the first disk, opening with fatboy slim's bird of prey, a great mix but you might be dissapointed to hear it simply cause you want more of what the first 7 had to offer.
it really just blew me out of the water as has every other deep dish cd i own! i hope you enjoy!

There was an eager buzz in the months leading up to the release of the 21st release in the Global Underground series. Longtime fans of the series predicted that with their Moscow retrospective Deep Dish would invigorate a series much fallen from the glory days of Sasha's IBIZA and John Digweed's HONG KONG retrospectives. Patrons of Moscow's famed Club XII praised the June set on which the GU two-disc release was to be based. In the end, however, MOSCOW remains a very disappointing release.

Progressive cognoscenti have already begun calling MOSCOW "Renaissance Ibiza part 2," a reference to Deep Dish's release last year where a series of big tracks were thrown together with little consideration of programming. MOSCOW does indeed suffer from the same problems as RENAISSANCE IBIZA. Nearly every track is anthemic and vocalic, and the programming is lackluster. Deep Dish have again created two discs where peaks and plateaus are neglected. This sort of steadiness might have worked in the deep house scene where Deep Dish started off, but now that they're spinning progressive they really should familiarize themselves with the rules of the genre.

Complaints of this set do not mean, however, that every track is awful. In fact, some of the tracks here are fantastic. 16B featuring Morel - "Escape (Driving to Heaven)" is lush and dreamy, and the track has been edited by Deep Dish from the original vinyl to produce an even better track. Dido - "Thank You (Deep Dish remix)," even though it totally doesn't match the rest of the set, and Chab - "The Dub Session" are great tunes, and the mixing between the two is a lovely cacophony that I wish I'd hear in clubs and not just in Pro Tool-ed compilations. Disc two is a who's who of in-style producers. Luzon - "Manilla Sunrise," Creamer and K - "I Wish You Were Here," and PMT - "Deeper Water (Sander Kleinenberg's Caffeine remix)" were some of the hottest tracks out this summer. Nonetheless, excellent tracks and laudable mixing do not a great set make if the programming is a letdown.

Like Deep Dish fans who last year pointed listeners away from RENAISSANCE IBIZA to YOSHIESQUE, this year I'd recommend that instead of MOSCOW you pick up YOSHIESQUE II. Here's hoping that GU22, reputedly Dave Seaman from Melbourne, will erase our memories of Deep Dish's MOSCOW.

Deep Dish's GU21 Moscow set is brilliant, but it is a little bit different... different in the sense that it's fairly vocal heavy. Lovers of traditional trance tend to cringe at the thought of vocals; we are reminded of terrible things that should have never occurred such as Alice Deejay and the Vengaboys. Howver, GU21 is different in that the vocals fit what the DJ's are trying to accomplish, which is, in my opinion, far from "cheesy." However, the frequency in which vocals pop up in this album may be a detraction to purists. Overall, the mixing is very smooth (except for a couple of spots, in which the abruptness is clearly intentional). The CD is very danceable, and is likely to please. I would recommend this CD to any trance lover who is not afraid to try something new.

After the lackluster Singapore excursion of Darren Emmerson's Global Underground #20, I'm happy that the series has regained itself with Deep Dish's talents. This is their second CD this year and is in fact a lot more satisfying than Yoshiesque 2. Yoshi was a lot more funky, but this rids of the funk and is a lot more darker. The first CD wins out over the second CD, right with its more effective opening with Morel's Driving to Heaven. Almost everything after flows together well that you don't really need to remember individual tracks. Nat Monday, Dido, Iio etc. tracks all work extremely well and you won't find the need to skip any of it.

The second disc is very good as well but has some flaws in its track selections which ruins the flow. I disliked BT's opening, but enjoyed Sander Klienenberg's RMX of PMT's Deeper Water. But we still don't get the throbbing 4 on 4 beat that made the first disc a memerable experience. I thought Fatboy Slim's track sounded out of place, but it mixed well into Luzon's Manilla Sunrise which is right up there with their other song, The Baguio Track. The saving grace is the amazing RMX of I Wish You Were Here which makes the song a lot more dancible, and plays with the vocals more.

In all this is a valuable purchase and is definitely a worthy to the GU reputation of releasing quality DJ mixes. Don't miss it.

Here we see Deep Dish again bustin' paradigms...what a good mix!!
This CD is a slight departure from the Yoshiesque series, which have a lot of focus on deep house. This collection consists of a series of funky, dark and classy prog-house tunes. CD1 starts of with 16B's "Escape" with vocals by Washington D.C.'s own George Morel, there is an instant sexiness which foreshadows the style of music to come. Except for their remix of Dido's "Thank You", all the tracks are excellent, especially Manaca, Chus and Ceballo's "The Strong Rhythm" and John Creamer & Stephane K's remix of Nat Monday's "Waiting". CD2 is more vocal-oriented, with tracks like "Coming Down" by Mara. There's a drop-down/start over thing which I guess means Deep Dish tag-teaming during the mix. My faves off of this CD are Finger Lickin' Inc's "Autoporno" and Dino Lenny's "I Feel Stereo".

Overall, the boys have done it again!! More of the sound of now.

What more can I say than that this is some of the best house on cd. Global underground is the most consistent label on the planet. Always quality from the music out. Even the boxes are the slickest in production. tony de vit aside, Every set is great.

Deep dish is great. They put a lot of love in their sets. mohammed is jesus was the first track I had heard them produce, and it was not only great house, but Richard morel's vocals were unbelievable. You find them again on two tracks in this set. Of course there are two fabulous 16b tracks as well. my applause for a somewhat masculine rendition of Dido's thank you. I can't get the G-Pal track out of my head. Honestly, this set is not leaving my deck for weeks! Buy it. Buy all the GU sets. Support class in music. Electronica with intelligence. !VIVA GLOBAL UNDERGROUND!!!!!!!!!!!