Customer Reviews

Global Underground 22: Melbourne

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, Dave Seaman is my all time favourite DJ... I love his work, and am totally into his sound. Therefore, any CD of his that I review will show a favourable tilt - not too much, but enough to be noticeable. That being said, though, you don't have to be a Dave Seaman fan to realize that this mix is a jaw-dropper in terms of its technical wizardry and diversity.

The mixing from track to track is mind-boggling (definitely Pro-Tooled, but which mix isn't these days?), and I've listened to some of the mixes again and again, each time finding something else in them to rave about. What makes the mixing even more awesome to the listener is the fact that while it is absolutely seamless, the diversity of the tracks that Seaman chooses will definitely let you know when the next track is on. The mixes aren't unnoticeable - it is the very noticeability of the mixing that makes its seamlessness so mind boggling.

This mix also represents the most eclectic musical taste on the entire series, along with Darren Emerson's Uruguay set. Ambient intros melt into eerie, tribal vocals. Latin house romps into dub-heavy beats. Shuddering, fractured breaks surround hard, progressive hooks. It's almost as if Seaman decided that playing a groovy progressive sound was almost too simple - been there, done that. Instead, he sucks the listener into a brain-bending vortex of musical diversity, all the while showing that the various genres CAN be woven together to create a beautiful mix.

Disc 1 is the slow builder - the first 4 tracks make you wait almost interminably for something to happen, all the while making you enjoy what's already going on, before hitting you with the first beats of tough tribal drums. Imagine music like he played in his Back To Mine album leading into bouncier tracks. The disc never gets into really groovy, hard territory - it flirts with the fringes, all the while walking a fine line between ambient beauty and percussive catchiness.

Disc 2 is more stereotypical, or seems so after listening to the first disc. The genres fly all over the place from old school house to disco to progressive to breaks... but with magical control. Seaman is still at the peak of his mixing powers, and they are amply demonstrated on both these discs.

So, if the mix is that great, why do so many people not like it? The fact that this mix is such a departure from the standard, GU formula is both its greatest asset and its biggest drawback. If you expect to be able to get up and dance till you drop to this mix - forget it. GU 022 may be classified as a dance compilation in the record stores, but you're going to find very few tracks on it that can really get your body grooving. This mix is in your mind, start to finish. You'll bob about a bit, and some tracks are definitely danceable, but that's as far as it goes into the floor. This mix will make you sit tight and listen, first and foremost. In that sense, it may be purely music in the most literal sense of the word, and a lot of people don't want that from a GU compilation.

Overall, if you have an ongoing love affair with your headphones, grab this mix, 'coz you wont let it go. If you like to experience the beauty of a mix that makes you lose yourself in its subtlety, you're sure to love it. If you're a Dave Seaman fan, you shouldn't even have read this far. But if you want a mix that delivers the classic GU experience, you'd best stay the heck away from it, because there really isn't any point in complaining later on that you didn't get what you wanted.

Disc 1: 5 stars
Disc 2: 4.5 stars
Overall: 4.75 stars

OK, ok, I can see the reasoning behind some of criticism of this GU release. It is different, more mellow, and in many ways on a different tempo than many other GU sets. On the other hand, it is technically brilliant, an absolutely magical 2 hours of music, and I cannot seem to turn it off. I have been listening to this CD too and from work every day this week, and it never ceases to impress me, interest me, and suprise me. In short, Dave Seaman's set is more than a collection of songs, it is a trancy epic that never fails to brighten your day. BRILLIANT!!

With this Mebourne set...Dave has put himself ahead of Tiesto, digweed, sasha, van dyk..and the likes with this set. None of these dj's could have pulled off what Dave has pulled off here. After i first listened to it I was a bit skeptical..but it grows on you and when it grows on you..you'll understand exactly why i think so highly of this set. Keep bringing them Dave..

If you are looking for a hard trance album, this is not what you are looking for. The time is spent waiting for the set to pick up on the first album. If you don't like waiting, then this set is not for you. Try Seaman renaissance for a more standard trance album. But if you like spacey, slow tempo, ambient music, this album is a MUST buy. This is exactly what I've been looking for to tone it down a bit, but still have that slow techno beat in the background. There is even some chanting on here for those who like ambient middle eastern style.

I just busted this out after not several years in retirement. excellent mix if you like house. i like it better now than i did years ago - i also have much better audio equipment now and think that might be part of it.

I must say that I was a but surprised how long it took this cd to really get going...it does start a bit slow. But that is just the prequel to an amazing set. This is a refreshing departure from the billions of ubiquitous trance mixes on the shelves of every cd store in America. I found this to be much diiferent from the GU Buenos Aires disc that Dave did. Overall though, seamless, captivating, and refreshing. I have listened to it about five times and I like more and more which each sucessive play.

I love this cd is wonderful, seriously this guy is getting a lot better, this time his is mixing with another style, this album is a lot more diferent than his others if you like Renaissance Desire then you really have to buy this album both cds are wonderful and are almost perfectly mixed, Dave Seaman is the man.

Arguably Dave Seaman's best album. Although this mix is less melodic than his other mixes, it remains accessible to the average listener. Seaman has great success exploring deeper and darker house than he has in the past, as well as throwing in breaks to add variety.

The first disc, mellow and trippy, is hard to categorize into any genre of music. It gives the impression of music you've imagined in your head your whole life but have never been able to find. Several of the tracks have very little or no beats at all, and those that do are not driven by them, with the exception of the last two tracks when he picks up the pace with Orbital's 'Illuminate'.

The second disc is more energetic and is more compatible with the dancefloor. Seaman chose tracks with a great variety of beats and synthesizers, mixing driving progressive house with breaks on several tracks.

Received it in ample time, brand new, not a scratch or tear. Love it!

Upon its release in 2002, Dave Seaman's GU022 MELBOURNE came as a great surprise to fans of the Global Underground series. While previous installments had stuck to the traditional rounds of trance, house and progressive house, and Seaman himself had carved a niche in a certain brand of melodic dance music, this set featured unusual leftfield sounds.

Take disc one, for example. The first fifteen minutes are a sort of formless ambience, when Our House's "Soliton Wave" is succeeded by Urban Dwellers' "Loverman (Satoshi Tomiie Ambient Mix") and then Jono Fernandez's "Intruder" with little feeling of a persistent pulse. A flamenco guitar arises out of the vague flow, but the beat remains elusive. Eventually Seaman focuses his set toward a more traditional progressive house soundworld, mainly through Cass' "Mind Rewind", one of the biggest tracks of the year, Nu Breed pres. Dirty 4s' "Depth", and Guy Gerber and Sahar Z's "Kenny's Back". The ambient feeling is never far away, however, and Seaman closes the disc with Slacker's "Looky Thing", perhaps that producer's most unusual effort.

Disc two is closer to a traditional progressive set, although even here Seaman shows a different take on the genre than before. After FC Kahuna's "Glitterball", another anthem of 2002, and Infusion's "Legacy (Synthesia Dub Mix)" he gets very dark, almost to John Digweed levels. Sean Cusick's "Consider the Ravens" and Natious' "Magic Dust" recall Diggers' LA retrospective of the year previously. Seaman closes things of, however, with his familiar blend of pop elements, here mixing Ashland's "Clear" into Lamb's "What Sound (Tom Middleton Deep Step Mix)".

GU022 MELBOURNE proved something of an experiment, and Seaman never returned to the ambience on display here. Certainly he seemed stronger in his previous GU release, Cape Town, or in Renaissance: Desire of 2001. Nonetheless, there are some wicked tunes here, and I'd recommend the set to fans of the GU series.