Customer Reviews

Original Series 0s.0_2

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

 

 

After fully listening to this CD for well over a year I have decided to finally put my thoughts into writing. This mix is turning into one of the most inventive CD releases since Digweed's Sydney Global Underground release Disc 1. Over five years ago Digweed was dropping tribal percussion beats like Hong Kong Trash, Elements, and Shape Shifter...molding tunes together where you would literally think to yourself "what the hell is going on here! This is superb.."

Lisle has taken things to the same level with this mix. This mix is meant be truly "listened" to and not just put on for generic thumping prog. He drops breaky and techy sounding overlays all the while keeping your head adrift with excellent track selections. Certain CD's never get old, others you stop listening to after multiple rotations. Dance music changes so often that a disc that was created 3 years ago is often considered a dinosaur. After careful attention to this CD, I think 5 years from now, this CD will still be in the library. Listen carefully and you will find the small details of the mix and smile. Nice work Jonathan..nice work.

Three of my favorite musical tastes - Pink Floyd, Blade Runner and the soundtrack of Baraka - are sampled on this mix. Phenomenal. The mixing is spectacular. Get a quality pair of headphones and put this mix on repeat for a while. It'll grow on you - quickly.

It starts out with a great mix of the theme from Blade Runner and slowly drifts and meanders about through spacey atmospherics and minimal beats. It's taken me several listens to really appreciate it. It isn't until sometime just after the middle of the mix that it picks back up again. There are some really, really great moments on here but overall it is is music that is meant for headphones. I can't imagine hearing this in a club, unless it was a laid back kind of 'hip' club where everyone is a bit too chilled to actually dance.

My only reason for not giving it a complete five stars is that, although it's a slick production (and I mean, slick), it lacks soul. But, then again, we're talking about computer generated electronica so how much soul can you really get anyhow?

Check out his wesbite at www.jonathanlisle.com and check out his other mixes. I believe that as he continues to mature we'll see some great things from this guy.

From the "cosmic", twinkling strains of the Vangelis infused "Tribute to Bladerunner vol. 1" to the driving, pulse pounding rock-grooved breaks of Forme's "Ignition", Jonathan Lisle deftly crafts an aural sci-fi house masterpiece of progressive electronic soundscapes unparalleled...

With tracks from Steiger, PMT, Rabbit in the Moon and an electro/tech-tinged rework of the seminal Andy Ling track "Fixation" courtesy of Bill Hamel and Evolution, Lisle truly takes the listener on an interstellar journey replete with elements of trance, breaks, electro and yes - even a shot of drum and bass thrown in to keep things interesting - as if it were needed...

This compilation, indeed, covers all the necessary bases and then some. As a much vaunted Digweed protege, Lisle is one to watch in 2005 and most assuredly beyond. But in his own right, he is also a DJ who effortlessly manages to reference "Bladerunner", Pink Floyd, Young American Primitive, AND Depeche Mode all in one complete, consummate mix...

Do yourself and favor and discover Jonathan Lisle if you haven't had the pleasure of doing so already. And things are certain to only get better with this new series as Luke Fair is scheduled to drop the next installment sometime in the near summer!

Someone was talking about all the borrowed influences. Let's not forget the tribal-chant sample from Baraka used in the PMT track. I haven't been so delighted identifying a sample since I saw Naked Lunch and thought...and thought...and thought...holy S, Jimmy Van M! Moments like that help make music like this worthwhile.

Seriously, I've followed Bedrock and Global Underground releases for years and this is the best I've put money towards in a long time. Most notable is the flow. It inspires me to get off my A (not that I'm on it a lot). The Habersham tracks make the ones Seaman use sound like candy (although I love an opportunity to bag on Seaman). I wasn't so impressed with the DeKay track after I heard Andy Ling's that followed...there's something titilating about the logic of that track...

I suppose the upset is the location of the track breaks, which seem to happen at the beginning of the mix and that gets on my nerves. If I wanted to find a song, and go to it my typical reaction is "no...da*n...that's the song Before this song." Thinks SashenDigs' WestCoast. That irritating.

Careful, you'll want to listen to this a lot. DON'T LET YOURSELF. KNOW DISCIPLINE. Let it not corrupt like Fabric 20 or Balance 5...dam*....

"..it's the barometer by which every other prog album should be judged"

5/5 DJ MAG

"the result is an enthralling, original mix that highlights how Lisle likes to go the extra mile"

4/5 IDJ

OS_02 hits the streets on the 15th of February 2005 and having set an outstanding standard with OS_01, John Digweed and Bedrock Records look to Jonathan Lisle to push the tempo with the second in the series that looks towards the best of tomorrows burgeoning talent!

Mixed live using 5 CD channels (with 3 Denon DNS-5000s via their Alpha channels), FX and a Korg Z1 synthesiser. The tracks have been de-constructed and loops re-created using different elements of each track, then mixed live. Or to put it another way you might hear a drum loop mixed over track 3 which consists of a snare from track 5 and a kick from track 7!

Jonathan approaches OS_02 with a unique perspective, an idea to create one 80 min piece. Different elements from all the tracks weave in and out of the entire mix with live keyboards played over the top.

OS_02 opens with futuristic ambient soundtrack Cosmic Baby - Tribute to Bladerunner layered with breakbeats of Relysis' mix of Habersham - Gently Shifting People and vocals of Rabbit in the Moon - Waiting for the night. In the first 15 minutes 5 tracks have weaved in and out of each other, often as 3 tracks at once.

The pace picks up with a tempo change and huge drop into the vocals on Habersham's 4/4 beat, then back to breakbeats sustaining the futuristic mood. Things drop into live drums and live bass guitar and the Spanish vocal of the Hardkiss classic Hawke - Vivos en Muerte as the pace continues to build into the funky trippy breakbeats of Steiger - Ghost Sector.

Another tempo change up into PMT- Afro Lava Lamp going into a tribal breakbeat section as PMT is mixed continuously with Young American Primitive -Voyage to the Great Attractor. The 4/4 beat of Rabbit In The Moon's remix of Gavin Hardkiss - See the Love Infinite comes in with vocals and the mix starts rocking into the driving vocals of Trafik - Surrender remixed by Habersham and Blake Potter.

The huge 4/4 anthem of 2005 - BAD by Matthew Dekay - comes in for the peak time of the CD and is mixed with Andy Ling - Fixation, given a modern twist by Evolution and Hamel. Finally back to breakbeats for the finale with the massive Forme - Ignition as huge strings and guitars mellow out to the stunning climax of this exceptional, original journey

I really can't find better or more than this to say really it's a great work lisle...

Jonathan Lisle has finally put together a mix cd that may finally stop the endless cycle of computer-mixed 'mix cds'. Not only is this cd actually mixed through an Allen and Heath Xone 92, but Jonathan Lisle and Bedrock provide a mix chart/graph showing the interweavings of this incredible mix. While I do not like every track, one cannont help but applaud this incredible example of hard work, talent, and a good idea.

Not what I was hoping for. Too spacey "breaky" for me.

This disc is good, sure, but I wouldn't pay money for it. And these are my reasons.

The album has interesting beats, and I love the Bladerunner tribute entrance track. Lisle also proves himself able to craft some nasty grooves and be able to utilize bass lines in ways that make your ears perk up - but then, therein lies the problem.

This album seems to criss-cross its own path many, many times, taking on the dark grind of Hybrid's 'I Choose Noise' but less orchestrated and more monotonous. A good trance album, in my humble opinion, should have the ears "perked up" for most of its duration; on this release, however, the handful of perk-worthy tracks are like finding bottled water in a desert - gratification for an appreciable moment, but then one is left almost fiending for more with no relief in sight.

On the whole this is a very unorthodox album, and I mean that in every possible positive way I could apply that statement, but it does not capture the listener's attention like OS.0_1 by Desyn Masiello (who I am coming to love), and Luke Fair fares a bit better as far as the Bedrock: Original Series releases go. Jonathan Lisle is a strong DJ, no question, but he's no world champ. At least, not yet.

~Lex

This is one of those strange mixes where you can have absolute respect for the incredible mixing (check out the mix chart inside) and realize what an incredible job the dj has done creating a seamless fabric out of dozens of intricate pieces of work, but still the tracks just don't do it for me. As an aside, this is an excellent source for djs looking for inspiration, since you can really hear all the effort that went into making these tracks stand so well together.

The opener is fantastic with a beautiful tribute to Bladerunner's dizzying sci-fi heights, but then it quickly loses steam by meandering through some breakbeats and slowly paced progressive house. It still has some highlights, but I tended to get the feel that the dj was just teasing with excitement, instead preferring to provide an almost minimalist, spaced-out atmosphere.

Finally, at track 11, Matthew Dekay vs. Proluctors' epic-style production comes in to lift you up, and the album finishes very strong with superb Andy Ling remix and Forme's Ignition, neither of which I had heard before.

In summary, this album is more for those who like to wander in spaced-out valleys of dance music, rather than climb to ecstatic heights.