Customer Reviews

Park Hyatt Chicago: On the Seventh (Dig)

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

 

 

Philly native King Britt, a DJ whose tastes cover many genres and moods, provides his own version of the chillout compilation on "On the Seventh," a great disc for late-night mellowing out. For close to 80 minutes, he gives the listener a twisted journey through nu jazz, edgy soul, and electronic funk with sometimes mind-blowing results. The opener, Twyla's "Love of a Lifetime" is as light as a summer breeze, while Sa-Ra's "Glorious" is a dark and gritty downtempo funker. In addition, Atjazz's "Eastern Sound" is a seductive 7-minute fusion of electronica and jazz, and other soulful highlights are "I Got You" by Vikter Duplaix, Anetria Wright's "Feeling of Love," and Lizz Field's "I Gotta Go." You could easily give this disc a spin after a late night at the club, for dinner parties, or those long rides on the highway. As most downtempo compilations get more predictable and formulaic, King Britt breathes new life and gives us a much-needed change of flavor. Recommended.

I have to admit, being a little bit too snooty on the DJ side, that some of the mixes are not "perfect". But the whole is a great collection of how house and RnB and some 'experimental' jazz-house fusion can work together. Some of the vocals seemed a little too childish sounding and too pre-teen qualities to it. However the compilation of these differing points of great SOUL are worth it. Great points: 'I'm on Fire' - solid attempt @ some Portishead-ish sound, 'Glorious' - great FUNK, 'Gotta Go' - sassy power with soul!, 'Do For You' - okay expect for the 'perfect wife' line I was really diggin its mix of vocals and production, and the mellow 'Anything you say' is great chill fulfilling music.

I took a chance on this one and I am very satisfied. Most of King Britt's projects are very good. This one is no exception. From the cover, I thought it was an album full of love making music. Some meet that description, but others fall short of that. If you like downtempo, deep house sounding grooves, I'd pick this one up. Michelle Shaprow's "Anything U say" is a great song and so is Sylk 130's "Romeo's Fate". These two songs are worth the price of admission to me alone. Vikter Duplaix's "I got you" is another really good one. Try it out!

I stopped buying hotel compilation CD's because they started to sound too monotous and (arrrgh!!!) Latin (and the more I think about it, I'm gonna stop buying those dance mix compilation CDs too for lack of originality--but I digress!). That is until something compelled me to pick up DJ/Producer King Britt's compilation "On the Seventh" mixed for the esteemed Chicago's Park Hyatt. Man, am I glad I did!!! This is some hot stuff. King Britt has gathered together some very sexy material, most of it previously unreleased grooves from knowns (Viktor Duplaix, Atjazz, I:Cube and Spacek) and virtual unknowns (Sa-Ra, Josh Winks and Twyla)--all mixed seamlessly together. Perhaps other DJs who try to compile soundtracks for famous hotels should hook up with King Britt to see how mixing should be done.