Customer Reviews

Playback Engineering

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As I casually, if not languidly flipped though the racks of the "dance" CD's at my local Best Buy (of all places...), I was shocked and amazed to discover a just released mix album by one of my progressive house favorites, Tarantella & Redanka. The only material I had acquired by them to date were a couple of remixes on the "Global Underground" CD series. (GU: Sasha-Ibiza, GU: NUBREED Sander Kleinenberg).

Tarantella VS. Redanka have a dark, driving progressive sound that borders somewhere between the brooding trance elegance of Breeder and the tribal mayhem of Danny Tenaglia; a perfect hybrid, in my opinion. If you're a fan of either of those artists - rush out and buy this powerhouse of a CD! It will blow you away! While not an album of original material, there are a couple of RvsT remixes and a new track by Tarantella as a solo artist.

The disc opens with Sound 5's "The Hacienda Must be Rebuilt" - remixed by T&R. Gritty bass lines accompany a disembodied voice of a man talking about the soul of house music. The next few tracks serve as a staging area of sorts for the maelstrom which is to follow. Futureshock's grim, yet driving, "Activate" gives way to the albums darkest, and in my opinion, best track: Satoshi Tomiie's "Love in Traffic." Obsidian synth lines of Tomiie's "dark-path remix" swirl around Kelli Ali's lilting cherub-gone-bad vocals as the next track mixes into a dischordant female voice requesting an unknown someone to "Please Call", an eerie, booming track by T&R's own John Cowan and Andy Holt. Tarantella's "Karma" is next incorporating an Eastern mantra of sorts over cleverly layered synth lines and tribal rhythmms. Tilt's dub of J Welsh's "Four Horsemen" thunders in next with it's chaos amid perfection of drums, samples, and banging synths. The TvsR remix of trance favorites Way out West's "Mind Circus" is a fitting end to this overpowering and insidious mix. Lush feamle vocals are carefully inserted among progressive bio-mechanical rhythms, sinister electro samples and throbbing, sweating bass.

If you like the sounds of Breeder, Tenaglia, Kleinenberg or any of the other artists featured on the Global Undeground CD series - this album is a must have for your collection.

I must admit I purchased this disc with only having heard two tracks but I was not disappointed - I WAS AMAZED! Now if only T&R would release an album of their OWN original material, all would be right with the world - of house music, anyway...

Incredible that this was released in 2001, BEFORE tribal & progressive house became a mainstay a few years later. Somone should have been paying attention to them then, AND now. Unfortunaletly Bliss Recordings is now a has been, so watch out for this to become a very wanted disc. Not one track gives way to boredom. The progressive ride carrys all the way through from start to finish. You WON'T find yourself skipping around to find only the good tracks (like on the majority of mix CDs), and once you start to play it, you'll listen to it all the way through, like a mix CD should be. Incredible. Just incredible.

The handwriting is on the wall: the music mags, the critics, and the all-night clubbers are turning with a vengeance against dark, percussive, progressive dance music. Consequently, solid, well-produced nonstop mixes like "Playback Engineering" may soon be a dying breed.

Six months ago progressive was the style *du jour*, with Sasha and Digweed leading the charge. 2001 has brought a veritable flood of terrific "proggy" releases, with fine mixes offered by the likes of Seaman, Fontaine, Graham, Debo, Bonham, Kennedy, and on and on. For those of us who love this style, it's been a very good year, indeed.

However, as always happens, trend breeds backlash, and as of mid-2001, the dance music mags have begun to take a sneering tone toward progressive, with the compound noun "progressive chugger" thrown about liberally with respect to many new 12" releases. Another ominous sign is that some of the erstwhile exponents of this style are moving on to new and different sounds. John Digweed's set at the Homelands festival in Scotland in June 2001 comprised hard-driving, uptempo material featuring prominent male vocals, certainly a change from his GU Los Angeles cd release. Just as "uplifting trance" came and went as the darling of the nightclub set, so it appears that dark progressive's time may have come and gone.

However, I happen to LIKE this style of music, and so I hope that in some form it will continue to thrive and evolve. For the moment, I am encouraged that this new release by Tarrentella & Redanka (Andy Holt and Chris Bourne) demonstrates that progressive has hardly reached the point of exhaustion in terms of creative possibilities.

Tarrentella/Redanka have become known to dance music fans for their deep, dark remixes of trance and progressive house tracks, and this cd features their own work prominently, but by no means exclusively. This is a dj mix, not a "best of our own stuff" compilation. People perusing the tracklisting may be disappointed to see that several of the tracks appear to be anthems that have enjoyed an awful lot of play of late, but it should be pointed out that in several cases, the remixes included here are suffiently fresh and original that they might as well be new tracks altogether. This is so for the Tarrentella & Redanka remixes of "Hacienda Must Be Rebuilt" and "Mind Circus," certainly. Less original is the ST Dark Path Remix of Satoshi Tomiie's "Love in Traffic," which certainly will have a familiar sound to those who already own the recent mix cd's by John Digweed and Timo Maas. Overall, however, T & R have succeeded in forging a well-mixed presentation that not only flows gracefully but that has its own distinctive style and feel.

One small complaint that I must register, however, is that the first minute or so of the mix is wasted on a "weird" intro consisting of a distorted, skipping snippet that frankly is quite unpleasant to listen to once, let alone repeatedly. Starting off with something "strange and different" seems to be *du rigour* for dj mixes these days. Why not just play the music?

This small objection notwithstanding, I found "Playback Engineering" to be another welcome addition to the cavalcade of fine "proggy" releases that have made 2001 a very good year indeed for dance music. But with all external signs indicating that "dark and deep" no longer captivates the dancing masses, I now wonder what the "next big thing" might be.

I've been eyeing these two producers ever since Danny Tenaglia would play their records. I figured I'd give this cd a try. I listen to it in my car, I listen to it in my house....this is a great cd to get you in the mood to go out and dance. Very tribal.

one of the best CDs I've gotten this year. Properly balances the dark and moody and oh so boring trend as of late, with tracks that do dark and moody with energy that will knock you down. A must have.

If you're looking for old fashioned dance music,this is not it,but if you want the very best techo club mixes,this disc will not disappoint.Some songs get a tad repetitive,and with this gendre of music don't expect a lot of substance or singing ability.But if you want jumps,beats and bass,techno doesn't get any better than this.Worth every penny to the diehard techno fan.

It's the good stuff that you hear in a dance-club and think "gosh I wish I had more of this". Most other techno disks are SOOOOOO BORING I feel violated for buying them. Repetitive nonsense and flat-beat diarhea. Buy this if you like good techno...

We've become conditioned to seek the DJ for the best in dance mixes, thanks to the press (and our) need to put a face on the music we enjoy. Mostly warranted, when finding a spinner matching our tastes, sometimes not, when considering the fees and attitude generated as byproduct. With the current electronic boom there aren't enough label trusted high-profile DJs to meet demand, causing a welcome development: proven artists given the chance to headline their own CDs.

Tarrentella and Redanka (Andy Holt, Chris Bourne) have delivered quality trance mixes for some time, but this year has seen their stock rise with their hit "Karma," included here, and their collaboration with Danny Tenaglia as DATAR on the smash neo-Japan single "B." Half the work on this top minimal-progressive set is their own, unsurprisingly, from the slinky rub up of Sound 5 "Hacienda Must Be Rebuilt," to the closing cool breaks on "Mind Circus."

Lathered in atmosphere, cuts by Killerloop and Nerva (and almost everything else here) don't take you anywhere as much as envelop the speakers in dense clouds. What hits do drop are off kilter, the acid bath of Futureshock "Activate" and the John Creamer & Stephanie K bleak take on "Love in traffic."

Trading hooks for mood, this'll barely blip the interest of most, but for those looking beyond a quick fix, an invigorating listen. Quite lovely for those dancing in the dark.

well this is a true elecro sound of the future with the class of a rock star of the 80 well trance deep house and tribal with a space of techno

Best Progressive House of 2001. deep, dark, insidious, REAL. If you don't like this, go listen to ah, Madonna or something. Don't bother me, I'm listening (take me to amnesia...!)