Customer Reviews

Renaissance: Master Series 2

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most of you may know of Hernan Cattaneo from the set he performed in Mooonpark in 2002 with Sasha. Many people hadn't heard of him then, and were awed with his technical proficiency and dark, progressive Latin tribal. He immediately vaulted onto the international stage, and became recognized as one of the premier House and tribal DJ's.

If you haven't heard any of Cattaneo's sets yet, his primary influences of set construction and effectual tonality would be: GU's Danny Tenaglia, Godfather: Juan Atkins, and even Underworld's Darren Emerson. Modern Artists to compare him to would be Matthew Dekay, Chris Micali, Satoshi Tomeii, Sander Kleidenberg, Deepdish, and Jon Digweed. Odds are if you dig their sets, you'll really get into Cattaneo.

Now, this collection is phenomenal. It's the best straight house set I've ever heard, by far; even though I really like some of the Balance contributions (more progressive), and some of the Nubreed projects from GU...

Anyway, Hernan really goes Underground with CD 1. Pole Folder is a strong opener, but other than that, the rest of the artists (Azad Rizvi and Tom Middleton excluded) were fairly unknown to me. I love that. Very little things make me more happy than the presence of white labels and unknowns mixed with cream into a set. Track 2 is a great neo disco move, with pleasing new millennia threads woven into the aural tapestry. Real interesting tempo and mood transition from the darker first track. Hernan glides into the 3rd track with beat matching precision, and picks up the bpm with a funky tribal tone.
Then something happens that really flies me back to my home city. Deep Chicago house. Precursed with shadowed-pounding bass, a mournful, elegiac saxophone speaks, its appearance like a mythological Greek ship floating from wispy synthesized echoes.
The rest of CD 1 keeps true to its foundations and holds a dark/funk/disco tone with plenty of creative quirks and seamless mixing.

CD 2, however is what will flip you like a flapjack in a pan.

1st track. Say hello to your old friend Quivver, and a newer friend, Space Manouvers. Beat picks up from song one, and keeps a deep house bass line with constant high shakes.
2nd track. Enter Graham and Blades. Funky punches of bass and snare, complimentary high snips and sweeping synth; you're suddenly in a four seater plane flying over rugged Cuba.
3rd & 4th tracks. Jeff Bennet emerged with his 'Swapping' vinyl in 2003, and Avantages, Direction Changes, Untertaken, and doubting faces E.P.s in 2004, punching into the house fans hearts with authentic beats and quirky use of engineering equip. Cattaneo uses his vinyl here with respect and potentcy.

It's about dam time Snake Sedrick got recognized and used in a major set. His dark tribal and 2004 vinyl works with Andro, i.e. "She is my Destiny", "Solid & Liquid State", and his other lone works have gone severely unnoticed. Here, "Fields" gets an overhaul by Blue Haze, a darker more monotonous polish from the original.

Dousk and Micah have strong shows here, the John Dalagelis unreleased vocal vinyl being a gem for me. Hernan showcases here serious international talent and connections. For you that are deep in the scene, you know that the Greeks with Dousk, Nikola Gala, Kosmas Epsilon, G-Pal, The Greek, and many others, are just dominating the progressive house scene. Hernan, a native to Argentina, I believe, expands previously held ethnic boundaries and pushes the limits of house into a gloriously appetizing multi-hemisphere aural brew.

On the topic of mixing styles, Cattaneo bit ch slaps the listener with breaks around 59 minutes in. I love, love, love progressive breaks, and I love them even more with haunting female vocals.
The second CD closes out with powerful reminisces of Dave Seaman's Therapy sessions and a heavy pulsing undertow that is the heart of evolving progressive electronica.

This is a phenomenal mix, worth every penny you can spend on any commercial house purchased on Amazon. Cattaneo provides four or five different genres of house, breakbeat, and progressive trance/tribal in this masterful compilation. I truly feel that he is one of the fathers that is going to push electronica to where it should go, and consequently should be heard by every person who is serious about the music.

Highest Recommendation

This cd was great, another masterpiece in addition to the already legendary South America and Master Series Vol. 1. Disc 1 had some cool and chilled out tracks but disc 2 was by far my favorite. Hernan's cd releases are, however, only a teaser of the miracles he performs live. Highly recommended album.

I bought this release simply because I was starving after a year of music-buying (strict financial) budgeting and I needed to jump back into the scene with a renewed sense of discovery. I don't know why, but House music has alway eluded me despite the fact that I have always truly loved and pursued all things electronica: IDM/EBM,industrial/post-industrial,trance (and all therein),Euro music(s) etc. I've ventured to House releases from time-to-time only to quickly resale or trade them because I found them much too languid or rambling for my overall trance tastes.

So I'm carefully studing the Amazon reviews of new releases relying on the opinions of others to take me to a new and much needed pursuit. THANK YOU, to Everyone who turned me onto this release. It's given me a "wake-up call" to House. Such an exotic, sexy, slow driven, sensual experience this is. It's some kind of undulating dream sequence that has the perfect soundtract.

I'm not enough of a House afficionado to justifiably detail this as well as the others who have contributed so eloquently. All I can contribute is Five Stars and further support for this astonishing release. Thank You again to the others who have so sincerely pursuaded me into buying this. It just goes to prove your input does make a difference. I'm in love.

Personal favorite: CD 2 is heavensent. What a lovely, mind warping sound excursion this is. If only I could play this for my therapist.

This album is just another testament as to how good Hernan really is. The Masters Series 1 was a great album. Althought it might not be text book Hernan, disk one had some great tracks. I was a little disappointed with some of the tracks on disk 2(specifically the Josh Wink track that I've never liked), but I felt it was a great mix once you got past that.

This album is even better. The mellow and deep mood of disk 1 is great to just chill out and relax listening to. From beginning to end it's nothing but sexy soulfull house music that gets your foot tapping at some points, but never really makes you want to get up and dance. It's almost comparible at times to the feel of a Dave Seaman mix. The music is great, and the mixing is always phenominal, but the tracks don't really wow you. It's mainly progressive, but there are points where it sounds more like deep house.

Disk two has more of the feel of an actual live show of his. The music is amazing. It's more upbeat, and really makes you wish you were at a club watching him perform live. It's the perfect disk if you're in the mood for some upbeat house. It's a progressive mix to the full extent, and keeps up a nice tempo throughout the entire mix. The tracks he uses are amazing. Disk 2 is definately the knock out punch of the combo.

Have only had the set now for about two days, so I'll be interested if down the road my perception changes a bit. My initial impression is that this is WAY more representative of Hernan's live sound than his previous Renaissance Masters release (which, to be honest, even as a big Cattaneo fan I thought was totally subpar and not even close to how the guy spins live, with CD1 downright wretched). Here we have on CD1 the straight-ahead 4/4 prog house he ignites the dance floor with, deeper at times, more ethereal at others- somewhat along the lines of Satoshi Tomiie's Nubreed mix- reminiscent more of Hernan's Perfecto South America release than his previous Rennaisance release. Highlights for me include track 1 (can see Hernan subtly taking over the decks from the warm-up set with this eerie intro), track 5 and track 9, the eric morel prog beat with it's trancy synth undertones- it gives me goosebumps thinking about this little ditty drifting in at about 4:00 A.M. The difference between this set and his previous Renaissance release is that this set moves, it flows, it maintains its danceable 4/4 high BPM, there is none of those choppy, slowed down somewhat acid-jazz-house tracks like on the previous release. This is textbook progressive house music.

CD2 keeps up the progressive house with a heavy dose of break beats interspersed. This CD is somewhat more choppy, and offers a great change of pace at times. Thankfully, he doesn't revert to any of the weird "concept" tracks found on the previous release (think F-U-C-K? or is it F-ooo-ck? whatever that bizarre track was on CD2 that ground the mix to a halt and should never be played again ever for any reason whatsoever). These 4/4 beats and breaks move quicker and are equally adaptable to the dance floor and calmer listening. He starts and ends CD2 with two KILLER prog tracks, #1 from old Sasha standby Space Manoeuvres and than #11, Hernan's own remix of Underworld's Mo Move, which would send any peaking dance floor into hypnosis as it just moves, pun intended.

I've seen this guy a couple of times, including at a real intimate venue in New York which is now closed called Centro-Fly. This guy has real talent, particularly at keeping up the intensity of the beats as he senses the high level of energy from the crowd (in a smooth-flow proggy way, like sander kleinenberg or Tomiie, NOT in a pound-you-over-the-head tech-house way like Carl Cox, whom I also like) . That was what impressed me most seeing him live. I thought his first Master's release was totally different than that, and because he was so good at the live stuff, I thought he got away from his strength. Here he has definitely re-discovered it. My early thoughts are that this is gonna be one of my favorites.

and by the way, Cattaneo may have once been Oakenfold's protege, but his style is NOTHING like Oakenfold and his primary fan base is completely different.

I saw Hernan live in Crobar in NYC a few months back. Magical, hypnotic set prompted me to stay 'till lights came on. I could not peel myself away from the dance floor. This was one of the best 'dance' nights out I've ever had. Short of the one in Ibiza where I had an awesome Tiesto time. Driving home that late Sunday morning, I stopped in at Tower Records and picked up the double CD. Haven't taken it out of my car's CD changer since. The only other Cd that lasted this long in my changer was Sasha's awesome Ibiza. Ironically, Sasha and Hernan are great friends and peform together quite often. I guess some of that 'Sasha majic' rubbed off on Hernan. Nice job in any case.

Hernan has brought us a prog.house mix that TRULY shines from start to finish. Cd 1 is a bit on the chunky house side, with a little more funk and bump. While cd 2 starts out smooth and flowing and ends the same, a little bit darker than cd 1 and in my opinion the best out of the two. If you are looking for a GREAT prog.house mix DO NOT PASS THIS MIX UP. REPEAT.....DO NOT PASS THIS MIX UP. IT truly is one of the best prog. house mixes of 2005 if not within the last 3 years.

This is what I believe to be Hernan at his best. Some of the best progressive I have ever heard. He is one of the best in the world and he proves it here. Both CDs are amazing. There are very few CDs that I can listen to in there entirety. Both of these CDs are included in that select group.

If you like deep progressive sound, this one is essential pick.

This album is a clear evidence why Mr.Cattaneo is so regarded in
house scene. Mixing is flawless and beatiful, whit quality tracks.

If you're like me, bored with progressive house DJs trying to break new grounds with material that is maybe 20% danceable, relieve yourself - get this CD. Both mixing and track selection are on par with Dave Seaman's very best releases, and the style is similar. At last, here's again THAT intelligent, rich, mind-blowing, stomach-twirling house that keeps dancefloor crazy for the whole night and haunts you for weeks. Would love the guy come to Moscow more that any other DJ in the World.