Customer Reviews

Renaissance Presents: The Therapy Sessions 2

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

 

 

While I did like the first Therapy Sessions with Seaman and Phil K, it didn't exactly blow my mind. It was good by all means, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as previous Seaman efforts. The second trip to Therapy proved to be much more therapeutic. With Seaman and Luke Chable providing class tracks on two discs, this is a compilation that needs to be picked up. Seaman is on disc one and brings a bit of everything to the table. It's progressive, it's housey, it's electro, it's brilliant. Top tracks are hard to pick cause everything is good, but I would have to say Mellow's "Drifting out of Sight", Holden & Thompson's "Come to Me"(My personal favorite, the vocal is amazing!)& Stel & Elliott's "Finding Time".
Now Luke Chable on disc two. For those who don't know the name Chable, he is a phenomenal dj and producer. He is responsible for "Melburn" which appeared on the first Therapy Session. Chable's disc is a breaks trip that borders on funk,tech,& progressive. Although most tracks are breaks, there are some 4/4 tracks that blend in perfectly with everything else. Just like Seaman's track listing, it's hard to pick favorites, but Rene Amesz "Fragile", Uberzone's "2kool4school"
(old school Uberzone...Quality),& Luke's own "Skyline Road"(A perfect closer to a great disc).
Honeslty, pick this up. Seaman and Chable do no wrong on this one. Therapy is a wonderful thing.

I have been a huge Dave Seaman fan for very many years and I must say that throughout his life he has put out some great mixes. His works in the trance genre have been a pure catalyst for many artists to push off of. With that in mind I was excited to get this. A couple of days ago I was able to pick this up from Media Play who is closing for $8 (normally at $20) and boy did I waste my money. Lets begin...

Dave Seamans CD is better of the two mixes. Technically he is damn good, but then again when you have CDs released you better know your stuff. As for the tracks, very poor to mediocre. There are a couple of decent tracks but otherwise its a random collection of material that just doesnt go well together. You know when you go to a club and you hear a dj just randomly pull stuff out of his bag last minute trying to make a set when its very obvious he hasn't planned it out? Well thats what this CD sounds like. From DS I was expecting a LOT more thought and quality but instead its as if he was making this mix out of revenge to the recording industry. As a key figure in trance and prog sound, this wasn't anywhere near his other works.

Luke Chable... what a disaster. I know who he is and what he has done but to put him on a trance / progressive mix series??? Some of the tracks were trash that maybe a high school dj-wanna-be kid might play. The break trance/dance stuff was horid. Then there were other tracks that sounded like club-hits from 15 years ago. Perhaps I am too old to appreciate this music but if you know anything about musical theory, trance music, or about the psychology behind sounds and emotion then you will want to avoid this.

I left feeling like this was a freestyle, non planned mix going absolutely nowhere. Therapy Session 2 is the title; well it felt like electro-shock therapy session that was very uncofortable and you couldnt wait for it to finish. Djs should not be allowed to put this kind of crap out. Avoid...

Dave Seaman always has a couple of tricks of his sleeve, and it seems he used all of them for this one. He comes out witha perfect progressive stunner that include some monster tracks like tears for fears's closest thing to heaven and holden and thompson's come to me (which is just a killer track). Seaman's tracklisting gives it the fifth star.
Australia's Luke Chable brings out the breaks in full swing on disc 2, and he even has a couple of tracks that go in a totally different direction (Moondusted, Skyline Rd.) but sound perfectly intertwined into the compilation. Chable's Tokyo and Skyline Rd. take the spotlight i think, and I believe Chables compilation slightly edges Seaman's (I love breaks). Anyways, this CD is off the meat rack. Get it.

With so many progressive mixes out there in 2005, sometimes compilations get lost in all the releases. This isn't a mix that I would normally jump on, but I am glad I did.

CD1 Mixed by Dave Seaman from 1st to last track is solid. A great representation of progressive without getting too techy or too vocal on the listener. I absolutely love it and it has become one of my favorite mixes so far this year. 5 Stars.

CD2 Mixed by Luke. It is similar to this new experimental techy progressive that many djs are introducing this year.

Successfully: Sasha Fundancion and Digweed Fabric 20.
Unsuccessfully: Chris Fortier Balance 007

Fortier either love or hate. I hated it, but if you loved it you will certainly enjoy Luke's mix.

Nonetheless, unlike Fortier, Luke puts together something that you can actually listen to. If you are in the mood for some dirty noisy progressive or some breaks slamming against your head this is it. I have enjoyed this compilation because as noisy and techy as it sounds, it still pretty good music (unlike Fortier's extremely annoying Balance effort, which falls flat on its face). So this Cd deserves 3 stars in my opinion, since I can't listen to it on a regular basis. Nonetheless, that is pretty subjective, so if you are into breaks you will certainly love this.

Conclusion Dave's 5 and Luke's 3 give this compilation 4 stars.

The second installment in the Therapy Sessions series is a really unique mix. Really, it's unique. With Phil K as a guest on Therapy 1, and Lexicon Avenue a fantastic accompaniment to Therapy 3, Luke Chable, at first glance, seems woefully out of place as the other half of the duo behind this two disc set.

That being said, I can assure you he is so stylistically out of place that his music is daunting at first. It bears no resemblance to the likes of any of Seaman's work... yet, it is quite fantastic. Therapy Sessions 2 is a wonderful package of unexpected electronica bipolarity.

Seaman's mix is a solid progressive mix beginning with fuzzy electro-influenced progressive trance a la Masters Series Pt. 7, and then quickly glides into some more well-known tracks that can be identified the moment the melody drops in, which is unlike Seaman, but these songs completely work in the context of their environment. The highlight of Seaman's disc is the journey from tracks six through twelve, beginning with a well-done Rabbit In The Moon remix of "Diamond Dust", and ending with Stel & Good Newz' "Little Soul". The best tracks are, in my opinion, "Finding Time" and "In My Heart" (tracks 10 & 11, respectively). The flow to be found on the second half of Seaman's disc is one of the best I'd found in 2005 and I still listen to the CD regularly.

It's a great mix in its own right, and would even work as a single CD if released by itself - but in lieu of Seaman's previous works, which I find more inspired and entrancing, I cannot help but return to some of his previous Renaissance releases like Awakening, Desire & America, and even his sets for Global Underground, more often than this disc.

Luke Chable's mix is on a completely different level. Not that it's better, nor that it's worse, than Dave Seaman's effort. It's just a completely different style and I am surprised that Dave would consider Luke to assist him with this disc.

Luke Chable's mix is pure berserk break-beat, and I feared for the life of my subwoofers when the bass kicked in full-force on track one. Chable presents us with a fierce rampage through entertaining tracks laced with the occasional cheese vocal, but what stands out most in my mind is the way Chable resembles James Zabiela in the way he would just blatantly mess with the tracks - stop-start, spinning backwards, scratching, bubbly laser-esque audio insertions - just some crazy and unexpected stuff. I really enjoyed it, because the monotony of break-beat, which I usually don't listen to (save Adam Freeland and Hybrid) tends to turn me off. Luke Chable has proven that he is much more than just an Aussie producer, which is how I knew his name before popping this disc in. Not for the faint of heart, especially if one cannot be conservative with the volume knob... but then, what's life without your heart thumping outta your chest as you let the madness overtake you?

Bipolarity Therapy? I'll take it!

~Lex

I put this cd in and slipped away to a wonderful place, thanks to Dave Seaman. I highly recommend this cd.

Dave Seaman again shows why many consider him the king of progressive Trance. Luke Chable's set is one of a kind with awesome breaks. Must Have!