Customer Reviews

Spundae Presents: Interpretations II

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I will start by saying, if you like a musical adventure this is a set that is worth your time. I have come to find out recently that Jerry Bonham has been mixing records since 1978. His taste and ear fo this genre of music is a gift to all of us, and his technique is as flawless as ever.

I saw him live three years ago, and he spun directly after John Digweed. Digweed's set was incredible, and when you thought, at 4 in the morning that we had peaked with his set, you were wrong. Jerry Bonham took to the tables and proceeded to step up even Digweed's set. This album is of that calibur. Pure... smooth... an epic adventure through music and sound.

I've had CD 2 in my player since I bought this. Apparently my player went on the fritz and the laser-read mechanism started scratching the CD. As punishment for destroying my favorite CD, I took the player outside and smashed it to pieces. Once I get a new player I'm buying another copy - it's that good!

Like many other reviewers have said - a fantastic set from a relatively unknown trance DJ. I can't wait to hear more from him. The only con - the stupid cover. Is that milk you've got in your hands there Jerry?

I must admit that I am usually wary when it comes to buying American DJ's CD's - because in my opinion they tend to come in a "distant second-place" when compared to their elite English counterparts. Most of the time the CD's have a combination of 50 percent great tracks that you have already heard before, and 50 percent tracks that tend to be, well, just bad! (a good portion of which are usually written and produced by the DJ himself or a good friend of his!) The first Spundae CD was just like that - chock full of great tunes that most trance/prog house fanatics have already heard before - and a few that were just not very memorable at all really...

...and when I pay more money for a new CD - I want something NEW, not redundant! I am salivating at the thought of that incredible NEW track that I have never heard before!

ANYWAY! - This CD is everything that you would expect from someone like John Digweed (and in my opinion, that is the ultimate compliment) It is a well thought out, flawlessly mixed journey of great tunes - most of which I have never heard before.

In my opinion, a great trance/prog house compilation keeps you groovin' and interested the whole way through - NOT thinking, "oh my God, this track is horrible - fast forward!" like a lot of them seem to be doing to me these days. (I recently bought Renaissance - Revelation by two normally reliable DJ's - Danny Howells and Nick Warren - and, so far, I am not too impressed - but that's not my final review - sometimes these compilations have a way of growing on you!)

BUY THIS CD! It's very good AND very unique. What more could you want?! :)

Really don't need to say much other than the fact that this is one of the few remaining discs you can buy on Amazon that is pure trance: pure flow without annoying breaks, unnecessary changes or dubs of corporate rock (think Oakenfold's recent outings). Over two hours of pure trance pleasure -- and if you can ever catch Bonham running a set live, don't neglect the opportunity!

It's always good to see a DJ given two discs to showcase their musical ideas, and in typical trance fashion West Coast spinner and San Francisco Spundae resident Jerry Bonham offers up one smoother set for home listening and a second to heat up the party.

The first hour glides smoothly, easily the standout of this package. Here Bonham displays a distinctive touch, layering out tunes with a slower pace and lower BPMs. Second Hand Satellites's `Orbit 1.3' is the pretty cousin of Bedrock's `Beautiful Strange,' sniping the same audio samples but making a better job of it. Lovesky's `Drums 4 Better Daze' drops out the bass in spurts and would probably be a spectacular ambient piece with a bit of rework. Scattered throughout are a handful of other nuggets (`U Karumba') that positively envelop you on a proper sound system. Though lacking hooks for immediate appeal, disc one blends tracks with atypical beats for an engaging listen that holds up on repeated playbacks.

The back end veers towards the louder, American progressive-trance sound that's becoming increasingly embraced. Harder, faster, edgier, it suffers from some erratic pacing and a few stumbles. The lethargic chanting of Brian Stillwater's `Thirteen' is a skipper. Starecase pick it up a notch with the driving `Undecided' and `Deep Love 9' is an expansive big-moment corker.

End result, Interpretations 2 is certainly enjoyable, but not the revelation hoped for. Still worthy for trancers. Disc 1- 4 stars. Disc 2- 3 stars. Final score: 3.5

Jerry is a resident DJ in San Francisco at 1015 Fulsom. He owns the famous records store on Haight called "Spundae". When I first listened to Spundae (Jerry Bonham's previous album), I didn't like it so much. But, as time went on, I would pop in the CD and it would grow on me. I realized the reasn fr this was that the CD was a bit a head of its time and my taste was catching up to it. I got to see Jerry spin at Spundae on a Sunday night in San Fran and he totally had me mesmerized. I thought to myself-- "this guy has the crowd by the cajones and he is barely known by the fans of trance and house. That holds true for the fans, but Jerry Bonham is known very well by the producers and other DJ's and highly respected by many of them. D:Fuse said "Thanks to Jerry Bonham- who is still the best damn DJ in the world" on the cover of his new Progressive mix.

This CD is a powerful mix of progressive sounds. Not high energy like a Tiesto CD would have, but forceful energy. It is like a tank- harder to get going, but once it starts, you can't stop it. I would compare this CD to Digger's GU# 19. But even better.

If you know 1015 Folsom or This End Up then you will appreciate this CD, chemicals are optional ;-)

Great mix. Very relaxed and "progressive" without trying to hard to build and build and build with a climax at the end (As many "progressive" mixes do today). Great CD, great effort.

This is by far one of the top five CD's of 2001. This deserves 5 out of 5 stars or more. It deserves to be in your collection. Everytime I have people over, I put this CD in and EVERYONE asks who and what it is. Most have bought this CD after coming to my house.

When I first saw this CD, I didn't know who Jerry Bonham was, and that gay cover didn't really attract me, but, I had nothing to do, and I tried to listen to it. First 2 tracks were ok, but the 3rd one is amazing! I'm a big deep dark house/trance fan, and when I skipped to the 4th one, it was just as good the previous one, just like all other tracks on CD1. "Jerry Bonham is a progressive house pioneer from the west coast, thats why he is a world class DJ - John Digweed" says a little sticker on the cover of the CD, and after buying and listening to it over and over again I understand why Mr. Digweed said that. This CD is strong enough to challenge Global Undeground series, and Jerry Bonham himself deserves to be one of GU DJ'S along with Danny Tenaglia, John Digweed, Sasha, Steve Lawler and others. Mixing is ok, but Track choice and programming are excellent! CD1 is very deep and dark, especially tracks 3-7, then music accelerates a little, and gets a bit more trancey with some more melodies. CD2 starts with Minders' freakout which is faster and trancier than the first disc. Next 4 tracks are good, with some nice melodies, but did not impress me. With Loafer's travelogue (which was track #5) Mr. Bonham turned back to the dark side full of pleasant melodies and bassie groove. The whole album impressed me alot. I found out who Jerry Bonham is, and he just slammed on the 6th place in my personal DJ ratings list. Anyway, for people who like John Digweed, Danny Tenaglia and Sasha, this CD is A MUST!!! For people who like Paul Van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Howells, and all other Progressive Trance DJ'S this CD will sound boring.

Basically, I am writing this in response to the anti-american dj fellow, who decided one day that he knew something about the underground dance scene. Unfortunately reading about music it is different than actually listening to it. Number one american dj's who spin this kind of music are usually not very common (at least any respected one who could put out an album) so i am going to take a gamble and guess you are reffering to BT (Brian Transeu). If that's the guess comparing him to this type of music is like comparing enya to the rolling stones. Second some dj's you might want to check out, go by the name of Deep Dish (Ali and Sharam) who probably wouldn't agree with your statement that american dj's play boring popular dance music. Thirdly if you're going to claim to know something about the underground scene, i would think you shouldn't omit dj's such as sander kleinenberg or anthony pappa who are both no uk residents, sander being dutch and pappa being an aussie. Comparing him to someone like John Digweed is also pretty out of line considering he doesn't really have that many records out. Jerry Bonham is an outstanding dj which explains why he spins at spundae, but for people to talk about the "scene" when they don't really know jack squat, lowers the reputation of the genre of music they are talking about. PeAcE