Customer Reviews

Ultra Dance 8

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

 

 

And once again, there are noticeable overlaps between the track listings on each disc. But there's really no competition this time. Ultra Dance 8 does a great job of introducing slamming tracks we may not have heard before, while Thrive Mix 3 offers a lot of sought after remixes of popular stuff, making them both worthy editions to your dance collection. Nice to see that Ultra Dance is catching on to the fact that a lot of these mixes have not been released on CD, so are giving us longer playing versions. Disc 1 has more of a dark/electro/tribal vibe featuring mixes of mainstream artists, disc 2 focuses more on disco/uplifting circuit sounds with underground dance artists, making for a great balance. The breakdown is like this:

CD1


1. ain't no other man (ospina mix) (6:33) (a disco feel, and not the best remix of this song--the SAME mix is on thrive mix 3, but twice as long here)
2. when you were young (Lu Cont dub) (5:23) (WHY the dub??? While it has full vocal, this mix is very choppy, and very often, the steady dance beat drops out for clunky electro beats. The vocal mix should have been on here)
3. Love don't let me go (4:51) (great catchy electro track)
4. Bossy (scumfrog mix) (6:31) (great dark, hard mix, as expected from Scumfrog)
5. SOS (chris cox mix) (6:51) (Chris Cox peak hour brilliance)
6. Rock this party (4:07) (sort of an "old skool" track that will take you right back to 1992, with a techno riff and `everybody dance now' vocal shout all borrowed from the C&C music factory classic. This isn't the strongest mix of this track though)
7. Borderline (4:44) (yuck. This is an annoying disco house track with mousy female vocals)
8. Single (6:28) (this is a funky electro mix--too repetitive and uninteresting to be over 6 minutes)
9. Here (in your arms) (young Americans mix) (4:21) (the original version is electro/retro new wave perfection. This commercial electro mix takes all the charm out of the original, but it's nice to have in your collection if you already have the original mix. But MAN is this mix an insult to the original mix)
10. Only difference between us (3:23) (Tommie sunshine does the hottest mixes of alternative pop rock bands. Wish this track were longer. This same mix is used on Thrive Mix 3 and it's almost the identical length)
11. Break up (cascade mix) (3:00) (Blech. A great Kim Sozzi track remixed to sound EXACTLY like the always annoying europop Cascade hit "everytime we touch")
12. I go crazy (4:19) (the very catchy europop hit mix of this cover of a Paul Davis 1970s classic)

CD2

1. one love world love (5:46) (I would love to hate this track that sounds like Bob Marley's "Sun is Shining" remix, which was a huge club hit in 1999, but it is incredibly catchy)
2. shine on (4:43) (very upbeat electro circuit track with male and female vocals. Another track you'll hate yourself for liking)
3. What a feeling (5:44) (this song is a huge hit for a reason. It's completely likeable)
4. By my side (5:03) (disco house--the hook will drill into your head)
5. take it (4:47) (Haji & Emanuel mix the usual fantastic vibe, with a great female vocal melody and attitude--this one should have been longer)
6. Boogie 2nite (7:39) (great electro/filter feel, with female vocal. This one is a slammer)
7. Proper education (4:38) (Prydz does for Pink Floyd's "another brick in the wall" what he did for Steve Winwood's "valerie" a few years back--makes an infectious dance groove, using the original Pink Floyd vocals)
8. Yeah yeah (6:21) (clunky electro with female vocal that sounds like it's trying to imitate Gwen Stefani. This one is ANNOYING)
9. Put your hands up for Detroit (5:22) (cool, mostly instrumental electro vibe. Gets a little boring though)
10. this is Miami (5:47) (stronger than the previous track, again with a bit of spoken male vocal)
11.don't go (4:25) (WOW. AMAZING new electro house recording of the Yaz classic. The female vocalist nails Moyet's vocals, and it sounds as if the riff is pretty much sampled from the original. THIS one should have been longer)
12. Dance4life (6:48) (a serious thumper from Tiesto--a combination of trance/electro and disco house. No real vocal, but a great way to end the disc on a high, energetic note)

I have all of the Ultra.Dance and Ultra.Trance albums, and of them all, I like this set the least. At first, I thought I might be suffering from Trance/Dance burnout or the "first-listen syndrome" (where a disc sounds weird the first time through but then grows on you), but unfortunately I don't think that's the case. There are a few good tracks, but overall, I found it boring. As a longtime buyer of the Ultra series, I was surprised to find this set has a "going-thru-the-motions" kind of a feel to it. Oh, well, maybe I'll like the next one better...

Ok, I normally don't buy mainstream compilation releases because most of them sound to "cookie-cutter" for my tastes. After listening to a few samples, I decided to give this 2 CD set a try. Unfortunately its basically a tale of two halves. CD 1 on my opinion is pretty bad and cookie cutter to boot. Disc 2 was above average for the most part. Defitetly much more hints of house on CD 2.

I love this series and this CD is no exception. It is a great CD with great songs. I love all the remixes. This is one of my favorites. I own all the ultra dance CDs.

This Cd compilation is actually pretty weak. Typically most people buy these cd's cause they put out new dance, techno, house, or progressive music that is great and cutting edge. The mainstream Cd of this compilation (disc 1)is better than than dance techno version, and that right there tells me this CD is not gonna be that good.
Eric prydz pink floyd remix is very good, of course Tiesto is always good, Peter Lutz has a strong track on here and some retro dance music people might recognize the remix of Don't go, but besides those the rest of the songs on disc 2 are awful including sander kleinenberg, who has alot of really good music. Disc 2 mostly sounds like euro break beats and cheesy pop music, not what most of us buy this Set for which is great dance, techno, trance, house and pregressive music.
Disc 1 is good for a gathering (not necessarily great club dance music) or a girl that does spin class, but not a great CD we've come to expect from Ultra, which brought us new sounds from ATB, IIO, Dirty vegas, Tiesto, Armen Van Buren and Paul Oakenfold in the past.
The 4 songs on disc 2 I've talked about are worthy of downloading or adding to your DJ collection, but overall its surprisingly not good, your constantly fast forwarding this disc to get to the few good songs

Had this CD set for a few months now and I love most of the songs. Ultra has done a nice compilation of remixes.

My roommate and I both really like this music set. We recently went to Mexico and a shop owner heard it coming from our rental car and bought it from us on the spot! I reordered it as soon as I got home!

I like this, especially the Eric Prydz track, which is hot. I've recently just got into dance music and I love the Ultra compilations and also the compilations on iTunes called "euro club hits vol. 1" and "euro club hits vol. 2"

4 stars for continuing cheesy dance music, with slick packaging. If you want the best in new underground dance music. But this new series.

Paris under a groove

San Francisco under a groove

These offer amazing tracks and pure blissful listening pleasure. These discs also contain some of the best underground deep house tracks in the world. St. Germain, Andre Castano, Will Felt, Terrasse Tranquille, Versus, The Bottle, Miguel Migs, Maximillian, etc. Straight out of Paris and San Francisco. Two of our great dance, and deep house hot spots. Peace and enjoy.