Customer Reviews

Vol. 8-Cafe Del Mar

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It is the 8th compilation under the well-known name of Cafe Del Mar, a place on Ibiza Island where outstanding Dj - Jose Padilla - was giving once music sessions. The music on this compilation is as always chillout, meditative and moving. But this time there are several "buts" what made me ranking it as 4-star-album.

The 8th edition was compiled not by Jose Padilla but by other Djs, Peter Neville & Ben Cherrill. Well, I don't say they're bad Djs, but they didn't make an outstanding album anyway. The reason for this is here. All but one song are incredible, setting your mood to different heights. But only one by one. They don't make a whole piece of music as in previous compilations. Each part of the album (prologue, the middle and the end) are too overextended, lasting for 2-3 songs. Besides, the edge between these parts is very palpable what makes this CD like ordinary compilations of "easy-listening" music. With Jose Padilla music was floating very gradually from the very quite, meditative to even sometimes hard-beat, very rhythmic music.

A very pleasant presence here of Goldfrapp with their "Utopia", a thoughtful, mystic song. Thomas Newman's "Any Other Name" feels much like soundtrack music, with a scratch-like-noise sound what makes this track very warm and lovely. Afterlife presents us their "Sunrise" - great song for sitting on the beach with friends and looking on the moonlight in the sea. Dido with her "Worthless" surprises us with an unusual for us sound, which we can't hear on her "No Angel". Here the music is more alternative, with strong, enigmatic beats and vocals. Very interesting work! Mari Boine with her "Gula Gula" gives the album the most mystic, unforgettable touch. Mark de Clive-Lowe's "Day by Day" I'd skip. Ben Onono gives great French vocals with his sentimental "Tatouage Bleu". Illumination's "Cookie Raver" is perfect for dancing with friends in some club - great beats, mysterious floating sounds and disco-vocals. Digby Jones' "Pina Colada" is one of my personal fav here. It sounds like Soul Ballet, very measured, pretty-sounding, warm music. Scripture with their Apache gives an outstanding instrumental piece of music art! What a splendid work; ac. guitar, horns, choir-singing - all that makes this track to be the finishing on the album; unfortunately it's not. And Lamb comes with her "Gabriel". An interesting song, with great beats and background sounds albeit I don't like the vocals which are quite insignificant against a background of the music itself.

All in all, this album brings one more pleasant spending of time. The collection of songs is great, but repeating again, all of them are compiled very badly; sometimes you feel you'd put one or another song to a different position. That is unpleasant feeling what eventually led me to put this CD a 4-star rate.

For some reason everyone has heard of the "Cafe Del Mar" series, and I'm convinced its as much the catchy series title as the quality of the work. It tends to be the love of public radio music shows also (see KCRW, Santa Monica, CA). Probably the label had a lucky ride on the early 1990s sudden penchant for lounge/ambient/chill etc. and the series was initially quite novel, but has since been overtaken.

The main problem is the jarring styles jammed on to this and the other disc, you have reggae, samba/latin, jazz, R&B, soul, trip hop, new age for goodness sake, the obligatory French female vocal (beloved of all chill) vying for your ear. The sum is not more than the parts here, if someone made you this compilation out of their music collection you might think it was Ok, but not to shell out serious bucks for. This particular compilation delves dangerously close to some new age soundtrack for meditation. For example, the famous Thomas Newman piano piece is a bad choice. The bane of a thousand movie soundtracks its very sad, and will make you weep into your pine colada. Then this is followed by a jolly summer day "Girl from Ipanema" style samba-acoustic guitar piece. Yikes.

Compare the genius of Thievery Corporation or Kruder and Dorfmeister for making something thematically unified, which just "sounds right", out of other people's songs. Here, however, you are painfully aware that, "now its time for the cool "French" vocal, now its time for the reggae one, etc."

Look, if it works for you fine ambient, pleasant enough for the beach, but its just not the transcendent experience all many reviews [make] it up to be. But I think the Cafe Del Mar series has worn out its welcome after the departure of uber chill meister Padilla.

There are much better choices out there, see anything by Thievery Corporation, K&D, Air etc. Oh and for summer beach listening, the more obscure "Cafe Ibiza," or anything by Costes. And it terms of value, see the Budda Bar series or Verve Remixed or any other two disc collections that give a lot of more value, and arguably a lot more of a consistent feel.

There is an easy explanation as to why this volume of Cafe del Mar is such a huge disappointment - it's related to the others in name and not by nature. The Cafe del Mar series truly ended when Jose Padilla stopped compiling them with Volume 6. He was the true essence of Café del Mar but left stating people only went there because they were told to and it had lost it's original beauty - i.e. it had got to commercial - just like the island of Ibiza itself. Bruno compiled Volume 7, which wasn't bad but still not a patch on what had come before.

So on to Volume 8. Manifesto have such faith in the 2 DJ's that compiled this that they are not even given a mention on the front - only in small print on the back.
The track selection and sequencing is poor compared to the standards set by Padilla. He had a talent of being able to bring together a diverse selection of tracks but all with a common Balearic feel and sequenced them brilliantly so each one rolled off the other. Not the case here at all. What Dido and Thomas Newman have to do with Ibiza I don't know. I'm sure if it weren't for Jakarta's "American Dream" being such a hit then the American Beauty theme wouldn't have been included at all. There are the some of the usual suspects however - Afterlife and Lux with very strong offerings. However, the overall feel of this compilation is quite dull and it seems to meander directionless until it reaches the incredibly dull and depressing "Gabriel" by Lamb.

In between there are a few tracks that make it worth the purchase (just!!!):- Tattouage blue and Pina Colada come to mind

No doubt there will be another Volume next summer to cash in on the reputation the series is built up. Lets hope it is better than this.

Volume 8 is my first introduction to the Cafe Del Mar series. I must say that I have never heard anything like what I have heard on this cd. Most compilations were quickly thrown together for the sake of the almighty $. Goldfrapp's "Utopia" is the only song I am familiar with on the cd. "Worthless" by Dido is totally new to my ears. Of course the song isn't found on the US release of "No Angel". I am rather glad that the song was not included on the US version of Dido's debut album. The song in general is okay but nothing special I thought but it was nice hearing something other than "Thank You" for the one billionth time. I absolutely loved Lux's "1000 Billion Stars" and Thomas Newman's "Any Other Name". I found myself preferring the instrumentals over the tracks with vocals although I really did like Lamb's "Gabriel". The overall sense of mood on this cd is quite atmospheric. I can almost see myself sitting on a beach under a tiki hut drinking a pina colada (no pun intended). Despite the few dull moments on the cd I truly did enjoy the cd.

I have been a big fan of Cafe del mar for the past couple of years. My favorite albums would have to be volume's 6 and 7.

Volume 8 on the other hand, is a very big let down. It has none of the flare of the other volumes, giving the audience the impression of being a movie soundtrack instead of an album to listen to after a night of clubbing.

The songs were weak and mis-matched, reflecting poorly on the skills of the two no-name DJ's who put this together. With the exception of a couple of songs, such as "Any Other Name" by Thomas Newman (Which was incidently taken from the American Beauty soundtrack) i was dissapointed with the album.

Long gone are the days of Jose Padilla and his musical genius for matching together songs for his albums. However, even without Jose Padilla, Bruno Leprete did an excellent job of volume 7. I just don't understand why they didn't get him to compile Volume 8 aswell. I hope that this error in judgement is corrected for Volume 9.

This album is chilled, shaken (not stirred) and served up on a silver platter for consumption while by the sea or before you go to bed (or just being introspective). There are tracks from Goldfrapp and Dido on the album. A remix of "Utopia" by Goldfrapp that is pretty good but I didn't notice that it was really remixed. Basically, the album is woman-vocal-driven with smooth jazzy beats and a tiny bit of trip-hop influence. Over all a great album in comparison to the other CAFE's which have also have been up to par groove-wise.

A good album to have from this ever-popular series. No duds on the original release containing 13 tracks. "Gula Gula" [Chilluminati Mix] and "Any Other Name" (heard on the score from American Beauty) are both great inclusions. Again, it would be nice to have these albums mixed, but the separated tracks allow the listener to easily formulate their own personal playlist of favorites.

A strong album from Cafe del Mar and worth 4/5 stars.

A year after buying Vol. 7 and Vol. 8, I still find myself spinning these grooves up. Timeless downtemp joy.

Cafe Del Mar Vol 8 starts off with a stellar track by Goldfrap which can only be descibed as Future Retro Parisian Bossa Bond music - featuring sting sections that taper off into Stereolab style Moogs - ok, off to an A+ start. The first sign of trouble is that this slice of soothing genius is followed up by what sounds like a movie soundtrack outtake that got left behind last year on some Hollywood cutting room hard drive. Sure, Thomas Newman is an A list film scorer (Erin Brockovich), but this bit of meandering doesn't belong on a Cafe del Mar compilation, nor any chillout CD as far as this listener is concerned. The remainder of the disc stays true to the theme of inconsistency, never quite capturing the perfection of the opening track. Bouncing from bossa-nova trip hop to Dido (from Faithless), there are some good moments, but the whole compilation has little flow to it - which is something Jose Padilla made Cafe del Mar famous for. The truly awful low point on this comp is Digby Jones's "Pina Colada (Jazz Mix)". Squarely belonging on the smooth jazz channel, I suppose it must have fallen off someone's desk while they were sifting through material for a CD featuring the Rippingtons and Kenny G. When it came on, I was like "what the f&^% is this?" Let's hope there's a bartender at Cafe del Mar waiting in the wings to take over, unless of course some mindless production assistant at MCA already has.

A good album to have from this ever-popular series. No duds on the original release containing 13 tracks. "Gula Gula" [Chilluminati Mix] and "Any Other Name" (heard on the score from American Beauty) are both great inclusions. Again, it would be nice to have these albums mixed, but the separated tracks allow the listener to easily formulate their own personal playlist of favorites.

A strong album from Cafe del Mar and worth 4/5 stars.