- Another tantalizing "Sessions" comp on Ministry of Sound, this time mixed by up-and-coming Swedish DJ and producer Axwell. Ministry have a fifteen-year history of snagging some of the biggest names in dance for their comps, and this Axwell release follows on from big sessions by Mark Farina and Seamus Haji earlier this year. Axwell's name is slowly but surely on the rise, recently remixing the likes of Madonna and Nelly Furtardo, as well as producing tracks with Swedish house mafia colleague Steve Angello.
Disc one "The Club" is brimming with clean sounds and tracks tactfully chosen to make you shake your backside. It might be overplayed, but track two, Axwell's remix of Bob Sinclar's "World, Hold On" simply works—if you can stop grooving to it for just a moment, you'll be belting out its lyrics. Elsewhere there's an Axwell-produced acapella of "Watch the Sunrise," here mixed skillfully. It's all crisp, catchy vocals and carefully manouvered build-ups with a belting push behind it. Unexpectedly, disc one turns from upbeat vocal house into pumping electric rhythms: Who's Whos' "Sexy F**k" mixes up the beats in a blender of swarming eclectic sounds and eccentric, sexy lyrics. This first disc pulls out some surprises, but still delivers a safe one a.m. set. House music with a summery twitch of bass.
Disc two "The Villa" probably should have been labeled differently as it arrives with dirty basslines, tribal beats, banging drums and a downright touch of grit you can taste. Generally, it's the better disc. The tracks flow seamlessy and smoothly, and yet without warning add up to a body moving compilation. The funky, tribal drumbeats of Danny J. Lewis' "Ballistica" create a decoy as Axwell propels this album into banging oblivion. Paolo Mojo's "1983" (Eric Prydz remix) then hurdles the album into another dimension with a cruisy melody and pumping tones, all driven by a bassy kick. It's moving but not forced, pressing but not pushy, its not cheesy and its not electro, this, girls and boys, is where house music is going. Track eight Jon Cutler & Matthias Heilbronn "640" keeps the album feeling upbeat and crisp but slightly progressive: here Axwell is shying away from vocals altogether and focusing on punchy, quality sounds. Nothing is compromised, it just oozes the work of a soulful DJ whilst still maintaining the six a.m. punch we've come to expect.
Although well-defined, in many ways the release still lacks a bit of niche. Disc one provides the funky vocal house, the beats and the musical balance we've come to expect from MoS, while disc two essentially shoots buzzing, vocal-free rhythms at the dancefloor. It's worth listening to for the second disc alone. The real appeal of Axwell's mix is it requires minimal pre-listening before you are singing along to all the tunes and moving your body as if you have heard it all before. Possibly its the lack of definition which makes this album work: instead of putting things into all too familiar genre boxes, it contains seeds of something refreshing that remind us of that time when we first let the power of the beat work us into a musical frenzy.