- Best known as producers (remember chart-topper ‘Love Story’?) or as residents at London club The End, UK duo Layo & Bushwacka! are perhaps a surprising choice for Global Underground’s longstanding DJ mix series. It’s been four years since their previous mix CD All Night Long, which did mix the old with the new, but GU33: Rio stretches the concept to breaking point: disc one focuses exclusively on house classics while disc two compiles hot new(ish) tracks. The result, predictably, is two very different outcomes.
Retro chic is not something that Global Underground is best known for, but on disc one few artists from the golden age are left unchecked - Junior Vasquez, Marshall Jefferson, Danny Tenaglia, Francois K, Cajmere – all mashed-up in a rapid-fire NYC mixing style that screams early nineties. The problem with the mix is not the programming or the mixing, both of which are top notch, but its relevance in this context: this is the first GU mix to be retrospective, and series fans expecting the best in current progressive are likely to be nonplussed. Meanwhile the target audience for a mix like this, hardcore househeads, are not exactly GU followers.
Disc two focuses strictly on the latest developments in house music so it is no shock to find the big names in minimal well represented. Despite being surefooted and catchy, unfortunately there are not enough surprises in the track selection. Well-worn hits such as Larry Heard’s ‘The Sun Can’t Compare’, Samim’s remix of ‘Hay Consuelo’ and Richie Hawtin’s ‘Spastik’ get another rinsing, making this disc, in its own way, as familiar as disc one. Some great cuts from Hug, Tiga and Adam Beyer contribute a nice crunchy techno bite but there is a nagging feeling that this mix has all been done before.
Layo & Bushwacka! have tried to bring a fresh approach to the Global Underground series, and there are places which work well on both mixes, but overall you can’t escape the feeling that this is inappropriate stuff for GU. Maybe with the dearth of decent prog out there in 2007, they’ve run out of suitable candidates?
TracklistCD1
01 Ellis D - Took My Love Away
02 The Daou - Surrender Yourself (Ballroom Mix)
03 Marshall Jefferson - Open Our Eyes
04 LB Bad - Touch Me! Touch Me!!
05 Kym Mazelle - Taste My Love
06 N.Y. House'n Authority - APT.1A
07 Blunted Dummies - House For All
08 Da Rebels - House Nation Under A Grove
09 Sheila - Acid Kiss
10 Lil Louis & The World – I Called U (Why’d U Fall)
11 Liaisons D – Future FJP
12 Master C & J Feat. Liz Torres - Can’t Get Enough
13 Pierres Phantasy Club – Dream Girl
14 Francois K - Hypnodelic
15 Eddie Flashin Fowlkes - Move Me
16 Sine - I Like It Deep (Soozee Kreemcheeze Mix)
17 Jaya – One Kiss
18 KC Flightt - Planet E (House Mix)
19 Fingers Inc – Never No More Lonely
20 Metro Area - Proton Candy
21 Fallout - The Morning After
22 How II House – Time To Feel The Rhythm
23 Cajmere Feat. Dajae – Brighter Days
24 Kenny Larkin – We Shall Overcome (Richie Rich Hawtin Remix)
25 Soul Boy – Harmonica Track
26 UBQ Project Feat Kathy Summers – When I Fell N Love
CD2
01 Phonique - Bang
02 Hug – Fluteorgie
03 Tiga - 3 Weeks (Troy Pierce’s Move Until You Leave Mix)
04 Pier Bucci - Hay Consuelo (Samim Remix)
05 Guy Gerber - Belly Dancing
06 Stefan Goldmann - Aurora
07 Paul Ritch - Samba
08 Richie Hawtin - Spastik
09 Adam Beyer - A Walking Contradiction
10 Bushwacka! - Long Distance
11 Jesus Loves You – After The Love/Layo And Bushwacka! - Ashes Remain
12 Henrik Schwarz - Walk Music
13 Patrick Chardronnet - Ledge
14 Layo and Bushwacka! - Tabloid
15 Martin Buttrich – What’s Your Name?
16 Larry Heard Presents Mr. White - The Sun Can’t Compare (Long Version)
17 Riley Reinhold - Lights In My Eyes
18 Layo and Bushwacka! – Saudade Remix