Get Lost: Mixed by Damian Lazarus & Matthew Styles
various artists
label:: Crosstown Rebels
format:: 2xCD
Crosstown Rebels is the label run by Damian Lazarus, the guy who ran the Electroclash-era label City Rockers. On that label he released 12inch singles and compilations that had electronic artists writing in a rock (verse/chorus/verse) format. The biggest success on City Rockers was FC Kahuna.
4 years later we find Damian Lazarus having released several minimal techno compilations, of which Get Lost is the latest. On the disc he splits credits with Crosston Rebels label manager Matthew Styles. who runs the weekly Dig Your Own Rave night at the London club The Tea Room. Matthew also released the See You @ the Party mix CD on the Music For Freaks label in January 2005.
Reviews mention how warm the sounds on Get Lost are, but I don't really hear that. What I hear is a fairly generic mix that would be fine as background music while working on your computer, but is not that compelling when listened to as the featured attraction.
The CD starts off with Mlle.Caro & Franck Garcia's Far Away. It has male vocals and sounds vaguely like Cologne's Closer Musik or Borneo & Sporenburg. But those artists pioneered this sound 5 years ago, and Mlle.Caro & Franck Garcia add nothing new or distinctive.
Repeat Repeat's Carpark is one of my faves on disc1. It is an instrumental with a bouncing electonic percussive sound that makes the track playful and gives it momentum.
Ost & Kjex's How Not To Be A Biscuit is another favorite from CD1.
Of the two CDs, I I like CD2 better. It is unmixed and has a few good songs on it.
Joy, by Four Tet, is a brief instrumental that is interesting.
John Tejada is someone I've never listened to. I always figured his to be a mainstream techno DJ, but his Paranoia is one of the best tracks on disc 2. It has simple disco-derived electonic drums and acid synth behind a women spouting couplets over the music.
Si Begg's On Ice takes Everythings Gone Green (New Order) styled synth into an Acid House track that blends nicely into the treated female vocal track Take My Soul by Berghiem 34.
Mint Condition by Modeler has an ascending syth riff with a sound like a slide whistle. It continues the Acid House feel of the tracks just before it, but is the most interesting due to the dub feel and the lack of treated vocals.
Duoteque's track Lola is pretty fine too, though you can't play it on the air because the f word shows up four times in Andrea Ferlin's sweet & sexy vocals.
This CD is nothing too great or distinctive. I wouldn't recommend buying it unless you disagree with things I've said in this review, or it has a song you already know and want.
Faves
CD1: 2,13
CD2: 3,7,10,11
---Carl
Disc 1
- Mlle.Caro & Franck Garcia - Far Away
- Repeat Repeat - Carpark
- Goldfish & der Dulz - Privacy (Patrick Chardronnet Mix pt.2)
- Styro 2000 - Sanagol
- The Knife - Silent Shout (Troy Pierce Barado En Locombia Mix)
- DJ Koze - Pattern Wirtschaft
- Rob Mello - Give Me (Demo Mix)
- Butane - Sound of Digidown (Someone Else Remix)
- Monolake - Plumbicion
- Add Noise - Jam Econo
- Prosumer - Blei
- Solieb - Circus Maximus
- Ost & Kjex - How Not To Be A Biscuit
- Und - Coccopuffs
- Ra-X - Opium Den (Part V)
Disc 2
- Andy Couzenz - De Do Da Da
- Naum - Feln
- Fourtet - A Joy (Battles Remix)
- Position Normal - Jimmy Had Jane
- Trickski - Sunshine F**k (Part 1)
- Anaerobic Robots - Darwin or Lose
- John Tejada - Paranoia
- Si Begg - On Ice
- Berghiem 34 - Take My Soul
- Modeler - Mint Condition
- Duoteque - Lola
- Moonstarr - Detroit
- Abe Duque Feat Gene la Fosse. - Take Me To Heaven
- Hannas Barber - Beautiful Squishy Lightbulbs
