Search - Ananda Project :: Relight

Great songs, but mixed and edited

asturiaz | Belgium | 05/30/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This first cd has some great electro and jazzy deep house mixes. The second cd contains nice, more club-orientated versions.



I would give this release five stars for the songs, but the fact that the songs on both cds are mixed together is a big disappointment. First, because the mixing is flawed and sometimes badly spread through the tracks (the beginning of a song starts at the end of the previous). Second, because the songs are edited. Third, because if you like to make your own compilations, are radio-programmer or cd-DJ, this set is not practical.



The two cds come in a two-layer carboard boxset.



CD 1: "Relight" (73:22)



1. Twilight (Intro) - 2:08 - instrumental ambient song with flute.

2. Secrets (Relight Mix) - 5:38 - great rework with funky bassline by Chris Brann.

3. Wasting My Love - 5:59 - new tribal release with vocals by Heather Johnson and Terrance Downs, rather bad.

4. Everything You Are (Atlanta Rising) - 6:43 - new song with electric guitar by Ede Wright and sax solo by Clive Stevens.

5. Big Boat (Relight Nu Vocal Mix Edit) - 7:18 - new song with "big boat" being repeated several times during the chorus, ends with one minute drums, not great.

6. Suite Dreams (Relight Nu Vocal Mix Edit) - 5:55 - laidback mix with Ibiza-like guitar, but the dull vocals of Lydia Rhodes ruin the song.

7. I Hear You Dreaming (Cottonbelly Dub Edit) - 5:27 - Cottonbelly makes a superb dub remix with Egyptian sounds (similar to the sounds used by Massive Attack on "Butterfly Caught") and Gypsy guitars; the vocal remix is on Cottonbelly's X Amounts Of Niceness.

8. Justice, Mercy (Aquanote Peace Mix Edit) - 3:50 - great, deep remix with the Naked Music trademark.

9. ICU (DJ Spinna Remix Edit) - 6:32 - nice jazzy remix with great keys (for the fans of St. Germain and Blaze), too bad it adds new vocals by Delouie Avant which actually resemble more to screams.

10. Kiss Kiss Kiss (Eric Kupper Club Mix Edit) - 6:08 - cool funky, housey remix by Eric Kupper with the classy touch of the Eric Kupper-François K mixes.

11. Shouldn't Have Left Me - 5:27 - nice new tech house song with distorted sounds and smooth vocals by Terance Shelton.

12. The One (Relight Mix Edit) - 5:58 - very bad remix, ponctuated by abrupt sounds and lots of repetitions.

13. Can You Find The Heart (Relight Mix) - 6:13 - great deep, clubby remix with the amazing vocals of Nicola Hitchcock.



CD 2: "Selected Works 1998-2005 (Bonus Disc)" (52:06)



1. Breaking Down (Morel's Pink Noise Vocal Mix) - 6:37 - excellent progressive house remix by Morel; he uses his more electro approach as in Seal's Killer and t.A.T.u.'s Not Gonna Get Us.

2. Cascades Of Colour (Wally Lopez Weekend Radio Mix) - 3:24 - bad dub club mix.

3. Falling For You (G-Pal's New York Mix) - 7:08 - house mix with late 80s NYC's Big Beat style.

4. Glory Glory (Timewriter's Saints and Sinners Mix) - 6:24 - top-notch progressive house mix with happy-feeling beats and dark strings.

5. Big Boat (Relight Acoustic Mix) - 5:11 - acoustic? not really, there are ligth, repeated percussions (typical of some Kevin Yost songs) and electronic keyboard; the priority is not given to the voice but to the instruments (piano, guitar). A very good relaxing song.

6. In The Skies (Chris Brann Wamdue Mix Edited Excursion) - 5:49 - nice atmospheric song with African-like vocals and percussions by Shakima Moore. The 8-minute unedited, unmixed version is on Abstract Afro Lounge III.

7. Tangerine (Relight Kool Breeze Mix) - 4:47 - this mix is called Kool Breeze for the cool melodic keys and sounds added, unfortunately the repetitions of the original version are kept.

8. Bahia (Kyoto Jazz Massive D&B Mix) - 5:52 - excellent remix by Japanese electro-jazz Kyoto Jazz Massive; no Drum and Bass, but electric guitar, keys, ethereal sounds and a few broken-beat sequences.

9. Fantasy Suite - 6:49 - new song with great keys, piano, strings, guitars and a few words sung by Terrance Downs. Very nice to finish things off.



Songs 7, 8 and 9 of CD 2 were previously unreleased.



The Japanese edition of Relight (blue cover) include only one cd with all songs from CD1, except "Can You Find The Heart" replaced by "Fantasy Suite". The tracklisting has a different order and the version of "Kiss Kiss Kiss" is listed as Alternate Mix Re-edit."

Deep House - Nice Project

bordersj2 | Boston | 05/25/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ananda Project is Chris Brann, Julius Speed, Terrance Downs, and Heather Johnson. Probably most known will be Chris Brann of Wamdue Project and P'Taah fame. With that tid-bit of information, you have a bit of what to expect. They're home on King Street Sounds and share the platform with a handful of stellar soulful house artists and DJ's from Kerri "Chaos" Chandler to the stellar Yukihiro Fukutomi.



This is the remix project to "Morning Light". It's a double disc mixed set with some killer remixes to Ananda Projects top cuts and has a few extras thrown in there on disc 2. CD1 kicks in after a nice intro with "Secrets", giving you a sense of what to expect with some smooth house. "Everything You Are" is givin an "Atlanta Rising" remix (they're based out of Atlanta). It's got a pretty neat beat and city feel to it. It's followed up appropriately with "Big Boat" and one of my favorites on the album, "Suite Dreams", a song that's everybit it's name. "I Hear you Dreaming" has a sort of tribal beat to it, while "Justice, Mercy" remixed by Aquanote is the obvious staple. The premier track on disc one, IMO, is DJ Spinna's interpretation of "ICU". Soul, soul soul! Disc Two is more of a compilation of some of their works as a whole, from 98-05'. But it does feautre a few cuts from disc one just to highlight the album as a whole and it's got three exclusive tracks to wind down the set, including a remix done by Kyoto Jazz Massive.



If you're a fan of Naked Music (Aquanote, Aya, Miguel Migs, Carte Blanche, Nude Dimensions, etc.) or Danny Krivit's latest "In the House" set, you HAVE to get your hands on this. HOWEVER I have to warn that this wasn't without a few missteps - some of the cuts are well chopped short, like "Justice, Mercy", and if you want it unmixed it might be best to just get the 12". And then CD1, to me, sort of tapers off in quality after "Kiss Kiss Kiss" while disc two just doesn't get as much rotation with me for whatever reason. Again, this cd is mixed so the cuts aren't really stand-alone. But the vibe in it is very consistent, very dark, and very cool. Other than the Naked Music & Danny Krivit tracks, check out KSS's compilation "Abstract Jazz Journey" to get a hint of the label - the Diviniti cut will blow you away. You might also like a few pieces from the Bargrooves series and Afterdark: New York."