Following in the footsteps of Heller & Farley, Wally Lopez and Kiko Navarro, Frenchman Richard Grey takes control of this compilation series for the world’s best loved clubbing brand.
All the albums in this series are split over two CDs both filled with productions and remixes by the artist. Disc 1 contains ten tracks in their original form and somewhat disappointingly, as very short edits. Mr Grey has put his studio talents to good use in the past with work for Morillo’s Subliminal label and most notably the Soft Cell sampling Warped Bass which blew up around the globe a couple of years back. He does however rely too much on covers of past classics with the 'Tainted Love’ track joined here by 'No Deputy’ which samples Bob Marley’s 'I Shot the Sheriff’, Jacki Graham’s 'Set Me Free’ gets a remix and this is joined by an awful version of Michael Jackson’s 'Thriller’. Things are not helped by the appearance of hip wiggling Shikira on 'Las de la Infuciton’ which is a really good uplifting house track crying out for a dub. But credibility is saved by the tracks that rely solely on Richard’s production, recorded under his Mamba monika. 'After School’ is a full on, lose yourself thumper that would rock any floor on the white isle, while 'The Duck’ is filled with electro squelches and a heavy throbbing bassline. The final track '9am Acid Trip’ does exactly what it says on the tin, an acid fuelled monster with a breakdown to send any clubber with ears over the edge.
CD2 bizarrely has the same tracklist as the first disc but the big difference here is that this CD contains extended club mixes. The 'Thiller’ dub turns the original on it’s head and makes it a real option for the dancefloor with it’s Eric Prydz style production. The electro mix of Bob Marley sampling 'No Deputy’ is just too weird by dropping the tempo to include vocal samples of the original, before kicking back into full electro mode. There’s a Sandy Vee remix of 'Warped Bass’ and Milk & Sugar push the buttons on 'Set Me Free’ which will please the more commercial sounding floors. 'Don’t Take My Love Away’ borrows heavily from Heller & Farley’s 'Ultra Flava’ and the Nightcrawlers ' Push the Feeling on’. Shakira’s vocal still appears on the extended version of 'Las de la Infuciton’ Damn!! The last three tracks on this disc offer longer DJ friendly versions of 'After School’, 'The Duck’ and '9am Acid Trip’ the best three tracks on the album by a mile.
The two disc format of virtually the same music seems like a waste and perhaps an 80 minute mix coupled with a disc of productions would work better. Worth buying for fans of Richard Grey’s music but DJ’s looking for some decent tracks should find the Mamba tracks on the web and download them individually.
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