textura

ALBUMS
Automotive
Benevento/Russo Duo
Benni Hemm Hemm
Caribou
[The] Caseworker
Eric Chenaux
Cineplexx
Claudia
Daedelus
J Dilla
Envy
Fond of Tigers
Formication
Grizzly Bear
Guther
Ike Yard
Kilo Watts
The Knife
Minimum Chips
Miss Violetta Beauregarde
North Valley Sub. Orch.
Quench
Sandoz
Dani Siciliano
Liam Singer
Stop Disco Mafia
Susanna/Magical Orch.
Vorpal
Wisp
Working Nuclear Free City
Peter Wright
Susumu Yokota
Zeebee

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Belladonna Summer
Cut Copy FabricLive
Mark Farina
Magda
Tandem 4
Tiefschwarz Fabric
Total 7
Until Human Voices...

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Allie
Barem
Deathprod
Ensemble
Extrawelt
Marc Houle
Loco Dice
Lost Trax
David Newlyn
Sandro Perri
Porter & Blain
Relay
Sirka Ragnar
SLG
Swat-Squad

Mark Farina: Sessions
Ministry of Sound

Following upon installments by Josh Wink, Steve Angello, and DJ Sneak, Mark Farina's two-disc contribution to UK label Ministry Of Sound's Sessions series is a ridiculously jacking colossus of 36 flailing house grooves. Though the mix's jubilant strut never flags (especially on euphoric gems like “So Obvious” by Gavin Boyce), Farina treats the material elastically, slapping it into a jazzy corner at one moment (Jamanta Crew's “Jazz Band,” Bryan Jones' “Change My World (Jason Hodges Jazz World Remix)”), sweetening it with steel drums the next (“Pool Party (Joshua Mix)”), and stoking vocal delirium throughout (Slater Hogan & Chuck Daniels' “Stay Tuned”). Chopped voices and roiling bass lines repeat hypnotically in Project Kidz's “Family Clone,” intensifying the hallucinatory vibe, but even better are the sweetly singing saxophones that spill soul-jazz all over Leon Louder's “Do It Again.” Tracks seamlessly flow into one another, including jacking cuts by Farina himself (“The Watch,” “Bringin' It Back”), making for a classic house pulse that feverishly churns for over two hours. Don't think the mix fades as it enters the final laps either; Kenton Slash Demon's “That's Right Modern Music” rocks as vivaciously as anything else (plus boasts some of the discs' most fabulous vocal cut-ups too), despite being 33rd in line. Sessions is not only an impossibly funky collection but perfect club material to boot.

September 2006