Glide

In late September 2009, I picked up a punt from the JB Hi-Fi dance-music bargain bin, a collaboration under the name of Voom Voom. It was $7 and I was banking on Peter Kruder to make something good of it but the album ended up not really being to my tastes with the single exception of the opener, Baby³. I absolutely adored it from the get-go and it alone inspired me to build a playlist around it for pure, driving pleasure.

1. Jazzanova vs Har You Percussion Group – Welcome to the Party – Break’n’Bossa vol. 1 (8:09)
2. Men from the Nile feat. Peven Everett – Watch them come (Jazzanova remix) – Break’n’Bossa vol. 2 (7:17)
3. Everything but the Girl – Wrong – Walking Wounded (4:36)
4. Voom Voom – Baby³ – Glide – Peng Peng (6:40)
5. Madita – Unspoken (4:28)
6. Morgan Geist – Detroit – Double Night Time (5:30)
7. Fred Falke & Kris Menace – Fairlight (8:39)
8. Fluke – Expo – Puppy (5:18)
9. Nitin Sawhney – Homelands dub (dZihan & Kamien remix) – Fakes (5:02)
10. Miami Horror – Summerfest ’86 – The Bravado EP (3:50)
11. Playgroup – Pressure – Playgroup (4:49)
12. Lindstrøm – Limitations (4:55)
13. Róisín Murphy – If We’re In Love – Ruby Blue (4:31)

1 hour, 14 minutes.

Baby³ is probably something of an oddity in my collection. I generally don’t go for this kind of dancefloor electro sound, but once in a while the production values come together in a track that create just the right atmosphere for me. Voom Voom’s album opener is just one of these tracks, and to be honest I struggled to match it with music in a similar vein. At the end of the day I ended up with a compilation I’m very happy with, particularly pleasing as it heads into interesting territory with the inclusion of Fluke’s Expo, an old favourite of mine.

Of particular note are the Break’n’Bossa openers which really surprised me when I was playlisting the final order, but they just fit really well to get things going. The inclusion of EbtG’s Wrong, what must be ancient by today’s standards, was just as surprising. If anything, this track and Fluke’s probably stand out the most, but I’m still rather fond of that old EbtG sound, I never really did find anything else in that vein to match Walking Wounded.
Madita’s Unspoken is an amazing track, a great intermediate between her first and second album which I wasn’t very enthusiastic about. Overall Madita only has a handful of pieces that I really enjoy. dZihan & Kamien’s stellar remix of Nitin Sawhney’s Homelands is without doubt one of the best all-time driving tracks ever created. Like Crazy Penis’ album Stop, Space, Return, d&K’s Homelands makes you want to drive fast; accelerating in the straights and amping it into the corners. It’s also a great track for just gliding along at a goodly pace.
We return to electro for a bit with Summerfest ’86 and Pressure before mellowing out with Limitations, a track I grew to love for its piano stabs in the middle. If We’re In Love was simply the perfect way to finish the compilation.