The New Cruise

Posted verbatim from my Last.fm journal.

In August 2009, I auditioned and created The New Cruise. As with all of my compilations, they form two main purposes; primarily CDA length for running a burn to play in the car (no aux input for the S9), and secondly because I believe in albums/playlists specifically shaped to the 80 minute format.

The title comes from a playlist I made years ago on my iRiver H120 simply called ‘Cruise’. If you haven’t noticed already, I do a lot of self-referencing (see: Romance Nouveau/Sensual).

1. Groove Armada – Chicago – Vertigo (4:48)
2. Coup deBam – Seirenes feat. Ahmet Misirli – Coup deBam (4:23)
3. Jamiroquai – Scam – Return of the Space Cowboy (6:59)
4. The Rebirth – Evil Vibrations (Saturday Mix) – Weekend Nu-Jazz (4:45)
5. Jamiroquai – Use The Force – Travelling Without Moving (3:53)
6. The Rurals – Ways To Love – Emotional Feelings (3:52)
7. Atjazz – Touch the sun (dZihan & Kamien remix) – Fakes (4:16)
8. dZihan & Kamien – Dabudei – Freaks & Icons (5:24)
9. Fragmentorchestra – De muse – Fragmentorchestra (6:17)
10. Groove Collective – Everything Is Changing (S Mix) – Bare Essentials vol. 1 (6:28)
11. Crazy Penis – Magical Progression – 24 Hour Psychedelic Freakout (6:50)
12. Crazy Penis – Do It Good – A Nice Hot Bath With… (8:00)
13. Tennishero – Alone (4:36)
14. dZihan & Kamien – Deep Kitsch – Gran Reserva (5:17)

1 hour, 16 minutes.

Cruise was always about movement. I originally made it for long train commutes into the city and back, or to friend’s places before I had a car. These days I’d probably lean more towards more abstract music like Underworld for train-rides, but I now never take the train. The New Cruise is without doubt a driving playlist for all seasons. It’s about being in the car, cruising about with mates or just relaxed on your own. It’s bright, funky, optimistic and smooth.

Groove Armada proved to be a bit of a passing phase for me from back in the day, but I have always loved Chicago and opened the original Cruise with it. There’s always plenty of Jamiroquai in these sets, and Crazy Penis always end up in there too. dZihan & Kamien are inevitable for this kind of mood with more than a few tracks on offer, however their remix of Atjazz’ Touch the Sun is particularly awesome.
Other highlights for me are Scam, Evil Vibrations, and Do It Good, but overall this is one of my smoothest compilations with a very easy sense of flow.

It’s worth noting that both Chicago and Ways to Love have been fairly well edited to cut down their lengths, and Scam I had to fully treat to get some sense of fidelity from it. I understand that back in 1994 the engineers probably thought they were being truer to the 70’s sound, but sandwiched in a compilation like this it just sounds bad. I spent a goodly amount of time treating the dynamics and effectively normalising it, but the most significant change was in a very aggressive EQ treatment, particularly at the top-end. It’s the most work I’ve ever had to do in treating a single track where most of the time all I’m doing is rough loudness matching and topping and tailing. As a result, Scam sounds to me much more vibrant and alive, however the rather insane amount of highs I had to add means that there’s tape hiss/system noise audible when it quietens down. I can live with it though, it’s only in one or two brief moments and the benefits far outweigh the noise.