It's that time of year when everyone migrates from the living room (and its relatively private dancing opportunities) to the garden.
Next door have got Luciano round, and you need to keep up with the Joneses. What to do? Bring the 1210s into the garden and risk train wreck after train wreck? No! Step in Great Stuff's new compilation Great Summergames Stuff - here to save the day.
Upon a first blitz through the CDs, the first thing you'll notice is a great variety of sounds and moods. Perfect for the warm evenings, Great Stuff serve up a "round the world trip", selecting great artists from around the globe and dashing between their respective fortes: the weird electronica of Etienne de Crecy, the clunky techno of Fergie, and the housey familiarity of Tomcraft. To some people the variety might seem a little TOO extreme (full on techno straight into Tibetan chanting isn't exactly the norm...), but for a compilation CD, I really think it's a nice touch. The tracks aren't mixed, which adds to the feeling of separation between them, but in some sense this does provide a refreshing change to the standard fluid flowing compilations CDs.
While the sheer diversity of sounds makes it difficult to comment on production as a whole, everything is crisp where it should be, and filthy where it should be too. Admittedly (even after multiple whole listens through), there aren't any tracks which stand out as being definite pounders of the future, but similarly there aren't any that just feel like filler either.
It's also a nice touch that Great Stuff are linking the release to the upcoming Olympic games, and the idea of countries coming together: I particularly liked how artists' home countries were named with them, giving the release a really international feel. Atomic Hooligan are on duty for the Brits, and while this perhaps wouldn't be the instinctive choice for me, what they do serve up is a solid, fidgety breaks track which really does a great job of capturing a popular sound here.
Whether every nation gets such fair treatment is hard to say, but if you're looking for a variety of sounds which is perfect for the summer, then this really is one to consider.
Tracklisting:
CD 1
1. Makossa & Megablast ft. Kuchok Yoenten - Tibet
2. Amir – Syria
3. Namito - Iran
4. Butch – Turkey
5. Danilo Vigorito – Italy
6. Etienne De Crécy - France
7. Swen Weber – Germany
8. David Amo & Julio Navas - Spain
9. Tomcraft - Bavaria
10. Aldrin & Akien - Singapur
11. Fergie – Ireland
12. Ramon Tapia – Belgium
CD 2
1. Tokyo Black Star - Japan
2. Rui Da Silva – Portugal
3. Markus Mehta – India
4. Gusgus – Iceland
5. Mihalis Safras – Greece
6. Steve Angello pres. Who’s Who? – Sweden
7. OK Corral – Romania
8. Atomic Hooligan – England
9. Greg Churchill – New Zealand
10. Tommy Trash – Australia
11. Lucca – Czech Republic