Live mix CDs are their own art form, capturing something not only as it happened but in the context of, hopefully, a huge crowd getting down somewhere. In this case the "somewhere" was the Green and Blue event hosted annually in Germany by the Cocoon label, and the features DJs Loco Dice and Ricardo Villalobos, two of the bigger acts in the current field, the latter especially for his astonishing run of releases. Though the pictures give a sense of the hot atmosphere and massive partying going on, there's no way Green and ...
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Live mix CDs are their own art form, capturing something not only as it happened but in the context of, hopefully, a huge crowd getting down somewhere. In this case the "somewhere" was the Green and Blue event hosted annually in Germany by the Cocoon label, and the features DJs Loco Dice and Ricardo Villalobos, two of the bigger acts in the current field, the latter especially for his astonishing run of releases. Though the pictures give a sense of the hot atmosphere and massive partying going on, there's no way Green and Blue can capture the experience -- no crowd noise heard (except at some of the quietest moments, as with the break on Philip Bader's "Perry Rhodan") and, unless one's own speaker system is accommodating, no way to get the bass just right. Typical caveats aside, though, this is a pretty sharp document for both DJs; it's not clear if both discs are their full, separate sets, but whatever portions were selected are well chosen. Loco Dice's set has moments where you can just tell how he was working the crowd -- the segue between Bearback's "Funky Vodoo Mama" and Monne Automne's "Teco" is especially brilliant. Villalobos' segues are sometimes a bit more abrupt and the feeling starts to flag a bit towards the end of the disc but it can't be faulted at all in terms of overall selection -- Kids in the Street's "Keep on Turning Around" into Roman's "Jeckle" is a great mood shift, especially when the latter's bassline starts up. ~ Ned Raggett, Rovi
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