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Album Reviews
Album Review: Various Artists – Strictly Ibiza mixed by Osunlade (Strictly Rhythm)
By Paul Vig | Published on Thursday 17 June 2010
New York-based Osunlade works hard as a producer, and is famed for his Afro-inspired deep house sound and his label, Yoruba Records. Here, though, he’s been tapped for his considerable skills as a DJ. Split into two discs, the first in this set is a pre-club mix, while the second is more club-focused. There are some real gems here and the entire compilation gets better with each listen. Taking in old and new and placing a capellas on top of some serious beats, there are some masterful touches on show.
Disc One highlights include Mauritzio’s techy remix of the seminal ‘Follow Me’ by Aly-us, the spaciousness of Ripperton’s ‘Echo City’, and the lush rework of Osunlade’s own ‘Butterfly’ by Ron Trent. Tribal house makes an appearance from Phil Asher’s ‘TEXTYA’ and another cut by Just Felix, while Osunlade ensures a varied selection by taking things a little more mainstream with Quentin Harris’ ‘Do the Right Thing’.
Disc Two opens with the sweeping lush tech of a remix of Johnny White’s ‘Desensitize’ and moves into Logic’s classic ‘The Warning’, which is now 20 years old but retouched well by Claude Monnet. The vocals of Dennis Ferrer’s ‘Hey Hey’ are supplanted onto the toughened beats of Afefe Ike’s ‘Mirror Dance’, which works fantastically. Osunlade then throws in his own remix of his track ‘Pride’, with Nadirah Shakoor excelling on vocal duties. There’s also a stunning new cut from Kink, ‘E79’, which takes you deep under like a riptide, with its acid tweaks. It gets blended with the rather lush ‘Superschall’ by Timewriter.
‘Strictly Ibiza’ is diverse, intelligent and thoughtful but never forgets its dancefloor sensibilities. PV
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