The Kings of Electro: Mixed by Playgroup and Alter Ego
Playgroup and Alter Ego provide a history of electro
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Published by Penguin, out October 4th, 293 pages, £12. |  |
Monday, 22, Oct 2007 01:55
K7, out now.
In a nutshell...
What's the point of this?
What's it all about?
A double CD offering people the chance to learn the history of electro, all the way from 80s tinged hip-hop vibes to banging club floor fillers which are sure to get the Hoxton haircut crew stomping their white plimsolls.
The first disc is full of older cuts and is mixed by London's Playgroup. The second is more 'now' and is blended by German duo Alter Ego - that's Roman Flugel and Jorn Elling Wutkke if you're trying to look all cool and knowledgeable in front of your new Mother Bar mates.
Playgroup is less well known as London DJ Trevor Jackson. Really hip but annoying dance music fans will tell you that he released the single Number One in 2001 which had a cool video with transforming computers and such. Everyone else will probably just think you are a bit odd if you start banging on about playgroups.
Alter Ego made a song called Rocker a few years ago which was a bit rubbish but got remixed by the Stanton Warriors and became popular. In fact, they are a duo of DJs from Frankfurt. No one has any idea who Mr Wutkke is, but Roman Flugal released a song a while back called Geht's Noch? which was pretty good.
It's fairly standard dance stuff here so the lyrics are fairly unimportant. There's some shouting about "the dance bug" on one track but nothing to write home about.
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
I would say low - there's literally nothing here which hasn't been on mix CDs about a million times before so there's little reason this is going to win praise from the people who put the names inside those winning envelopes.
What the others say
As far as we can see, no one has bothered to review this yet.
So is it any good?
It's not that this isn't good. Some of the songs on the double CD are pretty interesting and it is probably a fairly good introduction to the world of electro for people who have never listened to the genre before.
But the problem is that everything on both CDs has been on other mixes before and in a more interesting order. I mean really, everyone with ears knows that electro has its roots in hip-hop and b-boy culture and we don't really need a whole CD labouring the point.
And then there is the second CD. On the face of it, there are songs to get excited about. But then you realise that Doomsnight was only really fun when it was part of a garage compilation in 1999. Now it's just a bit annoying. The same goes for most of the songs on the record.
And another thing... why is it that both Playgroup and Alter Ego seem to have forgotten how to mix properly? It might be authentic for Playgroup's old school set but it's just a bit embarrassing when it's on a CD that's supposed to be up-to-date.
In short, get a mate who is cooler than you to make a mix tape and save a tenner.
4/10
James Cooper