By
Oliver White
Grade: B+
In a time when raves are so mainstream as to make the local news, people must search harder and harder to find worthwhile trance and house albums.
As the public eye ogles the rave scene, it seems that everyone knows a DJ, if they are not one themselves. So a question presents itself: since everyone and their mother can apparently lay some beats down on top of others, should the general public purchase their CDs? Not unless it comes from London-Sire Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. This recording company has consistently aided in the introduction of such fantastic DJs as Paul Oakenfold, DJ Skribble and DJ Icey into the public eye.
In DJ Icey's Essential Mix, the best of today's artists are matched in a mind-blowing mixed CD that also features such well-known performers as Orbital and Paul Rubin. The tracks contain a fascinating blend of semi-ambient trance and house beats, often spiraling around each other like snakes of different colors.
Icey's own "Chain Reaction" and "Low Tide" sandwich Orbital's "Nothing Left" and make for the best 15 minutes on the CD, as each song deftly mixes into the next. DJ Icey's style may not be for one-time rave-goers, but rather the ears of the more seasoned appreciators of trance and house. It may even serve as something of a guide for other DJs who are trying to improve their spinning skills. This CD is definitely worth a gander - even mother will say so.
