I figured I spare you another one of my completely bias takes on Luke’s work and offer another - completely biased - review of Balance 11 from Luke’s best friend. It’s one of the coolest pieces I’ve ever read and thankfully he’s prepared it exclusively for bringthebeats.

Luke Fair - Balance 11 - reviewed by Neil Rosenthal

To say that Luke Fair has a style all to himself would be an understatement. Over the last few years his unique tastes in funky organic, instrumentally enriched and melodic deep house and grooving progressive has ballooned into what makes his mixed sets and compilations truly a Luke Fair sound.

The release of Balance 011 gives fans of his style the opportunity to hear the two personalities of his music. Where Luke can seamlessly wind you through sly, sultry, atmospheric, and even haunting deep house, like in CD1, he can also lay down chugging, funky, bass-rich and tripped-out progressive electro, as he does in CD2. All along displaying flawless technique and maintaining his distinctive brand of sound.

CD1 - Front

Voom Voom’s “Vampire Song” is a pure Luke opener, an instant pudding classic moving into “Can’t Hold Back” which is astounding. Its haunting and delirious echoing melody blend folds around like you are sinking into a warm liquid of noise.

Drop into “Smooth Summer Nights” with its sultry, sexier, slippery pads and soft basslines and punchy beats. It seamlessly picks things up while still maintaining the flow of the echo haunts, with the vocal arrangements behind calling you in further.

With each new track we get a little deeper into the house flow that is all Luke’s style- a little emotional, a little funky, a little angelic and always gorgeous, i.e. Hypnos’ “Red Light”.

Mitsu’s “Serene” in my opinion is 100% Luke Fair; organic and funked, with dripping rhythms and understated vocals poking up here and there. It’s followed by the bass guitar of “Rain” and you are down in the deepest house sounds that can be found. Nonetheless there are some twisted up noises in there making it feel slightly underground and a little tense in all its beauty.

As the guitars and melodies mesh together we start to feel little waves in the flowing depths. The ripples start to stir what is going to happen to the mix. The guitar takes us over the waves into Charles Webster’s mix of “Highlights” where the intensity is building. The male vocal foreshadows us seeing the high lights and what’s to come.

CD 1 - Back

After a deep, melodic layer-cake of house in the first 30 minutes things take a shift as the CD moves into a more club driven house sound (but the sweet melodies remain), this is a well mixed transition. We have traveled through the deep, sexy waves and now it’s all about pure club speaker loving tracks. We’re entering a new environment.

The shift starts with Julien Jabre’s “War”, this track is an instant floor filler and what defines a night of dancing. It down shifts the tempo shortly, gradually building up to a climax and then bitch slaps the rhythm of the mix.

“Amphytrion” sets a new pace and the sequencing Latin sound, rhythm and big pad synths of Kinka - “Burnin” morphs cleverly into the funky salsa-dipped “KTB.” As noted, the mix has now definitively taken on a new personality. It’s like the innocent and body washed beautiful sounds of the front of the mix are now slithering through your veins injecting the soul to get down. Feels like rushing.

The Ruhig Brauner remix is the quintessential “WTF?” The big cushiony punches and sultry vocal make you think this track is just the most epic of house… until mega bomb #2 drops in. A deep bassline hugs the melody through a filtered ragga vocal - “I Go Now” raises the mix to a new level. WTF becomes OMG. Sax samples and tribal beats unify into one badass track.

David Holmes’ “69 Police” could not fit more perfectly. Again we have a clubby house sound, a la Hernan Catteneo of 02/03. Love the simple chugginess of all the sounds topping over. This track gives a “pause and reflect,” like a big exhale of the mix so to speak.

I say this because the following two tracks probably have the most presence of all. They are impressive in every sense of the word. “Our House Music” is the type of track that volume loves. Makes you want to turn the speakers up until your ears bleed or the speakers blow apart - whichever comes first. Absolutely this is one of the big favs of this review (although everything in the deep stuff slays me, but in a different sense.)

Then “The Getaway” comes in with the saxophone keeping the pace. It’s a track that is simple but very much super technical as well. Each time I hear it, there is more to it.

Tom Novy’s “Unexpected” does exactly what it should, pulls the listener gently down from audio cloud nine and puts you back on earth. It’s such a beautiful closer and yet it doesn’t abruptly drop off the chugging lines of the 20 minutes before.

Luke’s opening CD for Balance 011 is thoughtfully programmed, full of incredible gems and magically mixed. It’s comparable to the classic touch Danny Howells brought to his first 24/7 disc or the beauty of Nick Warren’s GU - Iceland Disc 1.

CD2 - Front

The opening of CD2 is an energetic and sharp contrast to the down-tempo, futuristic and haunting opening of CD1. He gets straight to work flipping CD2 into a more club driven sound with a hooking vocal and catchy bassline from Alexander Kowalski’s “She’s Worth It.”

Then in drops Francois K (a ‘never disappoints’ producer for Luke’s sound) with “Time & Space,” a crescendo of funky synth breaks over smooth waves of thick bass. This track delivers a funky edge and a nice retro house groove.

Hand clapped and slappy beats, tripped-out bass and melodic synth bounce off ‘Trampoline;’ aptly named is this upfront fresh track. Luke’s keen ear of new and old sounds blend so seamlessly it’s hard to tell when he’s laying down a new bomb or pulling out hidden gems from epic house sounds of days gone by.

The front end of the CD begins to unravel with epic house track master Ian Pooley capturing the future-retro blend in his remix of Timewriter’s “Booty Song.”

The Elextroworld remix of “Playing with Fire” is a sweet, rapid paced and electro-drenched, scratched bass gem. Its cooling breakdown builds to a sweet, subtle intensity before tumbling over the rolling beats and tripped vocal and melody of “Electrochemie.” This track stirs seamlessly into a deep and dubbed Tiger Stripes remix with popping and sublime melodies snaking over a funky synth.

CD2 - Back

Luke now shifts the mix into a harder, edgier sound - enter stage left - a personal favorite from Tom Middleton. This remix of Schwab mixes simple and psychedelic into a techy masterpiece reminiscent of Medecine 8’s ‘Rock Music Pays Off.’

Without skipping a breath Luke moves into a big player of CD2. Lissat and Voltax’s ‘Footlovers’ drives heavy basslines from your feet to your fingertips. Nothing is better than pure chugging, repeating fat sounds to send you into rapture. You can’t avoid volume on this track, the louder the better. Bring it.

Luke keeps the mood interesting by shifting again to the electro and techno sounds of 16 Bit Lolita’s. Throughout “Africando” and “Ethna” we get warmer, soft and more tribal rhythmic percussion. This paves a nice path to two of CD2’s bigger tracks.

“Marnix” and “Subtech” are superb onslaughts of techy, ten layers deep progressive. They take the mix to its peak. A fantastic build from one into the next blows things right out of the water.

And of course the dreamlike Luke Fair exit. He floats us out on a cloud of piano, horns and flutes, melting into the filtered vocals of Michell, ‘Need to know’ and Humate’s ‘Curious;’ a most splendid ending.

Luke Fair’s 2 CD journey from deep, melodic house through techier, electro-infused and instrumental progressive never loses its groove or the funkiness that he has branded into his own very distinct style. Delivered by mastery and a clearly passionate approach to track selection and flow, Luke has made EQ’s series proud and has earned his place amongst the best of the talent out there.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Views, What's Going Down. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.