GU 028 Shanghai full tracklist announced

Sunday, 5th June 2005 at 7:50 pm / Words: BeatFactor

Nick Warren’s latest mix CD is inspired by Shanghai - a city balanced on the cusp of change, a boom town that’s got so much construction going on residents boast they keep getting lost because their landmarks have changed again. A place of contrasts: a glittering, high tech metropolis of neon and skyscrapers that still hides ancient temples in its streets. Like any fast-moving modern city, there is a thriving club scene. Clubs like Guan Di and Park 97 cater to a lot of foreigners. DKD (which stands for Decadence Kills Depression) is the city’s latest hot-spot which is where Global Underground chose as the club to host the latest album in their phenomenal award winning series.

For the creation of Shanghai, Warren put a call out for fresh, unsigned tracks – and has ended up with a selection from 13 different nationalities. Many of these tracks have never been released. It’s a truly international portrait of where the electronic music underground is at, right now. “I wanted to showcase as many young producers as I could. Find tracks that were unsigned and give them a platform,” says Nick. “Record labels don’t give young producers the time to go and make an album, so it’s hard for them to get their music heard.” It’s also Nick’s most musical Global mix to date, and his broadest – there’s everything on here, from indie-rock influenced vocal tracks to sweetly melodic deep house to raging acid. It’s as if 20 years of DJing has been boiled down into two CDs of the freshest music he could find.

On CD1 he moves from SJ Esau’s dreamy “Fat Cat Track” – a track from Bristol producer Sam Wisternoff, younger brother of Nick’s Way Out West partner Jody – to Moscow, and Alex Stealthy’s tingling, tension-building “Once.” Tini Tun, Mexico City’s leading progressive DJ, supplies “Over It,” a skeletal, bottom heavy house groove. ”Pillow” from Hungary’s Yvel & Tristan couples swirling melodies and ghostly choral vocals to a heavyweight breakbeat. Lustral’s “Solace,” from the UK, is a frenzied sci-fi disco thing that brings the mix to an end.

CD2 is equally international. Morozov’s “Fly Guitar” – a track Nick enticed from Russia - is an incendiary axe attack. But instead of doing the obvious and upping the pressure, he sidesteps into the eerily funky “Conversations,” a remix of Malaysia’s punk/hip hop crew Pop Shuvit. Holden & Thompson’s “Come To Me” is a bewitching fusion of dance and indie-rock, which lets Julie Thompson’s echoing voice spiral slowly through towers of sparkling guitar. Blendbrank’s “Synthetic Symphony” spins voice samples from what sounds like a technical manual around a dizzying acid riff. From here Nick unleashes Hardfloor’s “Hardtrance Acperience” and its intense 303 assault sounds just as ferocious now as it did when first released 12 years ago. From Turkey, Murat Uncuoglu’s “The Flame” lights an uncompromising groove with flashes of guitar and the mix finishes with Texan Derek Howell’s “Your Touch,” a lovely techno instrumental that wobbles magnificently around curtains of melody.

“SHANGHAI” TRACKLISTING

CD 1
01 Sj Esau "Fat Cat Track"
02 Jacob Todd "Somehow"
03 Alex Stealthy "Once"
04 Way Out West "Dfm" Unreleased Club Dub"
05 Tini Tun "Over It"
06 Starecase " Vapour Trails "
07 Seyton " The Drake Equation "
08 BCML "Mr Horowitz"
09 Starecase " Sunshine"
10 Yvel & Tristan "Pillow"
11 Lustral "Solace"

CD 2
01 Chimera " Natural High"
02 Morozov " Fly Guitar"
03 Pop Shuvit " Conversations "
04 Holden And Thompson "Come To Me”
05 Blendbrank "Synthetic Symphony"
06 Hardfloor "Acperience"
07 Kosmas Epsilion "Sorry To Be Rude "
08 Marcel Schonbrann"Maleta"
09 Murat Uncuoglu "The Flame "
10 Peter Martin "Grace"
11 Mercurio " Simple Things "
12 Derek Howell " Your Touch"