The Essential Chill Collection
Published January 10, 2004
Burn is described as "lush, lyrical, futuristic, atmospheric, intense, lifestyle" - yeah buddy! The even stronger lineup of tunes includes Moby's piquant "Flying Foxes," Air's Eno-esque "Sexy Boy," the insect kingdom anthem "Dirge" by Death In Vegas, Underworld's insistent, familiar, rubbery "Push Upstairs," Supreme Beings of Leisure's swooningly romantic jungle love song "Ain't Got Nothin'" - the hits just keep on coming.
The Later package, from Audio Boutique, contains two CDs, both of which are sublime. It describes itself as "the pure instensity of chilled grooves and seductive rhymes. Later is the perfect late night selection for you and a freind. Listen, Love, Later." I'm wiping the steam off my reading glasses. The seduction includes sinewy, sensual delights from Thievery Corporation, fat, fuzziest Underworld, smooth tintinnabulations from King of Woolworths, my beloved Saint Etienne, and a washed out, charmingly diffuse version of Peter Green's "Albatross" by Chris Coco.
Disc 2 continues to tickle the libido with an ambient mix of the Pet Shop Boys' elegiac "Home and Dry" (how unreasonably sweet is Neil Tennant's lean nasality in the right setting, this is one of them), Roger Sanchez, Neon Heights' indispensible, Moby-like "16 Again," and the watery loveliness of the Bedtime Story mix of Language Lab's "Burning Disaster.
Also very fine is the Carol C drum and bass mix disc; and the Chill Vol. 1 disc is in some ways most listenable of all, being essentially all instrumental with highlights from Organica, James Christian, We Are One, Sonny Cheeba, Delta 76, and Om.
The only disc I am not particularly inclined toward is Chillhouse, simply because I am less inclined toward house in general, and especially when I seek the ministrations of chill.
I can easily recommend The Essential Chill Collection for neophytes looking to take the plunge into electronic chill music, or afficionados who want a variety of great stuff all in one place - it has helped me keep a positive outlook on paying college tuition bills AND changing diapers. Now that's a recommendation.
- The Essential Chill Collection
- Published: January 10, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Ambient, Music: Electronica, Music: Pop
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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Comments on this articleComments
I'm afraid that you have a little catching up to do. Try the following 4 CD's they will blow away any concepts you had that your chill music collection was doing the brain massaging that you require:
1) Radar:Nothing is Real
2) 1 Giant Leap
3) Zero 7 Simple Things
4) Later
Below is a partial list of my CD collection by genre.
http://66.93.82.161/OnlineMedia/cd.asp
Doug
Doug, very interesting database. this is simply a review of a specific collection, however, no claim to be the most up to date or advanced or anything else.
Riiiight. I can recommend a lot better CDs and collections than THIS collection. I was extremely dissapointed in both the collection and the fact that I blew $30 on it without listening to it first.
You're cooler than I thought, Olsen.
I don't particularly care for chill/downtempo dance music since I prefer my dance music somewhere above 130-135 BPM, but there are some good artists who make occasional chill records as well (Solar Stone being an example, or Roger Sanchez, Royskopp, or Faithless). I've really come to appreciate the greatness that was Underworld recently -- I'm sure even those of you who aren't hipsters remember their song "Born Slippy" from the airwaves or from Trainspotting.
$25 for 7 CDs is a great deal -- if there were something similar for trance or hard house, I'd be all over that.
That is all.
Check out the group Chicane -- you'd probably love their stuff. Not my taste in trance exactly, but they're probably the most famous chill-out artists, especially their song "Saltwater." Check out Solar Stone too -- they do a lot of chill-out remixes and productions.
It turns out there IS an Essential Trance Collection on Topaz Records -- I just got it used for $10. 7 CDs. Not bad.
That is all.
thanks BAB, as far as range of musical interests, please recall my 20 years of live DJing, including dozens of clubs.
You can generally find a little bit older dance/electronic material packaged pretty cheaply, often on import - good used record stores usually have them or bargain places like Music For a Song (if it still exists) - a quick search shows that it does
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Eric, considering the chaos that must reign in your home on a daily basis, I must urge you to-- if you haven't done so yet-- to get a copy of Bebel Gilberto's modern classic "Tanto Tiempo." Talk about chillout music, and groovy bossa nova too!