Music Review: Faithless - Renaissance 3D

Faithless has always been a group to be reckoned with. Their members and collaborators bring a wealth of experience and styles to the kitchen, where they are mixed and molded into a sumptuous five-course meal of dance, rap, chillout, singer-songwriter, and soul. It's a formula that so far has not failed them, and in fact seems to grow more confident with each release.

Renaissance 3D by Faithless is an interesting three-disc blend of bonus material and personal selections that are loosely related to the band.

Disc One is the Faithless remixes and rarities portion of the set. It seeks to encompass the entire Faithless world, but is largely centered around remixes of Faithless tunes, Roll and Sister Bliss remixes for other artists, and non-album Faithless tracks. The musical style for the mix is largely House-based. There has always been a generous dose of House in their albums as well, but when removed from the many other styles present in one of their proper albums, it comes somewhat jarringly to the fore.

Beginning somewhere during track two, a remix of Donna Summer, it starts to feel much less like Faithless and just another House mix. In fact, many of the cuts, non-album Faithless tracks aside, are almost needlessly House, and probably not what many fans will be looking for. There are some great moments, such as “Woozy” and “Addictive”, as well as the excellent Maxi Jazz-fronted single from 1 Giant Leap, but those mainly made me wish we had a proper Faithless release of B-sides and unreleased material, instead of this mixed and remixed offering. The actual mixing on this disc is functional, but certainly not impressive.

Disc Two is the Club CD, and is a chance for Sister Bliss to step out with her DJ skills. The style falls somewhere between House and earlier Trance-House, with an overall “Up” feel. It rarely, if ever, dips into territory that could be considered dark or progressive. The set overall flows very well, although it's not really my style. If you're familiar with other mix sets by Sister Bliss then you'll know what to expect here. There are no Faithless-related tracks, just a straight-up club mix.

Article Author: David R Perry

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