At this point in history we have all cracked the plastic seal on one too many limp DJ collections, so the dull packaging of Erick Morillo’s Subliminal Sessions Three won’t make for much impulse buying on the part of over saturated consumers. But the pleasures of Morillo’s second set for his own Subliminal label are so numerous one would be hard pressed to find a better mixed CD on the market today.
The three discs here span the wide ranging tastes of Morillo, the New Jersey-based house producer and remixer who has become a hot European ticket spinning a mix of the New York soulful vibe and more progressive tech house for crowds at Ibiza and beyond. Certainly we know we are in capable and creative hands when Morillo opens with the glorious “Insatiable” from Thick Dick and the irrepressible New Orleans-style party that is “Do Your Thing” from Basement Jaxx last full length, Rooty, just to get things started.
The rest of disc one keeps the temperature in warm-up mode except for the galloping insanity of “Shake It” by DJ D and the Hydraulic Dogs featuring a whacked out sample of Tupac’s “California Love” and Andrea Brown’s weird vocal for Goldtrix’ new hit version of Jill Scott’s “It’s Love (Trippin’).”
Both tracks preview the wild adventures about to hit on disc two where Erick takes us to a hot sweaty underground party that never lets up.
Opening with “Sting Me Red” by Who Da Funk, with Terra Deva’s desperate vocal setting the tone, everywhere here you can feel the heartaches and drama of club life in the hard-edged vocals and deep powerful grooves. Especially thrilling are the Shawnee Taylor and Jose Nunez produced “Inside,” the wound up tech of “Glitterball” by FC Kahuna and “Down And Dirty” by Richard F, again featuring the blistering vocals of the truly exceptional Shawnee Taylor.
Disc three lightens things up for a set of vocal house tracks culled from the Subliminal Soul label and featuring such stars of the genre as Latanza Waters, Big Moses and Mustava, here found sampling Shalamar’s “Take That To The Bank” for the lovely ride of “I Submit To You.”
The stand-out track of the whole collection has to be Who Da Funk’s “Shiny Disco Balls” featuring a nasty sounding Jessica Eve spitting out lyrics about “drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, bad-ass Vegas ho’s, late-night booty calls and shiny disco balls” over the kind of sweat inducing groove that will transform your living room into a sleazy, druggie, late-night party, filled with chic power femmes and jacked up hot butch bois down for whatever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Subliminal Sessions Three.
Erick Morillo.
Subliminal. $34.99.
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