A whole new genre of Beach House!
Tate | 08/09/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I'll admit I was a little surprised when I first put this into my CD player. As an avid Hed Kandi fan and very partial to the Beach House series I was expected another hot dancey house mix of beach tunes, what I got was real mellow, almost chill out beach tunes! This was a surprise, but it didn't take long for me to realize how much I loved the change. These songs still have rhythm, they still are perfect for listening to while getting a tan or splashing at the beach, but without the pulsing beats.
"A New Start" and "Undone" are definately some of the more relaxing tunes from the first CD, with the latter being tranquil enough to put you in sun-kissed slumber. Now don't compare these songs to the Winter Chill series or even Served Chill because they do have bass, but it is light enough to provide a relaxing, exquisite summer by-the-pool experience.
CD2 appears like it might gain energy with tracks by such dance artists as Stonebridge and Aya, but actually it's just as mellow as the first disk. Some of my favorites songs on this CD are "Back To Us" "Everything (Big Room Mix)" and "Nothing Left to Say" by the fabulous Late Night Alumni. "In My Arms" is also a kinda fun song that includes samples from the old hit "Betty Davis Eyes"
I couldn't say this is the best of the Beach House series just because it's so different from the others. Although I will say that I enjoyed every single song on this one, whereas I would often skip to the "stand-outs" on the previous Beach House compilations."
It's a business, not a disco !!
East End James | London | 09/20/2005
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The Beach House collections have suffered over the years, the deep house sound that defined it has more or less dissappeared, lately being replaced with watered down pop tracks that could easily have been album tracks for mainstream artists (not neccessarily bad). It's understandable also, when you have dead lines to meet and when record companies like Naked Music isn't churning them out fast enough you have little choice but to use old (but still beautiful) tracks like Lisa Shaw's "Let it ride", Aquanote's "Nowhere" and Kandi favourite Afterlife with "Never before" here. The obvious highlights here are: Aya's "Sean", Kaskade's "Everything" and Late Night Alumni's "Nothing left to say". I'm excited about their new album of the same name, the dreamy vocal deep house which they're known for.
I want to also say that I admire Mark Doyle for his taste in music as much as being a business man. The way he milked his product is unmatched by any of his peers. I agree that during the last couple of years Hed Kandi's become just a bit too commercial, realising CD after CD in 2004/2005, wasn't this the exact thing they set out to oppose when they started out ? Even TV commercials in the UK !! But Mark Doyle knew it couldn't go on forever so grabbed as much money as possible even meaning filling CDs up with some substandard stuff, and good for him too I would do the same thing ! And what perfect timing - in the sleeve notes on this album, Mark Doyle said this would be his last album (probably meaning that he's sold his Hed Kandi project off and made loads of money), so as of the next collection onwards i.e. 'Hed Kandi 50' we'll be getting music that are being complied by 'The Hed Kandi Team'. The future collections have yet to be heard, but looks like the early Kandi magic will continue to be compromised due to commercial reasons."
Track Listings (22) - Disc #1