Search - Various Artists :: Ultra Dance 8

Once again, Ultra Dance and Thrive Mix compete with simultan

Daniel W. Kelly | Long Island, NY United States | 01/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"And once again, there are noticeable overlaps between the track listings on each disc. But there's really no competition this time. Ultra Dance 8 does a great job of introducing slamming tracks we may not have heard before, while Thrive Mix 3 offers a lot of sought after remixes of popular stuff, making them both worthy editions to your dance collection. Nice to see that Ultra Dance is catching on to the fact that a lot of these mixes have not been released on CD, so are giving us longer playing versions. Disc 1 has more of a dark/electro/tribal vibe featuring mixes of mainstream artists, disc 2 focuses more on disco/uplifting circuit sounds with underground dance artists, making for a great balance. The breakdown is like this:



CD1





1. ain't no other man (ospina mix) (6:33) (a disco feel, and not the best remix of this song--the SAME mix is on thrive mix 3, but twice as long here)

2. when you were young (Lu Cont dub) (5:23) (WHY the dub??? While it has full vocal, this mix is very choppy, and very often, the steady dance beat drops out for clunky electro beats. The vocal mix should have been on here)

3. Love don't let me go (4:51) (great catchy electro track)

4. Bossy (scumfrog mix) (6:31) (great dark, hard mix, as expected from Scumfrog)

5. SOS (chris cox mix) (6:51) (Chris Cox peak hour brilliance)

6. Rock this party (4:07) (sort of an "old skool" track that will take you right back to 1992, with a techno riff and `everybody dance now' vocal shout all borrowed from the C&C music factory classic. This isn't the strongest mix of this track though)

7. Borderline (4:44) (yuck. This is an annoying disco house track with mousy female vocals)

8. Single (6:28) (this is a funky electro mix--too repetitive and uninteresting to be over 6 minutes)

9. Here (in your arms) (young Americans mix) (4:21) (the original version is electro/retro new wave perfection. This commercial electro mix takes all the charm out of the original, but it's nice to have in your collection if you already have the original mix. But MAN is this mix an insult to the original mix)

10. Only difference between us (3:23) (Tommie sunshine does the hottest mixes of alternative pop rock bands. Wish this track were longer. This same mix is used on Thrive Mix 3 and it's almost the identical length)

11. Break up (cascade mix) (3:00) (Blech. A great Kim Sozzi track remixed to sound EXACTLY like the always annoying europop Cascade hit "everytime we touch")

12. I go crazy (4:19) (the very catchy europop hit mix of this cover of a Paul Davis 1970s classic)



CD2



1. one love world love (5:46) (I would love to hate this track that sounds like Bob Marley's "Sun is Shining" remix, which was a huge club hit in 1999, but it is incredibly catchy)

2. shine on (4:43) (very upbeat electro circuit track with male and female vocals. Another track you'll hate yourself for liking)

3. What a feeling (5:44) (this song is a huge hit for a reason. It's completely likeable)

4. By my side (5:03) (disco house--the hook will drill into your head)

5. take it (4:47) (Haji & Emanuel mix the usual fantastic vibe, with a great female vocal melody and attitude--this one should have been longer)

6. Boogie 2nite (7:39) (great electro/filter feel, with female vocal. This one is a slammer)

7. Proper education (4:38) (Prydz does for Pink Floyd's "another brick in the wall" what he did for Steve Winwood's "valerie" a few years back--makes an infectious dance groove, using the original Pink Floyd vocals)

8. Yeah yeah (6:21) (clunky electro with female vocal that sounds like it's trying to imitate Gwen Stefani. This one is ANNOYING)

9. Put your hands up for Detroit (5:22) (cool, mostly instrumental electro vibe. Gets a little boring though)

10. this is Miami (5:47) (stronger than the previous track, again with a bit of spoken male vocal)

11.don't go (4:25) (WOW. AMAZING new electro house recording of the Yaz classic. The female vocalist nails Moyet's vocals, and it sounds as if the riff is pretty much sampled from the original. THIS one should have been longer)

12. Dance4life (6:48) (a serious thumper from Tiesto--a combination of trance/electro and disco house. No real vocal, but a great way to end the disc on a high, energetic note)"

Surprisingly, Not So Great

DMA | Dallas, TX United States | 03/01/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I have all of the Ultra.Dance and Ultra.Trance albums, and of them all, I like this set the least. At first, I thought I might be suffering from Trance/Dance burnout or the "first-listen syndrome" (where a disc sounds weird the first time through but then grows on you), but unfortunately I don't think that's the case. There are a few good tracks, but overall, I found it boring. As a longtime buyer of the Ultra series, I was surprised to find this set has a "going-thru-the-motions" kind of a feel to it. Oh, well, maybe I'll like the next one better..."

A mixed bag

KAL-EL | Philadelphia, PA | 04/03/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Ok, I normally don't buy mainstream compilation releases because most of them sound to "cookie-cutter" for my tastes. After listening to a few samples, I decided to give this 2 CD set a try. Unfortunately its basically a tale of two halves. CD 1 on my opinion is pretty bad and cookie cutter to boot. Disc 2 was above average for the most part. Defitetly much more hints of house on CD 2."