Essential Selection Spring 2000

Tong comes up short here. The tunes are great ("Woman Trouble," "Koochy," "Must Be the Music"....) but it's like he's trying to cover too much ground. So many styles to capture...garage, trance, house...Following tradition, Disc One is house, and disc two is more trancey.

Pete Tong's always been more of a cultural mover/shaker than a DJ. The man's got skills, but his compilations don't always show it. Check out the 1999 Essential Spring Collection - it follows more of a groove with the soul-house-thing going on.

Tongey just played a show here in Seattle as well...will club culture ever catch on in America? Only time will tell.


Essential indeed!   September 5, 2000
Michael Mut (Hialeah, FL)
Pete Tong, along with Paul Oakenfold and Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim), is among the top DJ's from the UK dance music scene.

This double CD "Essential Selection Spring 2000" is the latest in an ongoing series of Essential Selection recordings. This set is absolutely turntable-ready. It is subtitled "the soundtrack to your weekend", and this is quite appropriate. Just pop it in and hit the nearest dance floor. Considering it contains more than two and a half hours of music (about the length of a typical disc jockey's set), and includes just about every white-hot name in dance music, it is well worth the money.

The Chemical Brothers' "Music Response", Artful Dodger's "Woman Trouble", Moloko's "Time is Now" and "Pure Shores" by All Saint's are just a few of the gem/jams on Disc One. "Koochy", by Armand Van Helden (also included) opens with a loop of Gary Numan's "Cars") - but behind it, of course, is a standard big beat drum sample, which makes it infectiously danceable. Also, a version of the Bob Marley vs. Funkstar De Luxe smash hit "Rainbow Country" makes an appearance here.

Standout selections from Disc 2: "Don't Give Up" by Chicane; "Cry", System F; "Tell Me Why (the Riddle) ", Paul Van Dyk and Ondar's "Tuva Groove". This last one is interesting in that Tuva is a Siberian vocalist whose style (Tuvan Throat Music) is extremely unique and something from the past. Think the late Wolfman Jack or Tom Waits on a humming bender backed by a fierce dance feel.

The booklet has a photomontage of young partiers, looking beautiful primping, laughing and flirting, and probably feeling beautiful. The pictures are accompanied by a stream of consciousness narration of the evening's events. ("Bars, dancing, snogging, drinking, dropping. Get to club, huge queue's ...")


What a hack!   August 29, 2000
Sean McDonald (amsterdam)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Being a Pete Tong Hater is not always easy, but it always enjoyable. It is like people that hate the BackStreet Boys, or Brittany Spears. We hate them becasue of what they represent. They are the hacks that tap into the highest peaks of cultural popularity and try to make it their own. On 2000, Tong has struck again.

Like the old Ronco Greatest hits that we used to buy at Kmart when we were kids (remember all the best songs, no hidden gems) Tong does the exact same here, taking the life away from some great songs. His track listing is a Greatist Techno Hits (as he has always done) and peices them together for our listening enjoyment. To make matters even worse his mixing is not the least bit inspiring.

Such current house hits like (well every track) Koochy, Time is Now, Tell me Why are throw together just so Pete can make a quick buck. Do yourself a favor, just say no, and find some techno that will challenge you, but also move you...unless N'sync really are your hero's.


The History of Disco, part 2   July 11, 2000
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Perhaps the most genious House mix ever released, Pete Tong mixes together three beautiful disks of music, beginning with the throbbing History of Disco, to the beautiful Flowerz/I'm Lonely, evolving into two more mellow and beautiful disks. If you're looking for an introduction to London Vocal House, start right here!