Renaissance Ibiza [Audio CD] Deep Dish

Never predictable, Washington, D.C., duo Deep Dish mix tunes in that resolutely Chocolate City way--just a little short of menacing. Their Ibiza mix debut follows their city's warped but fun tradition to the letter, bending the rules of the club compilation along the way. Despite being recorded for the progressive house heads at Renaissance, this is not Sasha & Digweed breakdown music or chill-out for the hyperactive. Instead, Deep Dish serve up old fashioned trance--cinematic, euphoric, and definitely not soul-soothing. When they drop Everything but the Girl's "Temperamental" and twist it into a tech-house monster groove, we have our first truly Balearic moment. From this point, the double-disc set kicks into overdrive, working up the music into hard-core sci-fi funk. This doesn't mean that the Yoshi Toshi boys are averse to genre trashing. Dubfire and partner's sweeping elegiac mix mashes up thumping floor fillers, twisted Latino bass, "I Testify" garage music, Radiohead wannabes Muse ("Sunburn"), and Kinetic's "Golden Girls" with tongue firmly in cheek. On the second disc the emphasis switches from melody to rhythmic intensity and rushes of sound. Flutes, drums, and dubbed-out vocals carry tunes such as "Ubik" (Timo Maas), "Dreaming" (BT), and "Circuit Breaker" (ECVM) before edging toward the madness of Green Velvet's freak show, "Flash." --Maxine Kabuubi