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On the face of it Marc et Claude
would appear to have missed the boat. Trance music's
heyday commercially was surely in 1999, with the likes
of ATB, Paul Van Dyk and Ferry
Corsten coining it in from summer single hits,
whilst the Ministry, Cream, Euphoria and Gatecrasher
claimed the compilation market.
Marc Romboy and Klaus Derichs,
the two behind this project, were in on the act with
their Alphabet City label, breaking through with the
singles La and I Need Your Lovin'. The latter was a
big hit in the UK, registering high on the cheese
scale at the same time.
All of which makes me wonder if
You Own The Sound is four years too late, compiling as
it does a selection of Marc et Claude tracks from as
early as 1997. Initial impressions aren't good, with
the breathy intro The Sound and weaker single Tremble,
whose main hook is not really memorable enough. Stick
with it though, as the duo crank things up a bit with
Free Spirit and the excellent La, before a version of
I Need Your Lovin' that wisely majors on the excellent
trance riff rather than the vocal.
There's a creditable stab at
post-Moby chill out blues (Laserbeam Butterfly) which
gives the record some welcome variety, with a good
vocal from none other than Moped John. Cape Town is
also an excellent downtempo track,brooding and
atmospheric. This leads into the nippy Feel You, a
Tony Hadley collaboration that is musically
sound - a driving trance track - but lyrically inane,
despite its suggestiveness ("so hard I'm on
fire!")
Loving You '03, the current
single, works better in radio edit (ie. shorter!) but
The History Of Acid House is the pick of the album, a
robotic floor filler. There's a sense of deja-vu as
the album closes with a longer version of The Sound -
much better this time - and the Riva remix of
Tremble.
An inconsistent collection then,
and too long at 78 minutes - the CD programmer will be
useful here! But this is by no means formulaic trance,
and is well worth hearing in places. Whether the genre
will regain the dizzy heights of 1999 is another
matter, but this is still infinitely better than the
likes of DJ Sammy of Flip & Fill. Let's
face it, what wouldn't be?!
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