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It's ten years since the Ministry of Sound began their Annual, a
groundbreaking idea at the time, and it's instructive to compare the
inaugural and most recent volumes. The first issue, mixed by Pete
Tong and Boy George, was handsomely bound and produced. A
decade on, the market saturated with similar compilations, the signs are the
Annual is now just one of a very large crowd, and unfortunately does
little to stand out with distinction.
Thankfully CD2 goes some way to redeeming this, heading for
Defected-style vocal house with some relish, taking a dollop of disco
along the way. Lesser known cuts (commercially, at any rate) from Fallen Angels,
Digital Dog and Soundbwoy make much more of a lasting impression than
the clubbing-by-numbers fayre on the first disc.
For this first disc is effectively a filtered version of the Radio
One playlist as it currently stands - Mylo heading off with the
soundclash Doctor Pressure, Bob Sinclar's whistle while you work
Love Generation, then Tom Novy's Your Body, one of the
outstanding vocal tracks of the year. Unfortunately several of these are presented in
their updated and mostly inferior versions - the aforementioned Mylo, Basement Jaxx with Do Your Thing and the Audio Bullys, messing with the Prodigy's Out Of Space. Far more valuable are the remixes of Hard Fi, Jamiroquai and Royksopp, all dressed for success, or tracks that delve further underground from Tiga and Lee Cabrera, sneaking towards the lazily closing track from Goldfrapp.
Unlike the original volume, this year's Annual does not credit a DJ
and seems to have been clinically mixed, particularly on CD1. CD2 is much better, excluding a couple of cover version aberrations, Roxette
taking a pounding on the opener. It should also be noted that this being Ministry there is still a slight dependence on their own material,
which was never the case in 1995. That aside, there's some really good stuff here from Joey Negro, Future Funk and Scape, a few
disco influences showing at the edges.
The accompanying DVD is a good move but even more Ministry heavy. It does however catch some of their biggest shakers this year - Cabin
Crew, Axwell and Les Rhythmes Digitales to name but a few. As a retrospective of the commercial side of clubbing this year
the package does a pretty good job, but doesn't stand out from the crowd enough to earn an unconditional recommendation.
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