Artist: Chris Salt
Title: Fear 3
Label: Silver Planet Recordings
By: Simon Jones | 5 October 2004
Tracklist:

• Disk 1
• Disk 2

1. Chris Salt Feat Katie - Deconstructed Reality
2. Micah - Acandavi (Chris Micali Air Supply Mix)
3. Red Baron - Vandenberg (Grayarea Mix)
4. Chimera - Music (Original Mix)
5. Yunus Guvenen - Tigris
6. David West - Envy
7. Chris Salt - Dub Sonar (Luke Chable Mix) (Chris Salt Breaks&EFX Edit)
8. Synergy - Pacifier (Club Mix)
9. Ben Camp - Syndrome
10. Flash Brothers - Ways (Chris Salt Mix)
11. Chris Salt - Atmospheric Graffiti (Aidan Lavelle Mix)
12. Benz & MD - Dead Calm

1. Chris Salt - Atmospheric Ambience
2. Andres & Xavier - Floating With You
3. Ben Camp - New World
4. Muzo B - Shen (Yunus Guvenen Mix)
5. The Hypnotist - Rainbows In The Sky (Orchid Mix)
6. David Trusz - All That Is Pure
7. Chris Salt - 69
8. Synergy - Hello Strings (Chris Salt Dub Re-Edit)
9. Main Element - Delta Of Venus (Chris Salt Mix)
10. David West - Carrier
11. Chris Salt - Atmospheric Graffiti (Original Mix)
12. Chimera - Natural High
13. Benz & MD - Still Rain

Chris Salt "Fear 3"

After landing on the Silver Planet earlier this year, Chris Salt has gone on to become one of the label's leading artists, with several original productions to his name, in addition to several remixes of tracks by Main Element and The Flash Brothers. He's already started to build a fan base amongst music lovers and peers alike, with plaudits for his DJ and production work coming from the likes of Nick Warren and Jonathan Lisle. It's little wonder then that as his reputation as a DJ grows and begins to take him to places such as Tokyo and Poland that Silver Planet have chosen him as the figure to spearhead their latest compilation, and here he makes his compilation debut, with the third offering from series now simply known as Fear.

Deep, hypnotic melodies and grooves are what Chris uses to great effect during the start of the first disc with his own 'Deconstructed Reality' opening the album, backed by the great new track from Micah 'Acandavi' and Grayarea's rework of the old Red Baron track 'Vandenberg'. It's smooth breakbeat layers edge the tempo up just slightly, as Chris begins to find a nice little groove that he continues to build on over the course of the rest of the disc. Some back catalogue hits from Chimera and Yunus are featured alongside the the first of several stunning forthcoming tracks from David West with Chris re-editing Luke Chable's remix of his own 'Dub Sonar', thus providing a rip roaring peak to this first half of this album. In actual fact it's only the first as the tempo shifts up yet another gear, and by the time the big ethereal pads of Ben Camp's devastating 'Syndrome' are creeping into the mix, the tension is ready to explode in a big way. However, Salt's soothing breakbeat mix of the Flash Brothers track 'Ways' eases the pressure slightly, paving the way for Aidan Lavelle's interpretation of 'Atmospheric Graffiti', and the grand finale of this first disc, and the soaring epic chords of Benz & MD's 'Dead Calm' are anything but that, ending the first disc on an uptempo note.

The second disc is the peaktime half of the album, which the first disc has laid the foundations for rather nicely. Continuing on with a similar theme to the first disc, Chris incorporates some old releases in with some of the current and future releases of the label, and of course adding his own exclusive tracks and edits in once more. 'Atmospheric Ambience' is a dramatic opening salvo that picks up the pace right from the offing, with Ben Camp's bass heavy 'New World' etching a haunting mark on the mix with it's big atmospheric soundscapes, and as Chris drops in one epic and dynamic track after another, layering the ethnic eastern sounds of Muzo B's 'Shen' over the top of the classic 'Rainbows In The Sky' by the now sadly deceased Hypnotist himself Casper Pound. This updated interpretation by Orchid is a faithful reworking of Casper's original mix, and is without a doubt one of the standout tracks on this album. It's also from this point that album really ups it's game, with Salty's own epic sub-bass edit of Synergy's mammoth leads the onslaught that ensues, with his own 'Atmospheric Graffiti' and remix of Main Element's 'Delta Of Venus' sitting amongst the brilliant atmospheric breaks of David West's 'Carrier' and Chimera's latest single 'Natural High' which is right up there with the best of his work. Easing off the pedal with it's rolling beats and cinematic style melodic sweeps. it brings the tempo of the disc back to a nice grooving constant where Benz & MD's 'Still Rain' then picks up from to close the album with the same dynamic layers and sounds that it begun with.

'Fear 3' sees the series redeem itself after a quite frankly lacklustre offering by the Flash Brothers. Chris Salt's technical skills as a DJ lend well to the style and flow of the album as a whole, and at the same time shows that as a producer he is more than capable, with the many tracks, remixes and edits hes included an indication of that fact. This in addition to the carefully thought out track selection makes it a worthy addition to the series, although no one has yet to instill the fear quite like James Holden.