Artist: Flash Brothers
Title: Fear Of A Silver Planet 2
Label: Silver Planet Recordings
By: Simon Jones | 11 January 2004
Tracklist:

1. Flash Brothers - Silvered Outro
2. Chimera - In Deep (Deep Mix)
3. Flash Brothers - Ways
4. Rhythm Unlimited - Reflections (Flash Bros. Mix)
5. Mad Dogs - Better Make Room (James Holden Mix)
6. Indigo Child - Take A Breath Of You
7. Rhythm Unlimited - Reflections (Acapella)
8. Ian Wilkie - Guten Tag
9. Flash Brothers - The Flight
10. Main Element - Take Me Down (Lemon 8 Mix)
11. Yunus Guvenen - Red Pilot
12. Flash Brothers - Ways (Acapella Mix)
13. Indigo Child - Underwater
14. Flash Brothers - The Call
15. Flash Brothers - Planet Outro

Flash Brothers "Fear Of A Silver Planet 2"

The Flash Brothers are without a doubt one of Israel's leading exports, with a huge amount of productions and remixes under their belts. In addition to this, their live shows have found favour with audiences in their home country and overseas to places such as the UK, with Shmuel Flash's DJ skills also well documented and held in high regard by many, so when they joined the Silver Planet roster this year, people wondered what to expect from the Flash Brothers, and with the release of several singles they have focused on the more melodic sound that is familiar with Silver Planet, and it would seem that mixing a compilation for the label was the next natural step, hence 'Fear Of A Silver Planet 2' was born.

Kicking things off, the Flash Brothers make one of many appearances on the CD with the drifting 'Outro', which quickly subsides to the deep and driving bassline monster that is Chimera's 'In Deep', which sets the mood for the first part of the mix, with the haunting vocals of the Flash Brothers own track 'Ways' bringing a big sound to the mix, although keeping the dark vibe with some moody low end bass, subtly building towards the snare rolls and story of their own remix of 'Reflections' by Rhythm Unlimited, which brings an epic slant to the flow of the mix, but changes the tempo too quickly and pretty much takes away from the flow up to that point. Oh well, moving on..

The excellent 'James Holden Mix' of the classic 'Better Make Room' by Mad Dogs takes the mood back to it's starting point and slowly works the tempo back up to a nice constant, whilst as the oldest track on the mix, paying a respectful nod to the original Silver Planet sound, a sound reflected in Indigo Child's 'Take A Breath Of You', it's eerie strings and synths backing a powerful driving melody line that knocks the mix onto the next level. This is where things really unfold as the Flash Brothers use acapellas to bridge transitions, moving from the breakbeat grooves of Ian Wilkie's 'Guten Tag' through to the dark and twisted melodies of Main Element's 'Take Me Down', remixed here by the ever consistent Lemon 8. The dark breakdown in this track is without a doubt one of the shining points in the mix, with the mix reaching it's pinnacle with the sinister beats and key changing groove of Yunus Guvenen's own 'Red Pilot'. It's a track that remains one of his finest moments to date, with the unforgettable breakdown still sending a shiver down my spine.

Another acapella transition leads onwards into the Indigo Child track 'Underwater', it's deep and bubbling bassline bringing the mood down slowly, with one final euphoric breakdown to tease us with. It's organ style melody arrangement builds up nicely to that moment, but the Flash Brothers end up back on that dark path after the uplifting section of the mix, and it seems to just mark another u-turn which doesn't quite make sense, and an odd end to what is quite frankly a Pandora's box of a mix compilation.

I had high hopes for this CD, but it's downfall is it's programming which seems to quickly move from one direction to another, and maybe the fact that there is too much of a focus on the same artists. The original Fear Of A Silver Planet barely scratched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the label's back catalogue, so why the focus seems to be mainly on the same artists, and the more recent material baffles me. Fans of the label will no doubt love it, but to me it falls short of the first volume in the series somewhat, and I can only recommend it to fans of this sound, as diversity and flow isn't perhaps this mix's strong area. Let's hope Chris Salt can step up to the plate and do something more cohesive as he mixes the next volume in the next few months.