Artist: Dave Seaman
Title: Global Underground: 022 - Melbourne
Label: Global Underground
By: Simon Jones | 10 April 2002
Tracklist:

• Disk 1
• Disk 2

1. Our House - Solition Wave (Slow Mix)
2. Urban Dwellers - Loverman (Satoshi Tomiie Ambient Mix)
3. Jono Fernandez - Intruder
4. Howie B - Making Love On Your Side (Roger Sanchez Mix)
5. James Holden - One 4 You (Avus Accapella)
6. Digital Mind Control - Mindstate
7. Ming Moods Volume 1 - Haunting Theme
8. The Flash Brothers - Sarcasm
9. Cass - Mind Rewind
10. Nubreed - Depth
11. Guy Gerber & Sahar Z - Kenny's Back
12. Orbital - Illuminate (Medicine Mix)
13. Slacker - Looky Thing

1. FC Kahuna - Glitterball
2. Infusion - Legacy (Synaesthesia Dub)
3. Hamel - Close (Evolution Mix)
4. Sean Cusick - Consider The Ravens
5. Natious - Magic Dust
6. T-Empo - Fouk (Maurice & Noble Mix)
7. Infusion - Starwater (Chicken Little Mix)
8. Charlie May Presents Pin Drop - Corporate Entertainment
9. Lo-Step Feat Lior Attar - The Roots
10. Ashland - Clear
11. Lamb - What Sound (Cosmos Mix)
12. Frakkar - Slide

Dave Seaman "Global Underground: 022 - Melbourne"

Dave Seaman has has a wide and varied career which started out in the local discotheques of Leeds and has since taken him all over the world, to the furthest reaches of the planet. Aside from this alongside production partner Steve Anderson as the Brothers In Rhythm they have remixed and produced some of the well known artists the last decade, from Kylie Minogue to the Brand New Heavies, to New Order and Seal.

However DJing has always been Dave's first love and he has teamed up with the Global Underground team for previous excursions to Cape Town and Buenos Aires and now they team up to bring us the 22nd edition of the Global Underground series, Melbourne

The keyword for this album has to to be: diverse. CD1 starts off with the subtle ambience of Our House's Soliton Wave, continuing the theme into Satoshi Tomiie's ambient rework of the Urban Dwellers track, Loverman, taking the mood slightly deeper as the airline samples of Jose Fernandez's Intruder heralds the arrival at a more ethnic influenced destination in the form of Roger Sanchez's remix of Howie B's Folk, its flamenco guitars and deep Arabic wailing giving momentary respite before the journey heads into the unknown even further.

The deeply eerie Mindstate by Digital Mind Control then draws you in with its subtle house groove and spacey atmospherics, the sinister piano of Ming Moods Vol 1's Haunting Theme meshing as one with a new production from Israel's ever consistent Flash Brothers, entitled Sarcasm, first sticking to the deep template that has been laid down, before a deep vocal sample heralds a change in tempo to nice melodic strings, then without warning goes off into a much darker direction, the dark drums weaving in and out of haunting synths that clash like two heads colliding to the sweeping horns of Cass and Slide's Mind Rewind, which slowly builds a tight groove, before unleashing a massive synth break that really takes the mix off into a more percussive direction, courtesy of Australian boys Nu Breed with their atmospheric percussive breakbeat of Depth, before the bassline becomes slightly more trippy and a sample that grabs your attention is dropped in.

As the mix progresses onwards and the soundscape being laid down heads into the break, the sample becomes more familiar, and you will instantly know that the Portishead sampling Kenny's Back from Israel's Guy Gerber and Sahar Z has arrived, before the twisted beats of Medicine's remix of Orbital's Illuminate give way to the eerie clown theme melodies of Slacker's quirkily addictive Looky Thing, but make no mistake about it, theres no clowning about as the cd draws to a close, having crossed many boundaries that you would think are impassable.

The second part of the mix takes a more electro direction out of the starting blocks, with the funky Glitterball by the much vaunted FC Kahuna fading into the tough, simplistic but pumping bassline of Legacy from yet another Australian outfit, Infusion, who many have compared to Underworld with their techno influenced beats and dark male vocals. Evolution rework Bill Hamel's Close into a deep yet atmospherically uplifting cut as the deep squelchy synth bassline of Sean Cusick's Consider The Ravens takes the pace down to the lower depths, with Natious's latest production Magic Dust continuing this until it enters its break.

Then heavenly synth progression heralds the arrival of a rougher percussion line, that continues to evolve and twist as the quirky vocals of T-Empo's Fouk start a trend that Infusion's Starwater continues before Dave decides its time to take the pace up a few notches like only he can, starting with the deep, constantly altering harmonies of Pin Drop's Corporate Entertainment, giving way to some nice ethnic breakbeat action from one of the best breaks producers in the scene, Phil K under the guise of his Lo-Step project.

The breaks continue with the rock influenced vocal track Clear by Ashland, a track that Dave liked so much hes signed it to his Audio Therapy label. To end the cd, Dave knows just what to dish up, first delivering Tom Middleton's deeply captivating and tearjeaking remix of Lamb's What Sound, which blends seamlessly into the soft chemical breaks of Frakkar's Slide, which lowers the mood as the sun sets over Melbourne and so ends another journey through the Global Underground.

In more recent times the mix cd market has become more fierce than ever, and the scene's critics even harsher. To stand out amongst the pack steps must be taken to do something different to the norm, and in Dave's case he has not only put together two discs of music that spans genres that don't normally communicate with each other, but also done a truly unique thing of also showcasing some of the finer talent Australia has to offer and merging both factors into one seamless soundscape is something he seems to have done with ease. For those who still live in the darkness, perhaps you should check out Now Thats What I Call Chugging Basslines Volume 1, but for those who want a diverse, deep and sometimes uplifting journey, your connecting flight has arrived.