Now That's What I Call Council House.... (Clubland 15)

Member Name: plipplop

Product:	Clubland 15
Date:	08/07/09 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some very good tunes and overall reasonably consistent with previous volumes

Disadvantages: Some dross, a mixed recipe that's far from the series' original routes

A review of Clubland volume 15, which was released on June 22nd, the double CD version can be purchased for around £10 online, with a download also available at similar prices.

It's a while since we had a Clubland compilation and you could be forgiven for thinking that the record label (AATW - All Around the World) was taking the time to review the approach to be taken for future editions. The earlier volumes of the series were extremely popular and commercially very successful, but as the series has drawn on, the label seems to have distanced itself from its roots, stuffing each compilation with more and more happy hardcore; a niche market, at the best of times. The competition (Ministry of Sound) remains extremely strong and there seem to have been a succession of Big Tunes, Clubbers' Guides and Hed Kandi compilations, all attempting to fill the void left by Clubland. So does Clubland still have what it takes? Let's hoist those glowsticks, blow those whistles and throw some shapes and find out. Ahem.

It's as mixed a bag as ever and, increasingly, the series is now starting to lose its identity. In earlier volumes, for example, the track listing was reflective of a very definite style of music; commercial, vocal house and trance that didn't have a shred of credibility but was hugely crowd-pleasing from start to finish. It capitalised on an enormous gap in the market at a time when most compilations were far more pretentious and credible and lacked the sort of things you would find on a mainstream dance floor. For volume 15, there's an enormous range of styles and songs to suit all tastes that creates a sort of musical buffet, to be picked and selected at random but rarely to be consumed in its entirety.

This means that the listener lurches from one track to the next, hurtling from one genre into another and then onto another again at breathless pace. It's not helped by the fact that a DJ hasn't mixed the album, so, unlike most dance music compilations, there's a tiny break between tracks. This is appealing for anybody who wants a short, sharp stab of one particular song or another but as all the versions here are radio cuts, the editing is at times rather sharp. Cahill's remix of Alesha Dixon's Breathe Slow is, for example, rather abrupt for many tastes and sounds almost as though somebody leant on the stop button too early. It also means that where the tracks aren't lined up in an appropriate order (and on a compilation, record companies will normally arrange the tracks to ensure the most appealing appear at the start of a disc) the beat can speed up and slow down in a rather unexpected fashion.

At times, it feels as though the Clubland series is single-handedly trying to catalyse a new kind of hardcore/rave generation. It's not just the very obvious inclusion of tracks by superficially named artists like The Manian Ravers or Ravers United (whose lead singer makes DJ Talent seem relatively well-balanced) but through the whole tone of the album. Anything's fair game and, rather like the rave generation that seemed to take anything and put it through a rave re-arrangement, there are a number of mixes and 'reinventions' here that take popular radio or R & B tunes and turn them into happy hardcore club anthems. Number one singles from the Black Eyed Peas, Pixie Lott, The Noisettes, Taylor Swift and Tinchy Stryder all get the treatment here for example, to various degrees of success, although curiously, Lady Gaga's Poker Face remains here unchanged (and is still brilliant).

The label favourites all get yet another outing here, again with varying degrees of appeal. The new Cascada tune (Evacuate the Dancefloor) leads the way with a Euro remix that does little to convince us that the song is that different to anything from the group's first two albums (even though the single just fought off Michael Jackson to give the group its first ever number one single). Ultrabeat are back with a typical Ultrabeat anthem (Starry Eyed Girl) that is probably booming out of countless Vauxhall Nova GTis hurtling around Wigan as we speak. Kelly Llorena is back with an ill-advised cover version of Madonna's Dress You Up and (my guilty pleasure) the Blackout Crew are back with their mobile-phone inspired Dialled that's so awful it's actually good - these boys are destined for a number one single, let me tell you now. Flip and Fill are here too with their 52nd appearance in either recording or remixing capacity since the series started. Darren Styles is here (fantasy ideal man, by the way) in Styles and Breeze format with one of thos big vocal anthems that he does so well. On the flipside, there is, of course, some utter drivel from the regulars too. Big Ang & Siobhan are back with the hideously titled Wifey that is worse than it sounds, with dreadful lyrics and a pure council arrangement. There's also a truly dreadful tune by a group called The Northern Allstars with a nasal, Mancunian vocal that sounds a bit like Oasis on speed. Yuk.

There seems to be less of a reliance of cover versions these days. Clubbed up versions of well known ballads or classic songs were a staple of earlier volumes but don't seem to feature so regularly here. Booty Calllers do a reasonably good version of Secret Smile (albeit very much towards the hardcore end of things) and I quite like the De Grees' cover of Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You (though MOS has the drop on this, with a stonking remix of the original on Dance Nation: Your Big Night Out). This isn't the only rip-off here that's included only to hit MOS where it hurts. Michael Mind's sour and gutless version of Show Me Love is supposed to take on Steve Angello's (superior) cover. Interestingly, it's more the unknown stuff that has the most appeal here. There's a lovely, summery vocal house number from Agnes that opens disc one, with vocals that sound not unlike Gabrielle and Stunt's follow up to her partnership with Sash, I'll Be There is another strong contender for best track. Stunt's sweet vocals work really well here on what is otherwise a very conventional vocal trance track.

As a compilation, this is unquestionably good value - 41 songs for around a tenner is excellent by anyone's standards. The trouble is that it's such a mixed bag that you almost inevitably end up skipping or deleting tracks to compile a favoured play list. With one eye on the dance floor and the other on the bank balance, there's an inevitability that AATW would struggle to get the recipe right but they still need to look back to earlier chapters for inspiration. The successes here are pretty much tried and tested (you can't really go wrong with Lady Gaga, after all) and there's nothing daring or 'upcoming' about anything here. That doesn't mean that (if this is your thing) you won't have hours of frantic play time, but it does mean that by the time the next one comes out, you'll all but have forgotten this one.

Disc 1

1. Agnes - Release Me
2. Tinchy Stryder Ft N-Dubz - Number 1 (Hypasonic Remix)
3. N-Force - All Or Nothing
4. Styles & Breeze Presents Infextious - Amigos (Technikal Remix)
5. Alesha Dixon - Breathe Slow (Cahill Remix)
6. Manian - Raver's Fantasy
7. Noisettes - Don't Upset The Rhythm (Go Baby Go) (Jorg Schmid Remix)
8. Lady Gaga - Poker Face
9. Katie May - You're The Only One
10. N-Dubz - Strong Again (Jorg Schmid Remix)
11. E-Type - Rain
12. Ravers Unite - Hardcore Vibes
13. Girls Aloud - Untouchable (Bimbo Jones Remix)
14. Alex K - If You Were Mine
15. Freestyle - Don't Stop The Rock (Friday Night Posse Remix)
16. De-Grees - I Believe
17. Elin Lanto - Discotheque
18. Flip & Fill Ft Mr Vegas - Kokaine
19. Lockout Ft Chenai - Bounce
20. Northern Allstars - Rock The Dancefloor
21. Shontelle - T-Shirt (Bimbo Jones Remix)

Disc 2

1. Italo Brothers - Stamp On The Ground
2. Ultrabeat - Starry Eyed Girl (Manox Remix)
3. Cascada - Evacuate The Dancefloor (Rob Mayth Remix)
4. Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow (David Guetta Electro Hop Remix)
5. Pixie Lott - Mama Do (Flip & Fill Remix)
6. Taylor Swift - Love Story (Digital Dog Mix)
7. Skyla - Breaking Free
8. De-Grees - My Life Would Suck Without You
9. Big Ang & Siobhan - Wifey (Jorg Schmid Remix)
10. Kelly Llorenna - Dress You Up (Clubstar Remix)
11. Stunt - I'll Be There
12. Booty Callers - Secret Smile
13. D-Code Ft Emma - Who Are You
14. Dancing DJs - Wanna Be Like A Man (E-Squire Remix)
15. Michael Mind - Show Me Love
16. K.I.G - Head, Shoulders, Kneez & Toez (Cahill Remix)
17. Hypasonic - Your Love
18. Blackout Crew - Dialled
19. Micky Modelle - Wine Up
20. Ironik Ft Chipmunk & Elton John - Tiny Dancer (Hold Me Closer) (TRC Remix)

Summary: It's M-M-M-More of the same