One of the best study aids you can buy (Northern Exposure 1 - Sasha and John Digweed)

Member Name: slinkysteve

Product:	Northern Exposure 1 - Sasha and John Digweed
Date:	13/05/01 (678 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good for revision, Best Chill-out album, Doesn't age

Disadvantages: None

Revision is a pain isn't it? You spend most of your days for a few months pouring over past notes, papers and generally becoming ever more bored. Why am I talking about revision in a music review? You see I and many others find revision infinitely less hellish when I've got some music on in the background.

Out of all my albums I found that the original (and to a lesser extent the 2nd) Northern Exposure album held the most assistance in the revision department. Now I've owned this album since it came out way back in late '96 and every time from GCSE to present 2nd year Uni. has used it as a revision aid.

You may think that a dance album couldn't assist in the memory of millions of formulae, dates, techniques and the rest, but you'd be wrong. In fact it's been proven that listening to your favourite music be it Beethoven or Black Grape enhances your ability to learn. Something about the various parts of the brain being active that otherwise may not be.

But I digress....

The album
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What we have here is a very ambient trance album. Don't get me wrong, this is not your "Delirium- Silence" kind of cheesy "trance" (which incidentally appears on NE.3) We are talking 22 songs more polished than a field marshals boots; most of which I expect you have never heard of. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it introduces you to a new style of music.

CD 1 - North
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The track listing for CD1 has a cold blue background to it, and upon listening to the CD you find out why. The first CD is very chilled out, it begins with (I think) David Attenbrough talking over the sound of flowing water about the "Trans Amazonian highway" drifting straight into a beautify single melody before going further and bringing in the beats. This is not your cheesy chill-out album - there is no empty sounding tracks, instead we have a little tribal music, be
ats, and plenty of tasty samples.

With the first CD you can just put it on and relax as one track seamlessly melds into the next, and this is where I derive my revision assistance from. You cannot afford to be too distracted by the music - that's why something over the top such as Limp Bizkit will not do. The music appears to be very "Polite" - it will not force itself on to you to distract you. Hence it's the perfect background music for revision, or that post club chill-out session.

CD2 - South
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Things get a little warmer on the 2nd CD and this is reflected in the choice of tracks which would not sound out of place on the floors of some of the top night clubs. Again I would expect that no-one other than DJ's or a dedicated follower would of heard of many of the names. The BPM is increased and the style changed to a more driving force. It is hard to give a good description of individual tracks as they are all similar and exceptional on their own.

Overall
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If for nothing other than revision help (providing you enjoy this style of music) I would recommend you bought this. Almost 5 years after I bought it I still listen to it, and this cannot be said for most of my CD collection. Further purchases would have to be the other 3 in the series. NE.2 is similar to the first album, NE.3 Expeditions takes a slightly more mainstream approach, and then NE.4 Communicate is a much darker offering which may not appeal to all tastes. I still feel that the first was always the best, yet the others are all worth buying for their respective qualities.

Ultimately this is what really started that chill-out album interest, that has ballooned into the chart orientated cheesy offerings which lie in our music stores today. If you only ever buy one chill-out album, this has to be it. (If only for revision purposes!)

Summary: