Review Summary: Soulless.
The 90s. Ibiza. Cassette singles. Obscure remixes. Compilations. Good times, right? Pete Tong clearly thinks so – after all it was the pinnacle of his career on radio and arguably the crest of the wave as far as mainstream dance music was concerned. A seeming stream of one-hit wonders (and a few mainstays) were filling the UK charts with catchy trance, house, big beat, and electronic pop. Fitting, then, that on the 20th anniversary of BBC Radio 1 in Ibiza, there was a Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall celebrating the impact of these tunes, with a refreshing orchestral twist. A charming idea, well realised and gloriously performed. The idea to replicate the evening on record had undoubted potential, but it would surely be a challenge to bring both the hard-hitting euphoria of the originals and the glistening finish put on top. A challenge, it seems, which has been accepted, and summarily failed.
The tracklist sets things off by being woefully inconsistent and it contains a few peculiar mis-steps. Rudimental get two features on here, and having only released their debut album three years ago this seems like an odd choice. ‘Feel The Love’ in particular was a fantastic single purely down to the natural instrumentation and unorthodox vocal style of John Newman – on this rehash, Newman is clearly giving around 50% of his potential and the overall sound is much more condensed and bland, with exceptionally weak drumming compounded by even worse compression. Moby, too, gets two tracks – ‘Go’ and ‘Porcelain’, the latter of which manages to pull of the astounding feat of sounding more synthetic than the original despite being played on live instrumentation. There are true classics here in the form of ATB, Robert Miles, Fatboy Slim, Orbital and Faithless, but the energy has been sapped out in favour of sterility and cleanliness.
Production-wise is where this record falls laughably short. When one considers the budget that has clearly been pumped into the project, in stark contrast to the DIY ethic of the majority of the source material, it is criminal for the end product to sound so underwhelming. Every stylistic decision, orchestral flourish, and production choice seem to almost sequentially highlight another flaw, like a precise clockwork mechanism designed to produce disappointment. The percussion, for starters, fails to pack any kind of resonating punch, which leaves the instrumentation an uncomfortable amount of space to fill, which in turn is made all the more pronounced by the seeming insistence to clean up every tiny imperfection. Take ‘Pjanoo’ for example – the opening muted strings have been cut, side-chained and softened to the point they may as well have been synthesized, except even that would have sounded cleaner. In an attempt to fill the resulting space, Tong has flung in a crass sub bass that destroys any subtlety the track once had, and the strings layered over the top are plain, uninspired, and seemingly there purely to fill the brief of the artist.
The rare moments on this piece that actually do work each come with their own mitigating circumstances – ‘Lola’s Theme’ is decent on the basis that it sounds identical to the original, and ‘Waiting All Night’ is actually quite gorgeous, yet it sounds nothing like its own. ‘Good Life’ is probably the stand-out track here - a decent, refreshing take on the Inner City classic, even if the Heritage Orchestra themselves seem predominantly overlooked. However, the highlights are not just few and far between, they’re simply inaccessible for those who have been put off by the rest of the project.
In short, what Pete Tong and the Heritage Orchestra have presented is a relentless stream of crass, insipid, sterile and soulless karaoke backing track sound-a-likes. On the plus side for Tong and Universal though, it will make you crave the originals enough to warrant them releasing another ‘classics’ compilation every 3 months in perpetuity. Steer clear.
