Cuba - Viva Cuba (The Roots Of The Salsa Sound) - Various Artists

Advantages: Amazing melodies and profound beautiful lyrics
Disadvantages: Absolutely none

...Silvio Rodriguez is known in Latin America simply as Silvio. This alone goes to show the status he has reached in his beloved America Latina. "Cuba Classics" or "Canciones Urgentes" (Urgent Songs) is usually the album of his that you will find more readily in Britain. However, you can order most of them from amazon.co.uk. This one costs £11.99. **************************************** Silvio Rodriguez Dominguez is a Cuban; a Cuban of the Revolution. Many will find that a put off, sadly few people really understand the Cuban Revolution and only heed what the media say about it, but that is a different topic. I urge you to pay more attention to the artistic side of his though, for his melodic music is simply matchless and for those who understand Spanish, his lyrics are pure poetry... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Track selection, genre representation
Disadvantages: Rubbish mixing

...The tracks chosen are fantastic. If you wanted a definitive guide to hard trance and know nothing about the genre then this is a great place to start. The representation is great of the sounds of hard trance and full credit goes out on that point. Most of the good points in my mind are from the track selection to be honest. The mixing is rubbish to say the least. I wouldn't consider this to be a particularly "commercial" mix collection, and therefore I wouldn't necessarily expect it to be a rushed attempt to get a CD put together for money with no thought put into the mixing. How disappointed I was! I don't like to use the word "shoddy" but I feel compelled to on this occasion on the account that anyone with even an hour's mixing experience could do better. The artwork is completely unoriginal also and alone doesn't fill me... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: It just feels right
Disadvantages: where is vol 2 ???

...The Viva Diablo Blanco compilation is a carefully selection of hyms of drum'n'bass / ambient tunes from the mid 90's. You'll be sure to rebember tracks such as Apollo 440's "Ain't Talking about dub" and Fat Boy Slim's "Song for Linda" and at the same time recall some less mainstream artists such as The Aloof and The Art of Noise and on top some very good remixes by the likes of the brazillian collective Filla Brazilia and others. All in all this album does really capture the essence of the whole snowboarding sub-culture, so the snowboarder on the album's cover isn't just a fluke. In a few words this compilation is bold, young and fast paced, but still a ambient album that you can play over and over.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful