Hed Kandi - The Mix 2009 [Digipak] - Various Artists

...been a fan of the Hed Kandi brand, and of funky house music I decided to reluctantly purchase 'The Mix 2009'. My reluctance came from reading the tracklisting on the back of the Album - Shakedown 'At Night', X-Press 2 'Lazy' Afro Medusa 'Pasilda' and others are all relatively old tracks. If the theme of this album had been similar to the Hed Kandi classics CD in 2006 it would be understandable - but this edition professed to be 'The Mix 2009'. On ...
...to the high standard that Hed Kandi used to employ, and are perhaps telling of the growing Ministry of Sound influence on the brand. From the first CD you'd garner the incorrect impression that 2008 was a disaster for house music that has forced Kandi to scrape the metaphorical barrell. CD 2 follows a similar pattern with Kelly Rowland (ex-Destiny's Child), Adele and a raft of older tunes interspliced with the occasional recent track.

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Having long been a fan of the Hed Kandi brand, and of funky house music I decided to reluctantly purchase 'The Mix 2009'. My reluctance came from reading the tracklisting on the back of the Album - Shakedown 'At Night', X-Press 2 'Lazy' Afro Medusa 'Pasilda' and others are all relatively old tracks. If the theme of this album had been similar to the Hed Kandi classics CD in 2006 it would be understandable - but this edition professed to be 'The Mix 2009'. On previous outings the main two CD's always featured the biggest tracks of the year and nothing else - a sort of House Music annual. The 'Chill-out/Wind-Down' themed third CD each time had previously been the only disc to feature 'classic house'. The Mix 2009 certainly isn't and if a general overview of 2009 in house music is what you're after then perhaps it would be better to look elsewhere.

The mixing - usually slick and impressive - leaves a lot to be desired on this particular album. The mix from ATFC into Guru Josh is perhaps one of the laziest pieces I've ever heard from Hed Kandi, with the beat from ATFC simply fading down in the most unsubtle of fashions once the 'Infinity' vocals kick in. Clearly the different Beats Per Minute were too much of a problem to try and merge together, as the beat that then kicks in is totally different and out of sync with the build up of the CD.

Many people have bemoaned the loss of Hed Kandi from a once serious, relatively non-commerical brand under Mark Doyle until 2005 - yet in spite of this I always felt that Kandi had maintained a certain degree of class. Sure, the tracks became more commercial around 2006-2007, but remixes of chart hits such as Robyn were virtually non-existent (I can remember a remix of the Gossip 'Standing in the Way of Control' that could be better described as a bootleg of the guitar rift as the only prior example in 2007). The music was still 'credible' and aimed at those with a matured taste in dance music who wished to escape such things as cheesey remixes and 'eurodance' from continental Europe. There's nothing wrong with either of those two genres, but that isn't what Hed Kandi used to be about. Unfortunately this album marks a departure from this degree of credibility, and places it on a par with Ministry of Sound or any other generic 'Clubland' style CD. The lack of new music only compounds this fact, making Hed Kandi look a dated and uninspired venture as we head into 2009. 

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