There must be an angel / Playing with my heart / I walk into an empty room / And suddenly my heart ...
There must be an angel / Playing with my heart / I walk into an empty room / And suddenly my heart goes boom! / It's an orchestra of angels / And they're playing with my heart.
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"This is an adventure into that downtown New York City vibe" ~ Armand Van Helden
For me Armand Van Helden is a dance music legend, as a child of the nineties I grew up listening to his house and techno classics. He is thee man. This the guy responsible for making Tori Amos "Professional Widow" and The Sneeker Pimps "Spin Spin Sugar" massive hits. As well as producing some damn fine house records himself such as "You Don't Know Me" and "The Funk Phenomena". His artist albums have never failed to impress; he always tries something new and inventive. As a DJ he is a master of the decks with all the tricks up his sleeve, he can mix everything thing from house and techno to hiphop and ragga. If he's playing at a club he's still sure to be the hottest ticket in town.
Armand started DJ-ing at the age of 15, he spent a lot of his childhood moving around the world with his parents; going everywhere from Holland to Turkey. However he spent his late teens and twenties in Boston and more importantly New York. The aim of this mix cd is to capture the feeling of New York at night, in the clubs and in the bars. That vibe of where anything goes as long as it's something you cab party to. For Armand, New York had a huge influence on him as a person not just his accent. This is the place where he went to clubs and raves. New York was the place that introduced him to house and hiphop. In his youth he spent a lot of time hanging around record studios, trying to hussle his way into getting some studio time. But it took until 1996 to get somewhere when he worked on a stack of remixes for artists that ended up going down a storm, loads of these remixes were played more often than the originals. He was the buzz name for any artist looking for a cool remix joining the ranks of fellow American DJs such as Todd Terry, Roger Sanchez and Erick Morillo.
The biggest challenge facing Armand Van Helden for this mix
cd was not capturing the NY vibe but it was getting the clearance for the tracks. For DJs this can be such a pain, having to get legal permission to use an artists work on the cd, but it seems to have worked just fine as he's pulled out some of the big guns for this mix.
Armand Van Helden gets his mix off to a start by taking time out at the beginning to talk to the listener, a bit unusual. But over a funky electro track he talks in his husky New York accent about what exactly the cd is about. It's only brief but it's great see what he was thinking for this mix. Declaring "Let's get back to that good feeling vibe...." the first track bounces in and what a track to start with. "Call Me" by Blondie captures a certain New York vibe to it and it seems to be played slightly quicker than usual so it really gets the set off to a cracking start. Towards the end he uses the flanger effect on the mixer to fade Blondie's sultry tones out, bringing in the other track amongst a fury of beats and vocals it gets really heated and choatic. "Hear My Name" is own of his own tracks and goes perfectly after Blondie. A banging house track with acid effects, plus some added effects from Armand. It's funky and full of groove with some great vocals which are really sexy and sultry in their delivery. "Here time is ending, Here I'm gonna stay, Hear my name! Hear my name!" Letting the track for a full six minutes, he mixes in the next track to perfection and doesn't miss a beat. Again he's went for a kind of frenzy style mix, before letting "Hear My Name" come back a for a little while just to keep you on your toes. "Three Girls Rhumba" by Klonhertz has a house beat but a funky guitar riff (sampled by Martin Solveig on "Everybody"). It has more punchy punk like vocals. Here the mix is a lot more simple and he just lets the vocals "the impossible, the impossible" run before doing a straight cut to "Watching Cars Go By" by Felix Da Housecat.
"Watching Cars Go By" takes things into a deeper, darker realm. It is sheer electro by definition. It's relentless in it's pumping beat with the hi-hat, gritty guitar riffs and electronic sound effects. The vocals are robotic perfect to take us into a more sinister dark side of New York. "Don't Go" by Yazoo has it's synths blended in over the top, before "Watching Cars Go By" fades away to reveal the 80s classic that is "Don't Go". The synths dominate the track and the vocals are powerful. It adds another dimension to the mix and makes it a bit different from your usual house mix cd. Blended in amongst plenty of swirling flanger effects comes "Drummer" by Heavy Rock. "Drummer" is a great house, with a booming voice over the top. The voice tells everyone how "my girlfriend wants to be a dj, my mum wants to be a dj..." etc etc but then in he declares "I just want to be a drummer". At this point the breakdown comes and their is a huge drum solo. It's a such a funny, quirky track and is quite addictive. Even "Jesus wants to be a dj". The funky, pumping house feel of "This Feelin'" by AB/DC is simply blended in. This track has looped strings and lots of swirling and distorting effects not to mention a few tribal drums thrown in as well. "This Feelin" is really uplifting and brings the mix out of the darkness and grittiness.
"This Feelin" with it's pretty banging beat serves as the fantastic prelude to one of my favourite tracks on the whole cd. This is where Armand shows his skills as a DJ. He has the big hi-hats and synths of "This Feelin" going whilst he brings the fantastically funky guitar riffs of the next track. But it isn't until the vocals of "Black Betty" by Ram Jam kicks in that the whole thing just comes
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together. Because he's just went from funky pumping house to classic rock'n'roll. How can you not love the funkiness of "oh black betty! bam la'bam! Oh Black betty!" Armands gets this piece of vocal looping without the beats and mixes in "The Big Boo Ya" by Jesse and Crabbe. This takes the mix back into a more deep electro house vibe. Hiphop raps and guitar riffs keep the tune alive and kicking. However Armand has another big gun to drop.....Speeding up the tune and turning it down low, he fades the track out whilst blending in the immediately recognisable "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell. A bit of an anthem for djs as the 80s was a real era of invention for electronic music and "Tainted Love" is just such an excellent track that it fits like a glove into the mix. Pure perfection. "Ohhh.....Tainted love...ohhh...Tainted love....don't touch me please...i cannot stand the way you tease." What an anthem. Pulling myself out of karaoke mode, Armand gets this kind of piercing sound effect going and lets "Tainted Love" fade, before gradually bringing his own anthem "MyMyMy". Funky, catchy and danceable, no wonder this was a big hit. Next up is "Talking in Your Sleep" by The Romantics. Using his dj skills he makes "MyMyMy" seem likes its fading away put in a downward spiral and then back up again and then dubbing the track. Some great mixing and in comes Talking In Your Sleep. Another original 80s, with a funky guitar riff and becomes clear what a big impression the 80s has had on modern club culture especially in New York. More simple mixing and it jumps straight into a fast tempo electro track "Rocky XIII" by Aloud is a feel good Daft Punk style track. The rest of the cd rounds off with two great electro and 80s style tracks "Let Me Lead You" by Armand himself featuring La Rok and "Fascinated" by Company B.
What I love about this cd "New York: A Mix Odyssey" is that it really is a mix odyssey. Armand Van Helden takes you on a journey and captures the New York City vibe of having a good time and partying. He brings out the big gun anthems from the 70s: Black Betty, the 80s: Tainted Love and even his own "MyMyMy". But he also gets in a lot of quality house and electro tunes like "Watching Cars Go By". So with a great set list that's a major plus point. Another is the order of the tracks, one minute there is funkiness and bounciness and the next your are plunged into gritty deep house. This something I like in a mix cd because it's great to hear something surprising. Now to the mixing, well, well, well.....it's fabulous. Armand Van Helden doesn't overwork his mixes, so it doesn't make things seem fussy. He keeps things simple which in my opinion is sometimes the best. Here the tracks are so good you don't have manipulate them too much for it to work. Obviously he uses effects and other tricks but just to the right amount.
So basically, should you buy this? Well if you love house music, funk, techno, Armand Van Helden or want something different....then yes. Definitely. It's a great purchase. It's won't ring ring everyone's bell but "New York: A Mix Odyssey" is a worthwhile purchase and one you won't get sick of listening to.
The cover to "New York: A Mix Odyssey" is pretty striking. It shows a writing table with champagne, records etc....basically the remnants of a good party night.
"New York: A Mix Odyssey" is available from hmv.co.uk priced £8.99
Some other choice releases by Armand Van Helden: 2 Future 4 You (1999) Sampleslaya - Enter The Meat Market (1999) Killing Puritans (2001) Funk Phenomena (2003) Nympho (2005)
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Armand Van Helden... that's a blast from my past!!! Super, colourful and informative review - top stuff!
LostWitness 23.10.2005 23:13
I've always liked Van Helden's commerical music, like You Don't Know Me, but I must admit that I bought one of his mixes before and got a bit bored with it all. Can't fault your review though - for me, this is how to review a mix / compilation. Great stuff.
n13roy 22.10.2005 12:03
Another really well written and informative music review from you here. Great Stuff Indeed......Roy
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