Hed Kandi - The Winter Mix 2004 [Box set]

Each CD boasts a different syle of music. CD1 is the beach house collection ("beachy!"), languid, laid back percussive grooves, reminiscent of 6pm on a Saturday afternoon at your favourite beach bar. Highlight of this CD is undoubtedly the Martin Solveig mix of Salif Keita's 'Madan', all Afro vocals and cool guitars.

CD2 ups the pace just a little with its collection of glitterball classics ("heavenly!"). This is the Disco Heaven CD, and it's full of bona fide hands-in-the-air moments for angel-winged podium dollies. You will not listen to this without a smile on you face. "How would you feel?" by the god-like David Morales is a high, plus this CD boasts probably the best track on the collection with the suprememly funky 'Can't Fake It'.

CD3, usually my personal favourite, gets all "twisty!" on us, for this is the Twisted Disco collection, for those clubbers who refuse to go home at 3am, so the sleeve notes tell us. Always dark, dubby and dirty, CD3 serves up further gems in the form of Mylo's 'Drop The Pressure' and Brad Carter's 'Morning always comes too soon'.

So, I hear you ask, or you would do if you could get a word in edgeways, which you can't so I'll ask it for you, why only four stars? Well, two reasons. One, although this is not your usual compilation where you own 30 of the 32 tracks on offer already, there are a couple of tracks that stick out like a sore thumb. 'My My My' by Armand van Helden is one. Yes, it is a great track, but hold on, wasn't it on the last Hed Kandi album I forked out fifteen quid for just a couple of months ago? As was the closing track on CD1, 'Let the sunshine through'. Oh well, they're great tracks, plus you get tons you definitely won't have, and the ones you've just bought for the second time are now in a continuous mix.

And therein lies the real reason for being deducted a star. The mixing shows little thought or imagination. The track selection and programming is fine, don't get me wrong. But anyone with a copy of Traktor DJ Studio and an afternoon off work could have produced a mix with equal skill. Compare this to the recently released 10th Anniversary edition of the first Renaissance collection by Sasha and Jon Digweed, and you'll see that the Hed Kandi offering falls way short in terms of imagination. Still, this complaint of mine won't occur to 90% of people that buy it, and I guess it might just be sour grapes on my part (as a professional DJ who's been in the business for 15 years, I'm using four decks, the aforementioned Traktor and Ableton Live 4 to try and keep some freshness in my sets).

Still well worth the money at any rate and whatever my selfish technical gripes, Hed Kandi - The Winter Mix comes highly recommended.

The Simple 3CD format provides music to suit all types of choice and mood. CD1, The winter beach mix provides listeners with the feeling of warmth and sunshine despite being stuck in the thick of winter at home. My Hot pick of CD1 is Track 13, "Let the sunshine thru" - despite being on the Summer Mix it still does not age. CD2, The disco heaven mix, is in my view the best of the three. There are 13 tracks of glittering dancefloor moments with several good tracks including Track 6 "Can't fake it". Undoubtedly the best track is LnM Projekts cover of Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere. With Vocals from the ever present Bonnie Bailey this track is simply a joy to listen to - you wont be able to listen to it without a smile on your face I assure you! CD3, The twisted disco mix, goes to 3am on the dancefloor, showing the darker side of Hed Kandi. Mylo's fabulous Drop the Pressure and Mymymy from Armand van Helden are just 2 to mention. My personal fave is Soul Central's re-vamp of Rhythm is Rhythm's string's of life. This track simply tore up the dancefloor's in 2004 and continues to delight.

All in all, a really good album that can suit everyone. My only moan, and it is very small is that some of the songs were also on the Summer Mix, but who cares what I think! Any decent person or Hed Kandi should certainly consider in investing in this mix album, adding themselves to the growing list of Hed Kandi fans!

It's a great CD, one of my favourites in the past 3 years, and offers many more listen to again tracks than the MoS compliations, which date so quickly. I imagine in 5 years this will still sound as fresh as it does today.

Highly recommended it you like house and dance music.