Similar Albums:
Northern Exposure, Vol. 1,
Out There and Back,
Global Underground: San Francisco,
Global Underground: Ibiza,
Communicate,
Future Trance, Vol. 14,
Tranceport, Vol. 3,
Global Underground: Tel Aviv,
Global Underground: Sydney,
Depths of Progressive Trance,
Gatecrasher Global Sound System,
Behind the Sun,
Global Underground: NuBreed
- Artist: John Digweed
- Rating:
- Release Date: December 14, 1999
- Type: Live, Mix-album
- Genre: Electronica
Review
Releasing around one mix album a year during his prolific late-'90s/early-2000s reign atop the dance world, John Digweed surely wasn't afraid of flooding the market. Of his many releases, though, his Global Underground mixes deserve special notice, and it's not necessarily because they're his best releases. Rather, with each successive Global Underground release, Digweed continually updated his sound with new records, new producers, and a new direction for progressive dance music. The Hong Kong entry fits nicely between his Sydney (1998) and Los Angeles (2001) albums in terms of direction. Where Sydney found him trailblazing within the late-'90s trance reniassance via big records by the likes of Paul van Dyk and Albion, and the Los Angeles set found him abandoning that same trance sound for a much darker, dirtier, and more straightforward set of monsterous progressive house records, Hong Kong offers a bit of both -- a nice even balance, actually. The first set is anchored by a few undeniable standouts -- Underworld's "Cups," Luzon's "The Baguio Track," Cevin Fisher's "Music Saved My Life," and Medway's climactic "Flanker" -- and an accompanying array of mostly non-descript transitional tracks. It's a diverse set that starts rather light and airy before getting progressively darker and bigger with each record -- pretty much what you've come to expect from Digweed's first sets. The second set of Hong Kong hits hard and intensely from the first track and doesn't stop until its final, draining moments. Here, Digweed pulls out gigantic records by all the big-name late-'90s trance producers -- POB, Tilt, Cass & Slide, Breeder, Science Dept., Bedrock -- dropping them one after another with little mercy. While the second set is undeniably heavy on trance motifs, it's interesting to see how far Digweed's preferred style of trance had changed since the of-the-moment Sydney album a year earlier; it's a darker, more epic, denser, harder-hitting, more subverse style of trance that relies on power and texture rather than overt hooks, melodies, or riffs. Overall, another great mix by Digweed but not as unique as his Los Angeles mix and a bit too obvious in terms of track selection. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music GuideTracks
CD 1
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Cups [Salt City Orchestra Mix] | Underworld | (8:26) | |
| Overflow [FC Kahuna Mix] | Mary Lorson, |
Madder Rose | (3:47) |
| Leiva Something for the Soul | (4:12) | ||
| Into Deep [Medway Remix] | Oliver Lieb | LSG | (5:54) |
| Gravi Tech | (6:52) | ||
| Tribe and Trance [Voyager Remix] | (7:14) | ||
| Here I Am [Hard Mix] | (7:14) | ||
| The Baguio Track | (5:39) | ||
| Music Saved My Life | Cevin Fisher | Cevin Fisher | (6:59) |
| Useless | Marshall Jefferson | (5:03) | |
| Flanker | (7:00) |
CD 2
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Glide | P.O.B. | (3:52) | |
| Angry Skies [Tilt's Numerology Dub] | Maria Nayler, |
Tilt | (7:30) |
| Futurized | (5:47) | ||
| Diablo [Evolution Mix] | (7:30) | ||
| More | (7:12) | ||
| Sputnick [New York FM Mix] | Rowan Blades, Simon Noble | Breeder | (7:26) |
| Persuasion [Funk Function Future Mix] | (5:46) | ||
| Crash [Funk Function Groove Mix] | (3:50) | ||
| Amran in the 7th Phase | (5:02) | ||
| To the Rescue | (6:14) | ||
| Heaven Scent [Evolution Unreleased Mix][#] | Bedrock | (6:43) | |
| And She Does [Quivver Alternative Mix] | (6:49) |
