- "Journey to the Core of the Unknown Sphere." "A Very Different World." "Lost Forever in a Happy Crowd." Just judging by the track titles scattered throughout his Balance 022 mix, Funk D'Void is heavily concerned with dance floor disappearance, losing yourself and emerging hours later to find you're in a different, sweatier place. The Glaswegian techno producer known off the decks as Lars Sandberg is no stranger to this sense of euphoria, having scored a hit with the guzzling propulsion and walloping bass of "Diabla." Inspired by the storytelling found in the Back to Mine compilation series and following previous compilations on Cocoon and home label Soma, on Balance 022 Sandberg detours into the more treacly sides of techno before dissolving into plangent synth tangles.
Disc one pushes onto a churning dance floor with Monty Luke's "Yesterday and Today," the paranoid vocal loop stumbling through the crowd. The guitar licks of Los Hermanos' "Olmec My Brother" introduce jangling underwater funk, continuing through mountainous basslines and talkative astral synths. Sandberg tinkers with gunky vocal tracks and more heads-down workouts, found via the staircase of bass in Peter Dildo's "Lucky Punch" or the dripping unease of Tonka's "Orca (Dub)." "Lost Forever in a Happy Crowd" is inflected with trembling psychedelic fervour, while a choice Vince Watson selection recalls the whirring, jagged vibes of Global Communication. The back-end is gleaming and waterlogged, Sandberg indulging in easy-breathing interludes worthy of American big-tent trance. He manages to squeeze further mileage from "Diabla" with an unreleased Psycatron mix, stewing in an excerpt of Jesse Jackson's invocation from the 1972 Wattstax Music Festival and punctuated by those iconic, cloudy strings.
Balance's double-CD format can often make for an exhausting listen, and D'Void doesn't buck the trend with a periodically saccharine second half, the self-consciously "chill-out" intent of a morning-after mix not inspiring much beyond a sense of marking time. Beginning with Lucid Nation's ethereal "Suspended On Air" and peaking with licks of shiny funk in Soundstream's "Makin' Love," disc two drags through cinematic whorls of airy synths, briefly gripping minimal washes like Joris Voorn's "RE-2001," and Pat Metheny and Steve Reich's shimmering chestnut "Electric Counterpoint." The increasingly urgent strings and restrained wobbles of Funk D'Void's own remix of Joash's "Assassin" momentarily spike the heart rate, but the remainder is unfailingly polite. Overall Sandberg's Balance mix is as fluid as they come, but perhaps it might have benefitted from some more sonic incitement troubling the placid waters.
TracklistCD1
01. Hawkinson - Introduction (Funk D'Void remix)
02. Monty Luke -Yesterday & Today
03. Los Hermanos - Olmec My Brother
04. Chris Malinchak - Razor
05. Peter Dildo - Lucky Punch
06. Arkist - Effingham PL [Exclusive]
07. Tonka - Orca (Dub)
08. Mike Acetate - Elevate (Shur-I-Kan & Milton Jackson remix)
09. Soy Mustafa - Return Of The Annunaki (John Tejada Cinematic Edit)
10. Moodymanc - Talker (Drum dub mix)
11. Exercise One & Mathew Jonson - Lost Forever in a Happy Crowd
12. Guy Andrews - Confuted [Exclusive]
13. Delano Smith - Wires
14. Sam Matters - Weight Off My Mind
15. Chymera - The Chase (Steve Rachmad Edit)
16. Jesper Dahlback - Nyhus Part Two
17. Pezzner - Only With Your Eyes
18. Spirit Catcher - Sedona (Andre Lodemann remix)
19. Vince Watson - A Very Different World (Funk D'Void remix)
20. Tony Lionni - Loving You
21. Funk D'Void - Diabla (Psycatron Unreleased remix) [Exclusive]
CD2
01. A Lucid Nation - Suspended On Air
02. Kolombo - Waiting For
03. Lee Webster - Delve [Exclusive]
04. Pat Metheny - Electric Counterpoint
05. Lovebirds - Running Backwards
06. Space Dimension Controller - Journey to the Core of the Unknown Sphere
07. Martin Patino - Hommage (Joash Remix)
08. Outmode - Dark Journey (Toby Tobias Remix)
09. Vincent I Watson - Celtic Beauty
10. Joash - Assassin (Funk D'Void Remix)
11. Joris Voorn - RE-2001 [Exclusive]
12. Chaser - Bite the Bullet (Francois Dubois Remix)
13. Tom Ellis - Go Through Me
14. DJ Profile - Can U Sing
15. Rhythm Maker - Alles Mainstream
16. Patrice Scott - Tones & Things
17. Robert Babicz - Out Of Order (Rob Acid Version)
18. Soundstream - Makin Love
19. Blackman - Headroom
20. Phil Kieran - Prism
21. The Reboot Joy Confession - 1999
22. Wasted Gaze - Untitled State of Mind
23. Francois Dubois - Sweet Spot
24. Dennis DeSantis - You Say