Mark Farina: Sessions
Ministry of Sound

Following upon installments by Josh Wink, Steve Angello, and DJ Sneak, Mark Farina's two-disc contribution to UK label Ministry Of Sound's Sessions series is a ridiculously jacking colossus of 36 flailing house grooves. Though the mix's jubilant strut never flags (especially on euphoric gems like “So Obvious” by Gavin Boyce), Farina treats the material elastically, slapping it into a jazzy corner at one moment (Jamanta Crew's “Jazz Band,” Bryan Jones' “Change My World (Jason Hodges Jazz World Remix)”), sweetening it with steel drums the next (“Pool Party (Joshua Mix)”), and stoking vocal delirium throughout (Slater Hogan & Chuck Daniels' “Stay Tuned”). Chopped voices and roiling bass lines repeat hypnotically in Project Kidz's “Family Clone,” intensifying the hallucinatory vibe, but even better are the sweetly singing saxophones that spill soul-jazz all over Leon Louder's “Do It Again.” Tracks seamlessly flow into one another, including jacking cuts by Farina himself (“The Watch,” “Bringin' It Back”), making for a classic house pulse that feverishly churns for over two hours. Don't think the mix fades as it enters the final laps either; Kenton Slash Demon's “That's Right Modern Music” rocks as vivaciously as anything else (plus boasts some of the discs' most fabulous vocal cut-ups too), despite being 33rd in line. Sessions is not only an impossibly funky collection but perfect club material to boot.

September 2006