This record seemingly exists to prove further that the oft-applied blanket term of 'dance music has become just as nondescript as 'rock music' has. Inasmuch as there is very little tying Oasis to Liars, outside of their use of guitars, there is scant correlation between, say, Justice and Chicane. Or is there?
If you cast your mind back to 1996 when Chicane a.k.a. Nick Bracegirdle (a dance producer's name if ever there was one) first released 'Offshore', his breakthrough 12”, trance music was pretty much still a new thing. To some ears, this music was exciting, a euphoric shot in the arm that the nascent dance scene needed to drag it out of the underground. Jump back to the present day and Bracegirdle's stubborn, yet kind of heroic refusal to divert from his initial blueprint has seen him become a dinosaur.
The best electronic artists have always followed the adapt-or-die credo, so the young upstarts such as the Ed Banger crew could view Somersault as a cautionary tale. That is, if they don't envisage themselves soundtracking the drunken dry-humping of the over-dressed, chain pub-dwelling Saturday night hordes come 2017. But therein lies the hidden beauty of this album; its demographic doesn't really care if it's critically-maligned or frowned upon by the likes of me, so long as it provides them with a thumping beat that acts as a pace-setting metronome for the next morning's headache. So, while this sort of thing isn't exactly to my taste, I applaud its honesty and purity.
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2891&band=1849
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