Boy George – Essential Mix

Boy George
Artist: Boy George
Title: Essential Mix
Label: Sire
Rating: 4/10

I remember reading once in a British tabloid newspaper that Boy George would succumb to his drug addiction and be dead within a week after the breakup of 80’s pop group Culture Club. You could say he’s been underground for a while. Over the past several years, Boy George has been a key figure in the rise of the European dance movement. As a prolific writer, producer, and host of dj radio shows across Europe, Boy George is back on the main stage hearing cheers again. His compilation cd’s have become popular best sellers across the ocean over the years. With his American debut, he joins the Essential Mix dj fraternity of Peter Tong, DJ Icey, DJ Skribble, and Fatboy Slim to help promote the dance brigade to America. Essential Mix compilations are exhibitions of these dj’s skills and offer to American audiences an alternative to boring hip-hop and lame metal.

As a dj, Boy George’s success heavily relies on his ability to connect with the crowd. With this selection of tunes, he hits and misses with the transitions from two-step, disco house, and progressive house to weak trance. By the time the mix picks up the pace, I have already dozed off and hit snooze too many times to count. The record starts off in a two-step direction with Cultural Diversion’s “See Through”. Blending the bounce of hip-hop and the house soul of Cultural Diversion is the only bright spot in the early moments of the record. It’s not until the middle of the section of the record that Boy George puts his foot down onto the accelerator. “Born Funky” by Kinky Roland is an uplifting funky house number that dominates the house portion of the program. Boy George then departs from his house roots to move on to more progressive anthems. The Armadillos’ “Drop&Hope” offers up the best song on the entire cd as the bass line thunders fast and wicked like a hurricane. Without this song, the rest of the mix doesn’t cut it at all. If you’re looking for something familiar that you may have heard in the States, fast forward to the remix of Amanda Ghost’s “Filthy Mind”.

This Essential Mix compilation caused more complications than the pure joy of just wanting to listen to dance music. If a dj can lock you in from start to finish then they have done the job of successfully completing their mix. The styles of music Boy George elected to choose from do not allow the listener to get into the overall flow of the record. Go buy a Culture Club record from the 80’s and I think you’ll dance more.

+sarzyniak


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