Various Artists - Beach House 04.02 2 CD Set

Genre: Electronic

Style: House, Deep House

Hed Kandi: Beach House 04.02 Review by Joshua Glazer - AllMusic

The U.K.'s Hed Kandi, along with West Coast house label Naked Music, have pioneered the concept of highly stylized female illustrations as cover art. It is a revelation that, if record sales are any indicator, has prompted the rise of the adult (contemporary) house genre. This is CD cover as coffee table art, music as lifestyle accessory, and the perfect soundtrack to your Ikea-decorated loft. Unfortunately, this aesthetic-first approach only serves to hamper the actual music. Accomplished producers like Miguel Migs and X-Press 2 are subjugated to mere musical wallpaper among two CDs worth of sound-alike chill house grooves. A discerning listener should still get a warm fuzzy feeling from Nick Holder's stirring guitar shuffle on "Summer Daze." And the hyperactive string scales on Jon Cutler's "You Groove Me" have already raised the temperature on dozens of other compilations. But on these discs, both are rendered anemic. In the single-driven world of house music, CD compilations are a necessity for the average home listener. A good compilation, like a good DJ mix, can add a special context to the individual tracks. But the context that Hed Kandi subscribes to feels contrary to the primal hedonism that most of these records wish to achieve.

EAN: 822334005724

HEDK027

Hed Kandi Records, 2002

Country: UK

CDs: VG; Cardboard holder: Fair

C08