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John Askew is without doubt one of the hottest producer/DJs in the world. Spanning over several genres John has shown he has diversity to match that talent. Over the last decade his productions and remixes have seen massive support from the biggest and best DJs around; Eddie Halliwell, Tiesto, Armin van Buuren and Paul van Dyk to name a few.
His debut artist album "Lower the Tone" (released in 2006) received massive acclaim in the press and within 4 weeks of its release was completely sold out - a testament to John's diehard fan base.
In 2008 John released his second album "Z List Uber Star" which was met with amazing reviews from the most respected dance music press (M8, Dj Mag, IDJ, Harder Faster, Trance.Nu)
In October of 2009 John released his double CD studio mix album for Digital Society The album features a variety of reworks and rarities as well as the hottest tracks from John's box.
At the beginning of this year the idea of opening up John Askew's extensive back catalogue and making it available to some of the world's best remixers was first discussed. As soon as it was announced there was a rush of producer interest as they all wanted to remix their favourite tracks.
John Askew "Rediscovered" will get its full release at the end of May and includes such remixers as Tyas, Patterson, Activa, O'Callaghan, Colontonio, Datt, Kearney and Downey to name just a few.
In the meantime Discover are releasing a series of four samplers to give you a selective taste of the delights that are to follow.
Tracklist
01: Beirut (Original Vs Thomas Datt Remix)
02: The Door (Genix Remix)
03: Homesick (ReOrder Deep Remix)
04: Bad Apple (Gate 42 Remix)
05: This & Then (Peetu S Remix)
06: Thumb It In (Feat. Gary Maguire) (Sensorica Remix)
07: Blue (Bissen Remix)
08: How Can I Put This (Fabio Stein Remix)
09: Fuck Private Ryan (Paul Webster Remix)
10: Vandalism (Joint Operations Centre Remix)
11: Chime (Ehren Stowers Remix)
12: Spike (Tom Colontonio Remix)
13: All or Nothing (Haris C Remix)
14: Misfit (Adam Foley Remix)
15: Fade to Black (Sean Tyas Remix)
16: Bored of You, Bored of Me (Gary Maguire Remix)
17: Giving You Acid (Sly One Vs Jurrane Remix)
18: Z List Uber Star (Reaky Remix)
19: Battery Acid (Bryan Kearney’s ‘For the Neighbours’ Remix)
20: Nail Gun (Greg Downey Remix)
21: Slaves to the Machine (Feat. Matt Hardwick) (Liam Melly Remix)
22: Blackout (Simon Patterson Remix)
23: Vellum (Johan Ekman Remix)
24: The Door (Activa Remix)
The album is due for release on 31st May both as a physical cd and in digital format with the full 12" releases included with the digital format.
Review
Bearing in mind that there are 24 tracks on this cd, we do not get to hear each of the tracks in all their glory. Taking a rather progressive route to kick start things off, "Beruit" sets an ambience before the bassline of Genix's remix of "The Door" kicks into gear. The cd moves swiftly through the gears of the slower more melodic tunes into the phatter sounding basslines. The most notable of the early few tracks is old label favourite Sensorica's interpretation of "Thumb It In" and the ReOrder Deep Mix of "Homesick".
Moving swiftly on the mix proceeds to hit a techy few tunes with Paul Webster and John O'Callaghan chipping in with fantastic efforts which really do the damage to a dance floor with their driving percussion and twisted synths.
The mix then heads in a melodic direction with Ehren Stowers, Tom Colontonio, Haris C and Sean Tyas delivering those intricate synths bringing the sounds of John Askew's tracks right up to date for 2010.
Hitting a techy note again, Sly One vs Jurrane deliver a ballsy effort of "Giving You Acid" with some dreamy acid synths. The mixing gets pretty quick for a few tunes then with a few furious minutes with a new tune every other minute it seems.
Possibly the best track on the entire cd is one of the last few tracks on the disc. Simon Patterson's remix of "Blackout", (one of my personal favourite John Askew tracks) is just unreal. The track oozes with energy, effects and chopped vocals all while remaining true to the original.
Activa rounds off proceedings with his remix of "The Door" which first surfaced on Activa's Live As Volume 6 album. This version has been tweaked ever so slightly to make it better.
Overall Impression
The overall mixing of the cd is decent with quick mixes and short tracks all helping maintain a high energy level which keeps the listener enjoying the tunes for that bit longer. The tunes progress nicely with enough melodic interludes between sections of techy tracks to add some variety. Each of the remixes perfectly captures the essence of the original productions by John and bring them bang up to date.
I would recommend this cd to anyone who is a fan of: Discover records, John Askew or just uplifting and banging trance.
I will give this album a healthy 9 out of 10
