- As the Motorola Dance Music Awards are set up to recognise the contributions of artists and DJ's in the Australian Dance Music Industry, it follows that the double CD compilation DMA 2003 should showcase and highlight some of the artists and tunes that recieved nominations for awards including tunes from the winners from last year.
CD 1: Tracks
CD 1's tracklist reads like a selection of the big tunes of 2003. Representing for house and dance music are big tunes like Rogue Traders vs INXS' One Of My Kind and Etherfox's salsa inspired The Whirled You Live which has been included in many funky house compilations - I didn't even know it was an Aussie tune! Pnau's We Love The Fresh Kills sticks to the current trend of retro flavoured punk house and it's good to see the boys back in action after a 1 year hiatus.
Hip Hop and Urban are well represented on the CD with tunes like the uptempo b-boy breaks on Resin Dogs' Set It Off with Ab Rude on lyrical duties. Last year's winner of the best producer award, Katalyst steps up with an awesome remix of Uprock This - with the video gaining a nomination for best video clip. The Herd's 77% sees MC Ozi Batla loose on John Howard's policy on illegal immigrants - "Wake Up"! Camielle's Yada, Yada, Yada is her jazz influenced R&B single from earlier this year, given a remix by BNA. Jeremy Gregory has been doing well overseas being picked up by Sony in the US and he offers his solo effort That's What's Goin Down.
On an underground tip some acts have gained overseas attention such as Infusion's Dead Souls which has been picked up by Adam Freeland's Marine Parade label. Nubreed's brand of live breakbeat is demonstrated on Jaded and they've gotten attention from DJ Tayo's Mob records, so expect to see releases and an album from them very soon.
CD 2: The Remixes
Remixes play a big part in dance music, whether it be transforming one song into another genre or creating something with more of a dancefloor ethos to it. The DMA's have recognised the importance of remixes and have even created an award for it - with this year's award going to Poxy Music and Kid Kenobi's remix of Green Velvet's La La Land.
Other nominations for the award include Danielsan's (from Canberra hip hop duo Koolism) great remix of Katalyst's Passing Of Peace with Danielsan on the scratch cutting up vocal samples of "War" and "Peace". D.A.M.N. turned Crazy Penis' You Started Something into a very cool "hip house crossed with breaks crossed with touches of electro" (hard to label those D.A.M.N. guys!) tune cutting up the original vocals on a very sexy bassline. Last but not least, Icehouse's Don't Believe Anymore get the remix treatment by Ivan Gough & Colin Snape and turn it into a laidback jazzy prog breaks tune with lots of percussion - similar in sound to Layo & Bushwacka! productions.
On the commercial side of sounds, pop groups like Shakaya, Disco Montego and Amiel get their recent hits transformed into more dancefloor oriented sounds, with tribal house producer Mobin Master adding his tribal touch to Shakaya's Cinderella and Quazimodo giving Disco Montego the funky house treatment on Are You Talking To Me?.
As the finale to the whole CD, internationally respected producer Luke Chable has Sealers Cove remixed into a deep breaks affair with a very hard and thick bassline.
Overall, DMA 2003 has lots of good tracks and remixes - maybe some are a little questionable, but I'm just not really a fan of commercial music. It's good to see a local compilation crammed full to the brim with local releases with as much quality as the product you find overseas.