MEGANITE “From IBIZA To Your HEART” [Alchemy (Italy)]

Meganite “From Ibiza to your heart”

Compilation – Alchemy Records (Italy)

(Reviewed by Jon the Dentist)

Rating: 9.5/10. (Only Trance gets a 10!)

From the stable of Mauro Picotto comes a little gem of a collection. Let me extol its virtues for you.

Someone says Ibiza to me, in relation to music and clubs that is, I shudder. In my head I hear the kind of drivelly crap one would associate with a ‘party’ night out a la Kiss FM or the Ministry of Sound – some sort of pseudo speed garage crap or EDM tosh. The name has got ‘Superclub’ dross written all over it. What I don’t associate that ‘party’ island with is anything with a smidgen of musical credibility. So what a joy to grab hold of a copy of something completely different from the binge drinking, foam party commercial EDM cack (wow – how many different ways can I say shit?!). This is a superb collection of grooves; techno and tech house at its finest.

Let’s face it, Mauro Picotto is a name of some gravitas.A super producer and terrific DJ you can always rely on quality from him and his Italian peers. What you get with this collection is an afternoon bar by the beach, music to which you can either get up and shuffle on the sand or simply sit down on a wicker chair sipping an ice cold Pina colada looking out over a warm Iberian seascape. A far cry from a late night street covered in litter and full of people puking their guts up or shagging by a palm tree – no – this is sophisticated and for the purist.

Click artwork for Beatport purchase…..

All told there are 60 tracks on this collection, and for under a tenner that’s an incredible 17p a track. Now I’m no mathematician (actually I am – I teach maths so that’s a bit of a lie) but I’d say that’s worth more of a punt than Leicester City winning the Premier League (that’ll never happen). I’m not going to review every track – that would be ridiculous and time consuming and I have a bacon sandwich waiting, but I will give you a little flavour of what you get.

Let’s talk about Mauro’s contribution – which is pretty extensive – because it just travels over a lot of musical ground so to speak. What a talent. From the driving techno madness of ‘Science’, to the tribally ‘Bangkok’, it is a relentless orgy (ed- can I use that word?) of brilliant track after brilliant track. There is his homage to bleepy joy with ‘Living for Time’; a hoover assault of ‘Verdi’ (not sure what connection there is there to the great Italian composer though); his little house forays with ‘I Love Disco’ and ‘Love Message’ and a full on electronic war with the appropriately titled ‘Assault Area’. Lest we forget the immense synth work on ‘Lifeblood’. However, his prize for innovation in techno, and my favourite track of his on the album, has to go to ‘The Whistle’. If I close my eyes I could be going back in time to the early 80’s Salsoul Orchestra. Nice.

But it isn’t just his music that carries this collection. Oh no. Pig and Dan provide the excellent afternoon pool chalet anthem, ‘The Saint’ as well as the equally impressive sax-licked groover, ‘Sandstorm’ (nothing like the ear grating Darude cheese-fest of the same name). There is also a terrific contribution from my label partner at General Surgery, DaGeneral, along with Kozy, and their track ‘Number one’, which chugs along like one of those 50s conspiracy theory B-movies where giant ants take over the world.Finally my favourite track – from a producer who also contributes with ‘Snare City’ – which I also liked a lot. “Try That”. What a groove and what a track – I would love to hear that one in the middle of the night, in full flow at a ‘proper’ party in Ibiza, played by proper DJs – like we have on this album – with a strong continental beer in my hand, Just watch me gurn – it aint a pretty sight – but at least it’s a bit more genuine than most things Ibiza.

If Carlsberg made albums with Ibiza in the title………

Buy your copy HERE