First off.. this
EurothunderNL
I don't understand why some people here are so negative about HRG in general. OK the songs AVEX picked aren't my favorites; but songs like 'Eurobeat rebirth', 'No money no honey', 'Mecha fireball', 'Shake me to the power', 'Ride no destination', 'Squeeze me', 'I bet for loving', 'The King of my heart' and lots of older digital releases ('Black jack', 'I remember'. 'Velfarre don't close your eyes', 'On the Ginza', 'Rock the music', 'I'm so desperate', 'Super tumbling torero', 'Tokyobeat', 'Loving you through the night', 'Let's fall in love together', 'Once upon in my heartache', 'Do you miss me now' etc etc etc are more than GOLD. At least to me
I would rather thank HRG for producing so many great tracks [and made them available through I-Tunes etc].
That's the way to do it. With mega examples.
This too.
the_ditz
My bottom 3 will break that trend since I like Dance To The Top Of The Fire, Reborn My Fire and Into The Moon
I usually also break away from the mold. Not on purpose. I truely enjoy the tracks I choose and my enthusiasm shows on the reviews.
So without further delay...part two.
10.
Dave and Futura – Into The Moon (Sun Fire)
In continuation; we have the latest offering from one of Eurobeat’s premier artists. Giancarlo Pasquinni; who is best known under the name Dave Rodgers is arguably, the man who brought Italo NRG of the early 90’s into the Eurobeat we know and love today. He is best known for his Guitar oozing Eurobeat classics like Space Boy, Disco Fire, Fire Dragon and many duets as well. This TIME we are graced with another duet. This one is good, but I fear its not grabbing the full attention of the community. Even the Fan Boys are a little disappointed. I would consider myself an avid fan of the man’s work too, but I’m not all that put off by the new entry as most others. One of the main reasons I will give this song repeat value is mainly his vocals, but the main reason is because I love 90% of his duets. This style also reminds me of some of his works at FLEA label. I can never shake off my mind how good Giorgia Morandi’s “With Love” and Bella & Blue “Magic” sounded back in the day. The reason I also love his duets is because they are generally slower in BPM’s; they more closely resemble his Flea style in the breaks and instrumental parts. I feel the intro could have been more ear- catching; other than a few Arabian sounds and beats, but the synth riff sounds very catchy and familiar. I know I’ve heard it before and most likely in another duet. The melodies in the verses and bridge sound great. The chorus is so so, but I love the song’s lyrical content. It’s very Eurobeat- romantic. The one aspect that still sounds a bit odd; are Futura’s vocals. Not that she sounds all that bad; it’s just that Dave has a deeper voice and someone like Nuage or Domino seemed to better accompany his style. A better intro and break would have also done wonders for this song. Take for instance “Just Another Day with You” a wonderful duet. It’s intro was 40 seconds as opposed to this song’s 28 seconds, but those extra 12 seconds that JADWY had, showcased some charm, thus making it a much better song overall. Then there was “Sun Fire”. A great idea for a song to showcase your label’s name. That one also had a 40 second intro. It did ;have Arabian sounds but, also a bit of those classic percussion sounds from an era gone by. And for a duet it had much more of a punch. BTW, why are our song’s intros becoming shorter and shorter each TIME? I hope it’s not something AVEX requires? First they fuck with the instrumental breaks and now the intros. I hope it has nothing to do with following the format of top 40 EDM for teenager acceptance. Teens now days seem to fall the simpler sounds and styles. It’s a real shame how music has regressed as opposed to progressed in the last few years. Anyway, I love “Into the Moon”, but just misses the 10 score range for sounding a bit too simple around the bones.
-9/10
11.
Dream Fighters – You Could Be Mine (Dima Music)
I was just as surprised as half of you, to realize this song wasn’t entirely sung by David Dima. So we have a new vocalist leading the Dream Fighters band? Anyone decipher who it could be? I swear he sounds about 95% like David Dima. Anyway; for this next Dima Music entry, we get a somewhat more powerful song than “Strangers In The Night”. A cool very Eurogrooves intro revs us up, with engine sounds and spoken dialog. It sounds very Overload or Chris Stanton style. Makes me realize how much I truly miss my double dose of Dall’ Ora material on these new discs. Anyway, that cool intro; is also not as long as I would have liked it. That’s another reason I miss Eurogrooves. Dall ‘Ora wasn’t afraid to include intros that lasted almost a full minuet. He really got us revved up for a song. Anyway, as soon as the synth riff kicks in; we find ourselves on familiar David Dima territory. That’s usually a good thing, but I fear this song sounds a bit too much like “Strangers in the Night” and it could end up taking a back seat to it. I hear the difference in melody, but the style is very alike. This could almost be “Strangers In The Night” part two. Out of these two Dima Music offerings; I would have to choose Strangers; just because it took me back to “Shock In The Night” That also shows a perfect example of how “rehashing melodies” works. What I do like about this song; are the strong vocal work, and the chorus. It shows that it had a lot of thought pit into it. It has the epic vibe I get from Dima’s works. I won’t ever skip this song either because I love that epic Outro. For those aspects alone, I can easily slot the song in the 8 range, but I’ll give it one point less, because I still; in all honesty, enjoy “Strangers In The Night” a little more.
-7/10
12.
Garcon – Lucky Lucky (HRG Attack)
Now; we are up to one of my highlights of the Cd. CY-Ro’s song was o.k., but this one really sounds great. It sounds nothing like the Cy-Ro song, as someone so rudely put it, but nonetheless, that’s their opinion. This review is how I view the song. What I hear is pure fun and good TIMEs. Sound like the team had a ball creating it in the studio. It has the same melody throughout the song, but this TIME around; that was meant to be the charm of the song’s vibe. It’s a fun song. That is why the studio brought back (or rehashed) all those well known sounds from past songs of the like. The chimes are present in the bridge and even Festari’s vocals are meant to sound a little hyped. I actually think it would have worked better if he used them as he did on “Every Body” or “Go Nakata”. None the less, they still retain their charm. I also hadn’t really heard the synth style played like this for quite sometime. That synth style does appear a lot on those unreleased compilations, but not on an SEB volume. This song also has an example of how a relatively short intro can work, because the fun starts on the very first note. That’s usually the only kind of short intro I can forgive. The ones where the fun starts off as soon as the song starts. This volume showcased quite a few with the SCP and GoGo’s music entries. Moving on to Lucky Lucky again. It defeinately has the sing along factor that HRG Attack is notorious for. That’s another reason I hold the label so close to heart. I can always get my spirits up, no matter how shitty a day can be. Anyway, I can surely say this will be one of my favourite HRG Attack songs of the year. No flaws and pure fun from start to finish.
10/10
13.
Lou Master- Boys Do Fall In Love (SCP)
Oh what a treat it is to hear two amazing songs back to back. This is another song with the fun factor. The 80’s fun factor that is. Some have pointed out that Jay Lehr should have sung this song, but I think SCP did a marvelous choice with Lou on vocals. I hope Lou Master can sort of become what Chris Stanton was to Eurogrooves. Chris could sing the mega Aggressive Powerful numbers like “A Perfect Hero”, but he also got to sing a few Disco style songs here and there and never forget the amazing covers he did for Heartbreaker and Funky Lady. Anyway; I hope Lou can go down that same artistic road. This song shows amazing promise for him. I even started listening to “Mr. Heartbreak” again from the Blast label. Someone pointed out it was him. Anyway, the best part is how great Lou’s vocals are. Not too hyped or girly, but, instead a little aggressive. You hear that in his tone. I belive he keeps a good tone to sing at the speed of SCPs songs. That alone takes talent; and frankly the only other one that sort of maintained his agreessive tone for me; has been Fastway. “Boys Do Fall In Love” is the choice for a cover SCP decided on. An odd choice which also reminded me of the choice Dall ‘Ora did at Eurogrooves by covering a Limaul song . The Robin Gibb original was never a favourite of mine. I remember it hardly got any airplay, but I did see the video on MTV a few x. The word I heard a lot form people who saw that video was “gay”. I’ll admit it didn’t have a very macho concept at all, but calling it “gay” seemed unfair. MJ’s videos seemed more gay just for the fact that he seemed to be forcing macho vibes out of such a petit frame. Anyway, I’m not quite sure why the song barely graced the top 40, that’s about all it ever did its first TIME out. Now ; almost 30 years later,SCP is giving the song a major make over. I never even realized how cool those lyrics were. “making love to a paper moon”. That’s sounds very original and at the same TIME has a sort of Eurobeat feel to it. Anyway, A great song. I dare say I might even like it more than “Up & Dance Up & Go”, but stranger things have happened and this song doesn’t need an extended for me to like it more. Great job again from SCP label.
10/10
14.
Tora- Bad Joy (Sinclaire Style)
I have never been a Tora fan at all. I thought she raped the original “King & Queen” which was beautifully sung by Elena Ferretti, but many seemed to have preferred Tora’s version. There is one song that spoke to my likings. It was “Call My Name”. I remember it had an ultra cool intro. Something about a “nice fucking movie”. Remember that. The synth riff was also calmer and more acceptable to me liking. This song has none of that charm. A monotonous rushed intro is what we get to start of the song. That kind of Intro worked spectacular on “Funny Girl” by Pizza Girl, but here it sounds too forced. Besides Pizza Girl didn’t sound like she was recording under water. That’s one of the few things I agree with that another members points out. What is the point of that effect on Sinclaire’s songs? It‘s very unbecoming and his songs automatically lose a whole point when I hear that. Anyway, It’s a real shame his female vocalists all go that route, because I hear a sort of charm that I like in the synth riff and the melody in the chorus . What goes by almost completely unnoticed is the melody in the verses. I had to rewind the song multiple x just to hear if I missed something , but I didn’t. It’s all there just goes by too fast for its own good. Another thing I did like was the mega fastness played on the synths. That takes some talent. I just wish he rehashes this synth riff for another future song. IMOP, this song was a very poor choice to end the part of the cd that featured new music. Speaking of outros; this song has one of the worst ever. It almost sounds as if SS pulled off the sound before the final note. WTF?
6/10
In all fairness; I will review these next two songs. I can’t say they were wasted space, cuz I got myself a pretty craft remix of the Rich hard song when the vocals from SEB 221 were applied, but that SEB 4-U extra was not needed.
15.
SEB All- Stars – SEB 4U (SPC)
Like Lebon already mentioned, you can actually hear SEB 4 U maniacs this TIME around. Already that was a plus, but the fact that DJ Boss decided to stay on board is a big fat minus. Jeez All I hear is Pitbull or Usher with a bad accent in that intro and that makes my stomach turn each TIME I hear this track. I’ve been playing around with it by inserting the middle break where the intro should be, but it still sounds odd. All this version rally has to offer are some cool guitar sounds during the verses, but I still can’t bring myself to give it more than a 7. Hopefully SCP does something more in the style of TIME- All Stars. No funky sounding dee jays in the intro. Instead use more sampleing of older songs. Or for a better phrase; rehash their popular melodies and effects.
7/10
16.
Rich Hard – Wild Boys (Sun Fire)
Something good can come out of something awful is the best way to describe this song. AVEX claims this is the original, but I have some serious doubts about that when I hear how Rich Hard sounds, because he has never sounded remotely as bad on any of his previous works. Another head scratcher is how AVEX can be proud of such a mess, when they have rejected countless of superior works from other labels. Whatever, but because of this entry I do have a really cool remix of the song. See the problem here does not lie in the bpms of the song. That is probably why some of you prefer it and it (melody) sounds really good. It doesn’t even lose the special effects for its higher speed and it sits more comfortably among the other entries on the cd. What killed it were the vocals. It makes this version completely unlistenable. So if this is the original version, vocals and everything; I say sorry to Rich, but your vocals sound better when you use them as in “Pirates” and “On Your Wings” Please stick to that vocal style and you have ht after hit.
Rating: N/A out of respect for the artist
I believe I actuallt enjoyed this cd a bit more than 221 or at least at about the same level. See, This cd had many great songs. I agree that the popular ones among the community are good, but I also like the less popular ones as well, so in the end, I can enjoy the disc almost too the fullest. I will add, that I hope the songs don't continue to become shorter and shorter as I have noticed. This cuts valuable TIME away from what can be epic intros and breaks.
Top 3 songs.
1. Mark Farina - Last Of Eurobeat (Saifam)
2. Garcon - Lucky Lucky (HRG Attack)
3. Lou Master - Boys Do Fall In Love (SCP)
bottom 3
1. Norma Sheffield - Gimmi Love (Sun Fire)
2. Tora - Bad Joy (Sinclaire Style)
3. Rich Hard - Wild Boys(original version) (Sun Fire)
funny how this track was one of my top 3 on 221 and exactly the opposite on this disc.
Honourable mention
Cherry - Reborn My Fire (Delta)
Love the echo effect when she sings "Fire"
