In Which I get around to a Way Out West review

I first got my hands on the new Way Out West album, We Love Machine, about four or five months ago. This review comes after picking up the remixes album too, so I thought I’d get in a 2 for 1.

Way Out West are, in my opinion, a hugely overlooked group in the local music scene; consistently turning out extremely good breakbeat and trance music with a very distinctive edge to it that just never seems to get old. This latest endeavour, the fourth album from the local duo of Jody Wisternoff and Nick Warren, has more of an electro style flavour than some of their earlier works.

The album flows through a wonderfully constructed journey of ethereal yet pounding tracks, from the toe tapping title track to the haunting closing number of Tierra Del Fuego. Highlights for me include the extremely catchy single ‘Only Love’, the rhythms and pads of ‘Future Perfect’, with it’s echoes of Jeff Wayne’s War of The Worlds and ‘Ultra Violet’; a track with so many catch rhythms and trick beats that it just wants to drag you onto the dance floor, kicking and screaming if needs be.

This was an important album for me as a first review, as it opened the door to a string of great dance releases that followed over the first half of 2010 (some of which I hope to get around to reviewing) including BT’s ‘These Hopeful Machines’, Hybrid’s ‘Disappear Here’ and, even more recently, new releases from Faithless and Pendulum.

Onto ‘The Remixes’ which, by the way, you can pick up on iTunes for £6.99 including the original album (which is £7.99 - go figure). In the 90’s remix albums and collections like this were far less common and, some would say directly, the quality was much higher than you tend to find these days. I tend to treat collections like this with scepticism to say the least; I am reminded of the disaster that was the Hybrid ‘Re-Mixed’ album, which was atrocious. I find it a pleasure then to exult the success of this attempt. The remixes are quite varied in style and give interesting alternatives for some of the tracks. It would be good value for money even without the original album included. Highlights for me include the Seb Dhajje remix of ‘Bodymotion’, not a track that I enjoyed too much from the new album, this remix gives it a really nice spooky air that, for me, fits it far better than the original, which always seemed just a little camp to me. Following this is the equally excellent Tom Glass remix of ‘Surrender’. By far my favourite remix here though would have to be the Paul Keeley remix of ‘Tierra Del Fuego’. I love the original tune and Paul Keeley has taken a wonderfully haunting melody and made it a wonderful sun soaked floor filler.

To summarise - what can I say - for £6.99, pump up the stereo system and treat yourself to 3 hours of fantastic tunes.