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Fatboy
Slim & Midfield General
Big Beach Boutique 2
label:
sony / epic
released: 10.15.02
our score: 2.5 out of 5.0
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When
I Say Dance, You Best Dance
by:
peter naldrett |
A quarter
of a million dance fans descended on Brighton beach one evening
during the summer to enjoy what will surely be the gig of the
decade. Prior to this, when was the last time you saw a concert
on the front page of the national press? Band Aid? Woodstock?
Alright, some
people dropped litter on the beach (it happens at every concert
and gets cleared up) and some people were injured (again unsurprising
in a crowd of that size), but the sheer scale of this free event
was enough to ensure its place in the records books. But once
the minority of cynics had had their say and the garbage had been
collected, what was left over was a legacy that Norman Cook (aka
Fatboy Slim) will be under pressure to produce, improve and evolve
every single year.
The Big Beach
Boutique was in its second year during 2002 (last year’s
event being a much lower profile affair) and the album of the
seaside gig is released this week. But, while the phenomenon of
the 250,000-strong beach concert cannot be ignored, those who
went may feel a little short-changed by the album. The chosen
tracks remixed by former Housemartin Norman Cook and Midfield
General swing from being predictable (X Press 2’s "Lazy")
to the sublime ("Pure Shores" from All Saints) and don’t
help things to move along all that well.
On top of
this, the continuous links in and out of songs are engineered
well but become a little tiresome and uninventive after a while,
in the same way that album-long mega-mixes and Jive Bunny types
of the past became intolerable. Another failing of this live album
is the lack of Fatboy Slim’s personal catalogue to be included.
We are only treated to his Talking ‘Bout My Baby (mixed
by Midfield General), which is one of his weaker tracks in any
case and would have been more easily swallowed if linked to several
of his hard-hitting dance anthems that redefined the club direction
in the 1990s.
The event
itself is legendary and will be talked about for years to come.
The album of the famous night is, at best, secondary, and needs
to be forgotten quickly.
09-Oct-2002
8:51 PM
If you
liked Big Beach Boutique 2...
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Tracklist:
1. Midfield General
feat Linda Lewis - Reach Out
2. Fatboy Slim - Talking about my Baby (Midfield
General¹s Disco Reshuffle)
3. Groove Armada - Superstylin¹
4. Danmass - Haze
5. Lo Fidelity Allstars - Tied to the Mast
6. Tim Deluxe - It Just Won¹t Do (dub)
7. Chamonix - 77 Strings
8. Space Cowboy - Crazy Talk (dub)
9. Mint Royale - Sexiest Man in Jamaica
10. Glen Masters - Hi Jackers
11. X Press 2 - Lazy (Norman Cook dub mix)
12. Camisra - Let me Show You
13. Static Revenger - Long Time
14. Cylone - Lord of the Land
15. Fusion Orchestra - Farfisa
16. Mighty Dub Katz - Mañana
17. All Saints - Pure Shores (Norman Cook re-edit)
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