Penguin Audio: what your ears want to hear   In association with Amazon.com
 Location:  Home» Trance » General » The EmFire Collection: Mixed, Unmixed & Remixed  
Departments
Album Rock
Alternative
Ambient
Arena Rock
Blues
Boom Boxes
British Invasion
Car Stereo
Classical
Classic Rock
Compact Stereos
Country
Dance
Electronica
Folk
Hard Rock
Hip Hop
Home Theatre
Jazz
Latin
MP3 Players
New Age
Pop
Psychedelic Rock
R&B
Rock
Satellite Radio
Speakers
Stereo
Techno
Trance
Trip Hop
Vocalists
Other Penguins

Penguin 64

Penguin CPU

Penguin Cameras

Penguin Kitchens

Penguin Videos

Related Sites

Liberal Media News

OS X Mart

Ultra Mega Mart US

Plenty to Buy

Very Big Bookstore

Geek Book Store

Books, DVDs, and More

Cameras and Photo

Anime Canyon

Just Books for Kids

the Celiac Shop

the sensible celiac

Boolean Sales

Downloads
Apple iTunes

The EmFire Collection: Mixed, Unmixed & Remixed

The EmFire Collection: Mixed, Unmixed & Remixed
Artist: Sasha
Label: Ultra Records
Category: Music

Buy New: $15.98



Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars 4 reviews
Sales Rank: 56840

Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 5 x 0.2

MPN: 51707
UPC: 617465170720
EAN: 0617465170720
ASIN: B0016MJ2RI

Release Date: May 6, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Tracks:

  Disc 1
  • Coma (Slam Soma Coma Mix)
  • Park It In The Shade (Audion Deep Steeple Mix)
  • Who Killed Sparky? (Radio Slave's Brooklyn Dub Mix)
  • Mongoose (The Field's Floating Mix)
  • Coma (Slam Paragraph Mix)
  • Park It In The Shade (Audion Ain't Got No Friends Mix)
  • Who Killed Sparky? (Radio Slave's Panorama Garage Mix)
  • Mongoose (The Field's Disco Mix)

  Disc 2
  • Coma (Spangled Rubdub)
  • Park It In The Shade (Exclusive emFire Edit)
  • Who Killed Sparky? (Exclusive emFire Edit)
  • Mongoose (Exclusive emFire Edit)
  • New Emissions Of Light & Sound Film Score

Similar Items:

  • Invol2ver
  • Transitions 4
  • Balance 013
  • Renaissance: Transitions, Vol. 3
  • In Search of Sunrise, Vol. 7: Asia

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Disc one plays host to "The Remixes" in which four of the world's most exciting producers were invited to present their interpretations. Disc two features three exclusively edited originals and the previously unreleased "Spangled Rubdub" of Coma alongside Sasha's forty-minute mixed score to the surf movie, "New Emissions Of Light & Sound". The score recently took top honors at the X Dance Awards that ran in conjunction with the Sundance Film Festival.

Album Description
Two CD set. A definitive view of Sasha's emFire catalogue featuring originals, remixes and his award winning score to the movie `New Emissions Of Light & Sound. Disc 1 plays host to `The Remixes', which invites four of the world's most exciting producers to present their interpretations of the emFire catalogue by way of a totally unique twist and provide two versions - a traditional club and alternative, leftfield mix. Disc 2 features 3 exclusively edited originals and the previously unreleased `Spangled Rubdub' of Coma alongside Sasha's 40 minute, mixed score to the surf movie `New Emissions Of Light & Sound'. The score, which has never been released in audio format, recently took top honours at the X Dance Awards.


Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Tight emFire edits & soundtrack, mostly weak remixes   September 4, 2008
Torley (torley.com)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is a mixed bag -- the gems here are on the 2nd disc, because most of the remixes on the 1st disc are droney, boring, and don't add substantially to the originals' worth. For example, "Park It In The Shade (Audion Deep Steeple Mix)" is 12:20 min. long, but fails to really evolve aside from formulaic adding/removing elements in 8-bar sections. As background filler, it sort of works, but isn't compelling active listening. Overall, the remixes package is regressive, sad, and aimless -- the only one I'd speak up for is "Mongoose (The Fields Disco Mix)", because The Field has a rare gift to float hypnotic loops without being mind-numbingly boring. That's really rare in electronic music, and to give you a better idea where I'm coming from, I love it when producers can weave loops together with solo melodies, or introduce little bits and edits to spice things up (key example: James Holden's "A Break in the Clouds").

If you're new to Sasha's (and his collaborators) music, the 2nd disc is a fine dish, because the tighter edits are shorter (removing the long intros/outros meant for DJs to mix), punchier by virtue, and the melodies are in fine form. Progression abound! "Who Killed Sparky?" is a fine piece of melodic tech-prog-house-whatever-they-call-it-nowadays, peppered with glitchy edits that a fan of James Holden would love -- infact, it's reminiscent of Holden's ostinato-laden remix of Nathan Fake's "The Sky Was Pink".

The emFire melodies find their way into the "New Emissions Of Light & Sound Film Score", which is overall ambient/chill-out in mood and features variations of some of the aforementioned at slower tempos. For example, the distinctive lines of "Coma" find their way shortly past 13 minutes in. Very nice to go to sleep or relax to. As a mix that goes over 40 min., there are some parallels to past mixes Sasha's done, like Involver (Involver 2 coming up!): long pads, cloppy mid-tempo beats, and swirling arpeggiations bind the groove. It's a seamless, rewarding listening, which makes me wonder why some of the individual themes weren't developed more and included as unmixed tracks instead of the uninspiring remixes.



2 out of 5 stars No Xpansion here   July 11, 2008
Y. Ronnen (Toronto, CA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

When a compilation album of the new Sasha's label EMFire was announced I was a little surprised. After all this label had released 4 singles only yet a 2 CDs album is about to be released. Unfortunately, instead of getting new material, this album sinks into the recycling fashion booming in the club music industry (i.e. re-releasing old stuff).

The first CD is a compilation of 8 tracks, two mixes for each track - one is a club version and the other is a chillout interpretation of the Sasha's tracks. All of these mixes, with the exception of "Park It In The Shade (Audion Ain't Got No Friends Mix)" are not even comparable to the originals. They lack the melody and are all a quite dull techno remixes that in many cases they sound like the producer really didn't have any idea or insperation for the remix.

The second CD include "exclusive edits" to 3 of the 4 tracks and a slower version of "COMA". Simply put, if you want the originals, buy them somewhere else. The last part is a 45 minutes track called "New Emissions Of Light & Sound Film Score" which is a nice listening piece, but don't expect a Globalunderground-ish type of mix there - it's a very laidback mix.

All in all, it seems like this album was quickly compiled just to "have something to sell" and it definitely sounds like this. Too bad.



4 out of 5 stars Respectfully disagree, Matthew.......   June 17, 2008
Pacific808
0 out of 3 found this review helpful

...although I DO see exactly where you're coming from. The remixes sound something like Sasha's home demos. The fidelity is deflated but I like what he and the others have done with these tracks. I think his songwriting is getting better and more interesting. His hooks are getting mighty catchy now. He can repeat a simple 32 bar motif and bend and twist it to awesome proportions (most likely, folks could do the same kind of thing in Ableton Live or another sequencer), but I like this kind of "ratty" sounding production running throughout the first disc. EmFire is not a stunner from the beginning - which I found to be the case with, first, "Airdrawndagger" but I think it is an evolutionary step in his songwriting capabilities and one that's definitely going in the right directions. Some of it immediately reminded me of the old Nortec stuff. Funny how "borrowing" different aspects of dance music works.....
The side two mixes are several notches up, fidelity-wise, and your comments about these are dead-on. As simple minded as I am about writing reviews of this sort, overall, I think this is a great new release and it shows another facet of Sasha's creativity - loudly and clearly - and, in some cases - with warts and all. I hope you will give it another chance to sink in...
I know that others like yourself will have the exact same kind of misgivings you do. But anyone interested in keeping a keen eye on Sasha's progress as a songwriter (just as I am), are bound to find some things on here that will make you smile just as much as they make you scratch your head and ask "WTF?" to no one in particular. It's simply weird and wonderful and different from all of the Sasha "output" that has come before. I hope he keeps on going with it!! I think Sasha, or Alexander, is one of the greatest talents and treasures in dance music that we have now. Keep listening!!



3 out of 5 stars Disc 1 is mindless recycled pseudo-art   May 5, 2008
Matthew S. Irwin (Champaign, IL)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful

I have been a die hard Sasha fan ever since I heard GU009 back in the late 90's. And I've loved every release, for the most part, that he's come out with since. That being said, this is a unique release for him and I was extremely dissapointed with disc 1. Since this isn't a live album, I was expecting the quality of a typical Sasha studio album. Which, at the time they are released, seem to have a revolutionary quality about them. This is certainly not the case with disc one of this album. There is not a single track on it that I wouldn't say is worse than the original track (maybe with the exception of Audion's "Ain't God No Friends" remix of Park it in the Shade). Disc 2 is where its at though. The tracks are shortened and edited from their full dj ready length to a length that is conducive to unmixed listening. The highlight of the album is probably the New Emissions of Light and Sound soundtrack. It gives the album the studio feel that it craved from track 1, and it's great to hear Sasha experimenting with other styles of Electronic music. But if someone has listened straight through from disc 1 it might be too little to late. Either way though, disc 2 is definitely worth grabbing off of an mp3 site somewhere, such as iTunes or Amazon. I would possibly also grab The Slam Coma Mix and the aforementioned Audion Remix.

Apple iTunes

Downloads
Apple iTunes