Various Artists – Balance 026 Mixed By Hernan Cattaneo – (Balance Music)
DMC World Magazine
‘Melodic and deep music – never too hard or fast’. That’s how Hernan Cattaneo describes his style, and he sticks with it to really good effect on this new compilation, the ideal complement to the raucous energy of Danny Tenaglia’s previous instalment a couple of months back. Cattaneo is never in a hurry to get anywhere, but he mixes really well, so that each of these two mixes feels like one broad sheet of paper. The first is entirely down tempo, and Cattaneo should be commended for resisting to temptation to step up into a full blown house tempo at any point. Instead things move by slowly, but there is always a sense of onward movement and carefully crafted melodic threads. John Tejada’s remix of The Field’s ‘No. No…’, the Slow Phrase remix of Spooky’s ‘Shelter’ and Gui Boratto’s ‘Half Life’ are just three of the tracks serving Cattaneo well here. Disc 2 treads the boards in more energetic fashion, and here the productions from Cattaneo with Soundexile, made available exclusively for this compilation, come into their own – ‘Parallax’ and ‘Fugazzi’ forming the core of the mix. Elsewhere two Guy J winners and Chaim’s ‘Underwater’ reinforce the strength in depth approach that Cattaneo plays so well – and which results in his best mix for years.
