babyeddy7's Full Review: Ultra Dance 03 by Johnny Vicious
Do you like this genre?
Enough with the topic of personal tastes in music. If you have even the slightest interest in dance music and live anywhere near New York City, turn on the radio, tune it to 103.5 FM, and wait for a dance song (not 80s) to come on. You should like this album if you like what you hear. Ultra. Dance 03 is a collection of modern dance music hits, remixed in two smoothly flowing disks.
Tracklist
Disk one
1. At The End (Johnny Vicious Remix) / iio
2. Burn For You / Kreo
3. The Boys of Summer (Humate Remix) / DJ Sammy
4. Look @ Me Now (Extended Mix) / Jessy
5. Mr. Lonely (Hex Hector/Mac Quayle Main Club Mix) / Deborah Cox
6. Don’t Say Goodbye (Flatline Mix) / Paulina Rubio
7. You’re Gonna Miss Me (Jonathon Peters Club Mix) / Katrina Ruiz
8. The Sound of Violence (Narcotic Thrust Remix) / Cassius
9. In This World (ATFC’s Southern Fried Vocal) / Moby
10. Loneliness / Tomcraft
11. Diving / 4 Strings
12. I Should Know (Alex Neri Club Mix) / Dirty Vegas
13. E / Drunkenmunky
Disk two
1. Yet Another Day / Armin van Buuren feat. Ray Wilson
2. The Way (John Dennis Mix) / Divine Inspiration
3. Café Del Mar (John 00 Fleming Remix) / Energy 52
4. Head / Thunderpuss and Barnes
5. Dark Beat / Oscar G & Ralph Falcon feat. OBÁ Frank Lord’s
6. Sweat (The Remix 1) / Cheyne Christian vs. Freedom Williams
7. What God Has Given You / Scanners
8. Inside / Velocity feat. Myndy K.
9. Love in Bombay / Veronica
10. I’m Waiting / Johnny Vicious feat. Aubrey
11. Sweet Dreams (Eddie’s Underground Mix)
Highlights
Ultra Dance 03 is packed with the latest anthems from the most renowned figures in the genre. If you’re up-to-date in the Trance world, you’ll be familiar with most of the songs.
Opening the album is an incredible vocal and instrumental performance by iio. This is the same group who did “Rapture (Tastes So Sweet),” last year’s top dance song, so expectations are high. It’s definitely one of my favorites on the album.
The beat flows flawlessly into Kreo’s popular single “Burn For You.” Vocals, distinctive instrumentals, and progressiveness make this track a different trip than one you’ve likely taken. The lyrics don’t make sense, but who cares?
“The Boys of Summer (Humate Remix)” is the best remix on the album. My expectations for this song were low because the radio version sounded like happy hardcore. The Humate remix is totally different. Instruments build up a shadowy storm of dance. Good thing it’s almost eight minutes long.
Jessy is nothing short of phenomenal. In “Look @ Me Now (Extended Mix),” perfect vocals accompany powerful Trance synthesizer. Since it’s a lot slower, this version is not as good as the original mix.
Katrina Ruiz is great, but pair her with a talented DJ like the world-famous Jonathon Peters, and you have quite a duo. “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” although it is a sleeper hit, has a lot of potential. The beat starts slowly and evolves into a powerful anthem. Too bad it has the dumb pop relationship scenario. But dance music is supposed to make you dance, and this track does it better than any song on the album.
Hah. If you haven’t played out “Sound of Violence (Narcotic Thrust Remix),” it’s going to make you smile. One of the most popular tracks of the album. Male vocals, uncommon in the dance genre, make this piece stand out.
I liked Moby’s “In This World” because it has quite a different sound. The vocals sound like they were recorded using an old analog tape recorder, but that is superimposed on a steady, dance-inducing beat. Genius.
My favorite track of both disks. The beginning of “Loneliness” prepares you for something big. This is the kind of song audiophiles buy expensive equipment for! Get a system in excess of 1000 watts for this one. Tomcraft is genius. The type of dark dance they have perfected is the way the genre should forever stay.
“Diving.” It’s doing the exact opposite on billboard charts across the country. It simply defines dark dance. Of course this is from the same group that brought us “Take Me Away” and “Let It Rain,” so I wasn’t too surprised.
Yet another favorite, “Yet Another Day,” proves its mettle. Male vocals make this stand out. This shows Armin van Buuren at his best. It opens with his signature synth rhythm and stays fast and engaging through the remainder of the song.
The remaining tracks
They’re either okay or so bad they aren’t worth discussing. Namely, “Sweet Dreams,” “Head,” and “Darkbeat” fulfill the latter. As you can see, more than a quarter of the album consists of fillers or songs I just didn’t like. The tracks with one line of lyrics and reiterations of the same instrumentals have got to go.
Transition
Just as important as song selection is the way they are put together. Transition between each track should be natural and progressive- that’s an ulterior requirement of dance music. Johnny Vicious did a great job mixing the songs together in smooth succession.
Conclusion
Modern dance music doesn’t get much better than this, especially since Ultra Dance 04, full of lame songs, is coming our way. Listening to this album should occupy you for the hiatus dance music is about to take. Johnny Vicious reinforces his position as New York’s number one underground DJ. Just don't play it out because it gets boring easily.
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