Andrea Parker
DJ Kicks (K7 071)

A great DJ set with a dark edge but also tremendous musicality, Andrea Parker's DJ Kicks CD is one of the best DJ mix CDs I've come across. She's since released a proper album (Kiss My Arp), though this disc is the one I return to more, especially on nights when I'm up past 4am. The set kicks off with a stripped-down mix of "It's No Good" by Depeche Mode, segued seamlessly into "Earth People" by Dr. Octagon, and then it gets deeper and deeper until by about track 8 or 9 you're so far from the entrance door that you can't even remember the last time you saw outside.

The cool thing is, it doesn't lose the beat at all, it remains tuneful and danceable throughout, even as it gets further down into the groove. Parker mixes new stuff with old school stuff, some pop, some hip-hop, lots of electro-funk – she's game for anything with a menacing bassline and some synth-twiddle value. Most of the stuff she mixes in I haven't heard of outside of this disc, and virtually all of it is great.

It doesn't come off like an arbitrary mix at all, nor an overly clever one – she really just gets into a specific mood and explores it from every conceivable angle. She's not flashy or primarily concerned with amusing you as much as making you feel the incredible wavelength that she's broadcasting from. There's a segment in the middle that moves from "In the Bottle" by C.O.D. (similar to Newlceus) to "Too Good to Be Strange" by Two Sandwiches Short of a Lunchbox (ambient, dark, and minimal, but purposeful) to "The Phantom" by Renegade Subway (beat-heavy) into "Renegades Chant" by Afrika Bambaata (global groove funk) – it's just cool as hell, and so perfectly done.

It makes for great background music, for sure, but it's not so minimalist that you don't notice structure – it's aggressive and always keeps an eye on composition. The set closes out with a couple of really subterranean cuts, minimalist gothy bass-driven instrumentals from Drexclya ("Hydro Theory") and Parker herself ("Unconnected") – by the end of the 75-minute CD you feel like you've been up all night in the bowels of a cavernous club, four floors down into the ground and only lit with strobes.

Playing it late at night only adds to the stupor factor, but it's a great listen no matter what time of day. Of course, I always like to feel like I'm in the bowels of a cavernous club lit only by strobes, which is starting to annoy my coworkers, who have not, for the most part, appreciated the bouncer outside my cubicle and the flashing lights coming from within.

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Review by Howlin' Mountbatten