Deep Touch

Presentación del Álbum

While generally excellent and tasteful, Bargrooves, the DJ mix series that trumpets itself as "the soundtrack of bar culture," sometimes treads the fine line between quality deep house and pedestrian house, and Espace Privé at times wavers. The double-disc mix, helmed by series standby Ben Sowton and Parisian guest Frédéric Messent, is leaps and bounds better than most similar mixes on the market in 2003, for sure. The mixing here is flawless, and the track selection is logical and particular. And if that isn't enough to court your trainspotting fancy, the album's packaging is tastefully fashionable, both in terms of design as well as actual packaging. Clearly, much tender loving care went into the crafting the entire Bargrooves series. Discriminating listeners may balk, however, at this mix's leisurely tone, which purposefully values nuance over immediacy, subtlety over bombast, and seduction over fervor. Sowton and Messent never rush their mixes, letting each record play out to at least the five-minute mark and generally a couple minutes longer than that. Furthermore, they only drop a few vocal tracks per set, spacing out the vivid moments with minutes upon minutes of hypnotic instrumental house that emphasizes Latin rhythms and jazzy instrumentation rather than hard-hitting beats and strict arrangements. Such is the nature of deep house, of course, and that's precisely what Sowton and Messent deliver. Their adherence to that style will tickle househeads pink while more casual dance-music listeners with relatively shorter attention spans will hardly make it halfway through the first disc before getting fidgety. In particular, Sowton's set is highlight-filled and on a par with any of his others in the series. It's Messent, however, who often takes detours toward pedestrian house with his sometimes middle-of-the-road tracks. Regardless, even Messent's set has its highlights, and overall Espace Privé is a fine release, if not quite as special as other excellent entries in the Bargrooves series.
© Jason Birchmeier /TiVo