Various – 10 Years Of Anjunabeats
Pin ItAnjunabeats, one of the biggest trance labels there is right now, has just celebrated its 10th birthday. And to celebrate this they have released ‘10 Years Of Anjunabeats‘. One disc of original tracks and the other filled with remixes. With such an impressive catalog it wasn’t going to be as easy as you might think to put the best tracks from the last 10 years into one release. To do that, John, Paavo and Tony would need more than a two disc release!
Mixmag described it as "The blueprint of how a trance label should be". So did these boys at Above & Beyond HQ get their selections right?
Disc 1
With tracks such as "Signarunners & Julie Thompson – These Shoulders" and Above & Beyond’s own "Can’t Sleep" backed up by Super8 & Tab’s "Helsinki Scorchin’" room shaker all within the first 5 tracks they certainly could of picked far worse.
Daniel Kandi’s "Breathe" – another hugely popular release on Anjunabeats is also included and for good measure is followed up by Nitrous Oxide’s hands in the air banger "North Pole".
Last of the original mixes is Smith & Pledger’s "Northern Lights" which as you all should know is huge, a high energy, euphoric track which in a way is also quite mellow and ends the disc well.
Disc 2
The second disc is filled with remixes, though I’ll be honest I’m a little disappointed that the remixes are of the same tracks on the first disc. As said before and that we all know Anjunabeats have a huge catalog of major hits, so it would have been nice to see some of those instead of so many remixes. After all, this is a celebration of the first 10 years, the years which made the label become what it is now. I could name many, many tracks that I’d have liked to be seen included on this mix as I’m sure can anyone reading this.
Having said that, the remixes that are included are fantastic. Andy Moors remix of "These Shoulders" is in my opinion better than the original and the Super8 & Tab remix of "Can’t Sleep" is a real treat to listen to, "music to your ears" as they say!
Nitrous Oxide has also created a brilliant remix of Bart Claessen & Dave Schiemann’s "Madness" which is followed by "Northern Lights (Breakfast Remix)" which is again I’d say better than the original. It has more energy, more feeling and you can hear Breakfast’s style in there which is never going to be a bad thing is it?
Conclusion:
I’m a little disappointed if I’m honest. This is meant to celebrate 10 years of music from the lads at Anjunabeats who in that space of time have released too many hits to name. To only have 10 original tracks and the same 10 remixed on the only other disc is a bit of a let down. Having said that, out of the 10 tracks they did choose I can’t find one that I’d take out.
‘Anjunabeats 100‘ for example has 2 discs, 11 more tracks and many older tracks too, which also I feel is what this 10 year celebration is missing. It feels more like Above & Beyond are celebrating the last 5 years here.
All in all it’s a fantastic release and for fans of Anjunabeats, they won’t be disappointed. But people expecting a huge array of tracks from the beginning of the label up until the present day may well feel a little let down. If disc 2 had been full of different tracks (other than remixes) to disc 1, this would of been a completely different release and perhaps would have even scored a perfect score. The simple lack of tracks and fan favourites is disappointing.
7/10
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