Deep Dish
YOSHIESQUE, VOL. 2
(YOSHITOSHI)

Deep Dish (Ali "Dubfire" Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi) were one of the chief architects in popularizing the progressive house/trance branch of dance music throughout the ’90s, particularly via high-profile remixes for the likes of Michael Jackson and Everything But the Girl. Released on their own label, this two-disc mix CD represents no departure from their sound. But there is a relatively new term floating around clubland that describes it perfectly: "big room." The multi-layered high-end and billowing effects on these 26 tracks imply a huge space with high ceilings. In fact, cuts like the Chemical Brothers’ vocal remix of Spiritualized’s "I Think I’m in Love" and Azymuth’s "Carambola" seem so meticulously tailored to the sound systems of today’s superclubs that they sap most of the drama out of the mix. But there’s something coldly intriguing about how the unwavering 4/4 beat keeps trudging on for two and a half hours. Whenever the backbeat matter-of-factly recovers from a vaporous break like the one that sinks Greed’s "Strange World," it recalls such jet-lagged masterpieces of the disco era as Donna Summer’s Once upon a Time and Tantra’s The Double Album.

Issue Date: November 1 - 8, 2001