Whirl-Y-Waves - Various
This double compilation album has been released to promote the Whirl-y-gig Club, currently settling into its new(ish) home in Hammersmith Town Hall. The club itself has been with us for over a decade, several years of which were spent in Old Street Town Hall where I spent many a formative clubbing experience. It appears that they’ve stuck to their original formula, and rightly so, as I’ve never found a more relaxed and pleasant atmosphere in any other club since. Sure, they may not have the famous DJ’s or the hippest tunes around, but their eclectic mix of ‘Global Ambient Trance’ is always top-notch. To you and me, that means chillin’ music.
This particular taster effectively takes us through the course of a typical Whirly night, moving first to the joyous outpourings of Banco de Gaia and Transglobal Underground. The music is never particularly frenetic, and given this selection of tunes one could be forgiven for imagining the club to be one huge chill-out room - which in many ways it is. Worthy of particular mention is Astralasia’s ‘To a Better Place’, remixed here by resident DJ Monkey Pilot. It’s a simple, drifting melody over soothing beats. Later, Another Fine Day rework ‘Scarborough Fair’ into a lazy, nine minute epic of sugar-sweet strings. And all too soon Cortex (‘Cumulus/Nim-bus’) provide the peak of the evening before Aura’s ‘Starseed’ brings the parachute over the crowd like a veil.
To pin the music down in prose is insufficient, as the club atmosphere contributes so much. But a few choice words might be: warm, safe, contented, dreamy, gentle....and happy. (7). Norm
