Album Review: Alison Wonderland - Welcome To Wonderland

19 June 2012 | 1:30 pm | Lynn McDonnell

This is a great party album that keeps the listener interested, impressed and shaking their arse.

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This is the debut compilation album from Sydney DJ Alison Wonderland after she scored an EMI contract last year coming runner up in the She Can DJ competition. Her presence and unique style gained the attention of those at the label so much that they were hooked. A career behind the decks was not an automatic choice for this highly accomplished cellist-turned-bassist-turned-DJ, but such an eclectic taste in music is evident in this collection and her live sets. Welcome To Wonderland is an unexpected mix of genres and eras, celebrating new tunes and old dancefloor favourites.

This is a great party album that keeps the listener interested, impressed and shaking their arse. It is also one that went straight onto this reviewer's exercise playlist, highlighting the ability of the compilation to keep those legs moving. The fluidity of the mixing is evident early in the album as Major Lazer's Original Don, a hypnotic jumpstyle and reggae tune, melts into Wonderland's own remix of 360's Boys Like You, the popular dancefloor filler. This continues as OutKast's The Way You Move is introduced flawlessly by Love Theme.

The extraordinary ambush comes about when the breezy chorus of People Everyday goes straight into Chemical Brothers' Galvanise. This is true genre-bending and is evident of this DJ's exciting ideas but, in this instance, it feels a little slapdash and is lacking the mixing creativity that Alison Wonderland is more than capable of. In fact her original remixes on the album emerge as the strongest, including her remix of Little Dragon's Shuffle A Dream and the aforementioned Boys Like You.