Album Review: Funk D'Void - Balance 022

Lars Sandberg, aka Funk D'Void, has been a stalwart of the global techno and house scene since breaking through in the mid-'90s, in no small part thanks to the assistance of legendary Glaswegian techno duo Slam. This standing has not gone unnoticed by Australian label Balance Music, whose acclaimed Balance mix is just about the best long-running mix series this country has to offer (excepting Skitz Mix, of course).

The first disc opens with groove as Sandberg lays down pulsing synths of a distinctly Detroit feel in the gentle tech of Monty Luke's Yesterday & Today. The tone nicely sets up the mix's first smile-bringer with Chris Malinchak's Razor, a wonderful old-school rave-chords tune that frames the intention behind the mix well; looking to the classics of the past but keeping an ear in the present. Things get colder and deeper in the mid-section with the hypnotic Orca by Tonka and the euphoric melody of Return Of The Annunaki. Taking us out of the somewhat lagging depths is a sublime vocal track by Chymera before the mix rolls on to some jazzier tech, including a remix of Funk D'Void's own Diabla to close.

If the colour, depth and harder edge of the first disc indicated a nod towards the club, the second disc is geared towards the bedroom; not in a sexual sense, the shift to tepid Balearic, Italo and deep house is just pretty boring. The release is well worth a listen for any fan of groovier, deeper techno and house, however, putting the slower mix on the second disc is a fundamentally flawed choice.