Search - Rasmus Faber :: 2 Far

Pretty Good

bordersj2 | Boston | 02/22/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Rasmus Faber actually has a pretty high music pedigree. The Swedish producer's worked with the likes of Marcus Enochson and SUMO, and has been a pianist since he was about 7 or 8 years old. He's got a real penchant for quality writing and musicianship in addition to the great house beats. I got into his tracks a bit later on and was more interested in some of his remixes, which had surprisingly original twists to them. Although he's still a bit unknown in the US, his star's been rising at a pretty consistent pace - he's certainly getting the notoriety in Europe and in Japan nowadays. He just needs that one break-through hit.



This is his remix project - an album which has songs by other artists, given a face-lift by Rasmus. It's pretty solid actually - I enjoyed it. To be honest I only really got it for his version of "Insatiable". It's a song done by Thick D (I edited the name...), and the first time I heard his remix, it was a massive throbbing bossa take that soared unlike any song I'd heard. This one is similar but given a deeper house vibe instead of the quick bossa beat. While it might not be quite as timeless as the other one (IMO), it's still terrific and has most of the elements of the re-edit, including the guitar play. A different take of "Ever After" features here and it's good but not quite as strong as the one I heard on an old Bossa A La Mode album. This one's definitely more clubbed up though and in the right order, would come off pretty sweet. Other tracks to check out are "Nightlife", the latin twinged Miami edit of "Get Over Here" which captures the mood of getting someone to dance!



While I liked this, there were some glaring omissions like "Dreams", "Valizando" and "E Samba", which I think should've been included. And not all of his remixes will grab you... some tracks are a bit redundant, which makes me think this really is a DJ's treat in digital format. :) But still, it's a good album and I'm looking forward to seeing what he has in the pipeline in the future. If you like this then you definitely want to get your hands on works by Ian Pooley, MAW, UFO, Buscemi and loads of Defected Records releases. Also... this is a Japanese import and as such, the notes are in Kanji and it carries a steep price-tag. My best advice is that unless you're a collector, look around at independent shops online or locally, or look for the cuts stand-alone & make sure you 'hear' before you buy."