Nick Warren Live In Prague

As the second release in the vast catalog of Global Underground DJ-mix albums, Nick Warren's Live in Prague ends up sounding a bit dated and inferior to the later volumes, which benefit from the late '90s explosion of trance records. A respectable DJ with a knack for mixing together tracks perfect for the dancefloor, Warren contributes a noble effort on this release, but it just doesn't reach the potential evident on his later Global Underground: Brazil album. First of all, his tracks just aren't that exciting here; a few standout as definite trance anthems ("Life on Mars") while most lack any noteworthy elements -- vocals, samples, melodies, snare-rolls, synth riffs, stomping rhythms -- suffering from a sort of bland homogeneity that relies on momentum to carry the listener from one similar progressive house track to the next. When the salient songs do enter the mix, it always seems like an awkward moment. Rather than slowly building his set from deep, dark progressive house through some surreal epic trance until finally peaking with two or three hands-in-the-air anthems as most DJs do, Warren instead scrambles this template, placing songs such as Energy 52's "Cafe del Mar" in the middle of the second set, which makes the rest of the album relatively anti-climatic. This isn't necessarily a terrible set by Warren, but it clearly pales in comparison to the many other excellent DJ-mixes on the many excellent succeeding Global Underground releases. ~ Jason Birchmeier|

As the second release in the vast catalog of Global Underground DJ-mix albums, Nick Warren's Live in Prague ends up sounding a bit dated and inferior to the later volumes, which benefit from the late '90s explosion of trance records. A respectable DJ with a knack for mixing together tracks perfect for the dancefloor, Warren contributes a noble effort on this release, but it just doesn't reach the potential evident on his later Global Underground: Brazil album. First of all, his tracks just aren't that exciting here; a few standout as definite trance anthems ("Life on Mars") while most lack any noteworthy elements -- vocals, samples, melodies, snare-rolls, synth riffs, stomping rhythms -- suffering from a sort of bland homogeneity that relies on momentum to carry the listener from one similar progressive house track to the next. When the salient songs do enter the mix, it always seems like an awkward moment. Rather than slowly building his set from deep, dark progressive house through some surreal epic trance until finally peaking with two or three hands-in-the-air anthems as most DJs do, Warren instead scrambles this template, placing songs such as Energy 52's "Cafe del Mar" in the middle of the second set, which makes the rest of the album relatively anti-climatic. This isn't necessarily a terrible set by Warren, but it clearly pales in comparison to the many other excellent DJ-mixes on the many excellent succeeding Global Underground releases. ~ Jason Birchmeier