I remember the days. Back in '97, I once gained special entrance into Twilo, one of NYC's hottest dance clubs. And one of the reasons it was so hot was because DJs Sasha and John Digweed had a monthly residency there. Each month, they'd fly over from England, spin the decks for a mass of drugged-out dancing freaks, and then fly back. I saw the two turntable wizards at work, and to call it impressive would be understatement. The styles of the two DJs were almost symbiotically harmonious-- Sasha weaving subtle, shimmering textures of sound that evoked visions of starry, clear nights in the tropics, and Digweed driving the beats to intense crescendos that brought everyone dancing to their own personal climax.

Bedrock is a prime example of Digweed's driving style and smooth beat matching. Spinning some excellent trance tracks, not to mention a composition of his own, Bedrock is one of the most solid trance comps I've heard in a long time. The first disc starts relatively mellow with Raff and Freddy's "Listen," but reaches stride around the 7th and 8th tracks in a unification of the vocal and dub versions of Morel's "True." It's a clear sign that this isn't going to be a tepid excursion into everyday trance. Digweed keeps the tempo moving as "True" slides gently into ABA Structure's "Illusion," the crowning jewel of the first disc-- a tempo break and slowdown with a digitized Hawking vocal that teases you with the loss of impetus, but promises more from Disc Two.

Indeed, the second disc delivers. Picking up where the more mellow, downbeat sounds of the first disc left off, it's a pure, raw, mechanical descent into the sweaty, dancing darkness of hard trance. The beats are meaner-- the first suggestion of which comes with Heller and Farley's "The Rising Sun (Bedrock Remix)."

From this point onward, it's expected that you'll shake thy booty with abandon, rub thy crotch against the crotches of others, and let the insanity of the driving beats leak into thy brain. It doesn't take long to realize that Bedrock is designed this way intentionally-- to build slowly with a lesser climax on the first disc before diving deep and hard into the beats halfway through Disc Two. Things get slippery around the ninth and tenth tracks, Slacker's "Flying" and Digweed's own "Heaven Scent." The trance sounds like it was built from chunks of ambient music, twisted into epic beats and farted through a mixer. Touch me. Oh, yes...

In short, Bedrock presents us with Digweed, a clearly self-confident DJ who could be fully deserving of all of the many props afforded him by we media types. And his confidence pays off-- he's not out to prove anything ridiculous or play one-up. He's got the hours on the tables and the studio to know what he likes and what works-- and he's applied this knowledge and confidence to Bedrock.

-James P. Wisdom