/ 27 October 2000

Sailing with Seaman

Greg Bowes CD OFTHEWEEK The mother city has its designation as a prime party destination confirmed with a scintillating set from Dave Seaman, simply called Cape Town(Global Underground). The mix, a cross-section of the tunes that wowed audiences here earlier this year, emerges all hazy and dubby but by track four – a Futureshock mix of Moby – one is in the midst of a shower of storming chords and a hail of digitalia, underpinned by a pulsing rhythmic engine. This bewitching, bassline-driven trance groove maintains soft and tropical edges throughout with some abstracted vocals and the odd immense sheet of sunny sound. Luzon’s The Baguio Track – the aural equivalent of a Deep Dish reworking of Dead Can Dance – and James Holden’s vicious Horizons stand out, but Breeder, Way Out West, Junkie XL and Seaman all pitch in with spiralling late-night psyche-outs. The Cape Town collection’s only weak point is inconsistency, with subtle, expansive pieces seguing into more obvious, anthemic DJ fodder.