I don't know about you, but I thought the Big Chill was all about mellow grooves in the summer sun, and that's the kind of record I had in my box. But after two cool cuts I was faced by two young women, demanding that the music be more exciting, something to drive them wild. The rest of the set was a slightly panicky search for the few fast songs that I happened to have with me. This year, with this album in my hand, I'll be more than ready for those dancing dervishes if they come back for more.
Exactly the same thought past through my head when I was writing a review of Future World Funk's latest comp, a couple of weeks ago. I wrote:
I think I'm getting too old for this kind of thing. There I was, doing my embarrassing dad-dance around the room to the tracks on the 'chill-out' disc (or 'down' disc, as DJs Russ and Cliffy would have it) of this two CD compilation, when I realised, to my ears, this wasn't chill-out music at all. 'Rudie No!' By Two Culture Clash, and 'Allez Allez' by Eastenders, actually crack along at a fair old pace - if this is music to chill to, then what was the 'up' disc going to sound like? The answer, in the case of tracks like 'Dia Maro Dum'by Marky and Xrs, and 'Fulanito' by Merencumbiaca, is - cranked-up to an almost cartoon level of excitement.
So my question to you all is - when did chill-out music stop being music to chill-out to? What's going on here? Where in the club world can a middle aged man just go for a quite sit-down, a beer, and some ambient grooves? For surely 'ambient' was what chill-out started out as - a kind of commercial offshoot of Eno's 'Music for Airports' etc.
Anyway, there are at least a couple of DJ's (not including Charlie) who contribute to this forum, who may be able to explain this all to me. And a bunch of mere mortals who I'm sure will have a theory or two to impart as to why such a calm and laid-back beast has turned into just another (barely discernible from the rest) branch of ferocious strobe-driven, floor-stompin' dance music.
Although I've nearly always avoided CDs with the words 'Chill Out' on the cover I have somehow ended up with a couple of such CDs from about five years ago (they must have been Christmas presents!) And they are laid-back, semi-ethereal, only ever-so-slightly dancey things. So what's going on!?