Global Underground: Amsterdam

by Dean CarlsonGetting away from the celebrated aggressiveness of his earlier work for Global Underground, Nick Warren wheeled toward limb-aching progressive funk and showed off a different persona that was dark and contained and really rather dull. James Holden's Ariane is here, twice, even Warren's Way Out West project, but there's an all-too-consistent feel of someone in dilapidated middle age that contaminates what would otherwise have been a levelheaded rejoinder to the vast exploitation of the popular Dutch trance sound popularized by big mainline DJs like Sander Kleinenberg and Ferry Corsten. Only once does Warren sound on the tip of something, adding to the mix PMT's "Gyromancer." Beloved of both Paul Oakenfold and the Stanton Warriors, albeit in the better False Prophet manifestation, he lets "PMT"'s uncoiled micro-prog jolt itself awake with melodrama and dystopian techno -- though he doesn't take it much farther than that. While trying to impress everybody with his self-control, Warren had forgotten the tunes and ends up spinning a set like a DAT player, almost as if he didn't care if anybody was left listening.