Reviewed by Manja Visser

Long live the digital DJ! This was something N-soul's frontman and DJ Scott Blackwell must have been thinking whilst spinning various records live, using the new tools of the centre stage DJ - the Denon 2700 DJ CD player unit and Pioneer DJM 500 Table De Mixage! Oh well, these are not even my creative words. See the description in the CD inlay. Anyway, digital or not, this 'Clubhouse' CD features 20 non-stop tunes, mixed by dance-pioneer Blackwell. The album kicks off with a trying-to-convince speech by Scott, in which he pleads for the new rhythms of today. It continues with a tune by America's Paradigm Shift and from that point your feet will probably keep dancing 'till the very end of the CD. It's better than anything I've ever heard from N-Soul. If you don't know any of the N-Soul artists or you just want to get familiar with some sanctified dance, then but this CD. Of course 'Clubhouse' is a good promotion for the N-Soul label for it features mostly N-Soul artists. In fact, if Scott Blackwell didn't put Hydro's "Rainmaker" and "Touch The Spirit" in, this CD would only have featured American sanctified dance! I'm glad Scott decided to spin in some records of the UK's most experimental dance collaborations. Also, Scott went for a harder-hitting way than what we usually get from N-Soul: AJ Mora is featured frequently with some banging techno tunes.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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