Convert Recordings: cat. # CONVR025
Released 2009

Track list:
1. Blue Amazon & Shango - Set Me Free (7.24)
2. Shango - The One (6.45)
3. Blue Amazon - AWFD (8.49)


IN BRIEF: Hits the Jac- oh, it's just too easy.

Unless you're a 90s survivor or a connoisseur of progressive house, you're unlikely to have more than a passing familiarity with Blue Amazon, and Jackpot Records is probably a mystery to you. So here, for you: the imagined reader, is a concise history lesson (If you do know all about Blue Amazon and Jackpot, feel free to excitedly skip the next few paragraphs).

Back in the mid-90s, Jackpot was one of the coolest, most inventive labels around. James Reid and Lee Softley of Blue Amazon were the stars, regularly minting ultra-long, ultra-melodic progressive records that combined the flamboyant euphoric flourishes of Renaissance-era progressive house with the squelchy acid polyphony of German trance. Sasha, Digweed, Dave Seaman and their disciples loved it, Mixmag coined "epic house" to describe the sound and Blue Amazon joined BT as figureheads of the movement. Much of Jackpot's output, provided by an able supporting cast that included Amethyst, Atlas, The Bubble and a then-unknown Danny Howells, would be the early precursor of progressive trance, toning down the dramatic superclub vocals in favour of chunky, dub-infused basslines and added 303 abuse. In 1997 the label bought defunct prog institute Guerrilla’s back catalogue and commissioned a spree of brilliant new remixes, confirming just how far and how fast progressive house was moving.

Halcyon days indeed. Inevitably, it didn't last. Contractual issues delayed the release of Blue Amazon's album by two years. The Javelin should have been one of the seminal moments of 1995, a high-watermark of dance music. When it finally hit the shops in 1997 it was a victim of progressive house's rapid development. The epic house bubble had burst under the pressure of unsustainably long and complex tracks, leaving the album out of date and no longer representative of the group's sound. Blue Amazon's star fell from scene leaders to part of the pack, and Jackpot petered off, quietly folding at the beginning of the '00s. James Reid quit the group, leaving Softley to soldier on alone, and Blue Amazon was never quite the same again.

Softley didn't give up, though, setting up Convert Recordings. After a four year hiatus, the label is back and so is Blue Amazon. After achieving lukewarm results and mediocre success with unoriginal trance output, Softley has decided to go back to what he knows, and in doing so joins the steadily-gathering mid-90s revival that has already seen Art Of Trance and Union Jack get back on the boat. What's more, he's dragged old Jackpot label mates Shango out of retirement for another crack at the big-time.

First things first: it would be unrealistic to expect a complete return to form here. Blue Amazon were at the very peak of their creative powers in 1995, and without the powers of Reid, we're unlikely to hear anything as good as No Other Love or And Then The Rain Falls ever again. Softley knows this, and doesn't even try to write a sixteen minute vocal monument. Instead, he and Shango keep it simple, providing a commendable rendition of the distinctive Jackpot sound without sounding hopelessly anachronistic. The dubby bottom ends, simple percussion programming, waves of acid and thick melodic brushstrokes are all present and correct, and slot surprisingly easily into the chunky electro-prog aesthetic. Shango's effort in particular joins previously hidden dots between Jackpot, 1995 and Anjunadeep 2009, with a meaty bass motif and electro-house percussion working in tandem with a simple yet hooky synth lead.

Softley's solo track, the obscurely named AWFD, is a true throwback, playing out like The Blessing's undulating acid tech-funk genetically fused with Never Forget's idiosyncratic bottom end. As Bruce Campbell would put it: Groovy. The headliner collaboration Set Me Free is the expected middle ground between the EP's other tracks: it could almost be 1996 vintage, but you wouldn't bat an eyelid if you heard it dropped in an upfront prog set. You'd be too busy stepping to its swaggering groove, achieved with minimum of extraneous hi-hats and the maximum of double-barrelled bassline.

If you like your melody, your acid or your old-school vibes you shouldn't need telling what to do next. There's another new Blue Amazon single, the amusingly titled Nu Nu already out there that's just as good, and tantalisingly titled Tribute To House/Acid double-A due out later in October. With Platipus on the march once again, the renaissance might just start here.


Written by SYSTEM-J for TranceCritic.com. May not be reproduced or republished without the consent of TranceCritic.com. © All rights reserved.

Title: Blue Amazon & Shango - Jackpot Reunion EP
Category: Single, EP
Sub Category: Progressive
Reviewer: SYSTEM-J
Related Link: http://www.convertrecordings.com/
Added: October 9th 2009
Viewed: 518 Times
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