Posted on: May 15, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

This is the first time that we have had the opportunity to review a Nervous Records release, and to get an idea of how storied Nervous Records really is, consider the fact that they have had at one point Josh Wink, Armand Van Helden, and Masters At Work. Chris Lake is no slouch: 2002 marked eir first entry into the collective mindset, when ey released “Santiago de Cuba” after a stellar remix of Leftfield’s “Phat Planet”. To ensure that the listening public gives “Crazy” the time opf day, Lake has taped a number of different stars in the electronic, trance, and house genres.

This means that Sebastien Leger is on two tracks (“Aqualight” and “Word”), while Emma Hewiit makes it on a track (“Carry Me Away”). Nastala is broken big with two tracks on “Crazy”, making major appearances on both “Give In” and “if You Knew”. “Tokyo” is the perfect introductory track for Lake, bringing forward a shorter track length (3:12), along with a truly marketable female set of vocals and arrangement that draws heavily on the eighties. The two following tracks – the aforementioned “Aqualight” and “Give In” – both bump up the run time to five and six minutes, but listeners are already ensnared by Lake’s effort on “Tokyo”. However, Lake’s first hit on “Crazy” would have to be “If You Knew”. The electronic / dance backdrop for Nastala vocals allow the track to reach its full potential, possibly turning this track into one of summer’s biggest hits to be.

Where a number of electronic and techno albums seem to have a seamless interplay between tracks (to the point where it seems like everything is the same song), Lake puts enough new material in each of the tracks on “Crazy” to ensure that listeners stick with the disc, along with establishing a different sound for each song. “Crazy” is one of the best electronic / techno albums that we have heard here at NeuFutur this year, and I believe that “Crazy” does as much good to Nervous as Nervous has done for Chris Lake.

Top Tracks: Aqualight, Word

Rating: 7.7/10

Chris Lake – Crazy / 2009 Nervous / 13 Tracks / http://www.chris-lake.com / http://www.nervousnyc.com

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