Genre: Lento Violento, Italodance
Label: Media Records
Type of media: CD
Bought at: www.ibs.it
Reviewed by: Christopher von Würden
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Yep this is not a Fata Morgana, Gigi D'Agostino is actually back with a new release, after a dry period since his previous album Suono Libero released almost 2 years ago, and countless rumours regarding a new Laboratorio 4 or an Il Cammino compilation. Last rumour has partly come true with the release of Ieri e Oggi (Means: yesterday and today) since it is a mixed compilation in the spirit of his, now off the air, radio show Il Cammino di Gigi D'Agostino.
The compilation is, unlike most other album releases from Gigi D'Agostino, only on one CD and includes impressive 34 tracks taking full advantage of the CD media. This fact is actually also the worst part of this release, but I will get back to that later.
Comparing Ieri e Oggi Mix to the former show on M2O Il Cammino di Gigi D'Agostino might not such a bad thought if one looks at the repertoire of productions included in the compilation. Il Cammino had both old and new productions from Gigi and his producer team, including both Lento Violento and true Italodance. Ieri e Oggi actually takes us a bit further also including a trance track in "System F - Out Of The Blue", just one fortunately. Generally it is a nice mix of italodance and lento violento illustrating what he has been doing the past 5 to 8 years. Mentionable are incredible productions such as "Parlotta", "Go West (Oratorio Dag)", "Chariots Of Fire (Oratorio Dag)", "What The Bam", "Radici Dag" and of course the intro song "Stay With Me". Unlike the album Suono Libero, Gigi does not bring us new versions of old hits this time - and thank god for that! After all why keep releasing new versions of old hits when you have plenty of potential in fresh tracks?
Ieri e Oggi Mix is really a competent display of what Gigi D'Agostino and his team can do. To be honest you will enjoy all the tracks, if you also enjoy his style in general, or enjoyed the show il Cammino. Personally I consider "Some Experiments" from 2006 to be one of the greatest compilations from Gigi of all time. In the selection of tracks Ieri e Oggi almost tops this, but unfortunately it has 2 major disadvantages compared to "Some Experiments". First of all it is mixed, meaning that each track fades into another not giving us independent tracks. Second and worst of all the CD media is really squeezed to its limits with 34 tracks on one CD. With 34 tracks on one CD a quick calculation leaves us with around 2 minutes and 30 seconds for each track, "Compilation - Benessere 1" from 2004 at least gave us sort of independent tracks . The least thing he could do after such a long dry period was to release in a proper format. A cheap cardboard sleeve for the CD does not make it much better.
That said Gigi D'Agostino really still is in his own league musically, after all the format and length of tracks are only criticized because of his lovely enchanting music. We wanted more and it could have been so much more. Musically it is 5-6 stars but the limitations make it 4 stars.
Great review CFE, and I agree on points