Glory Grooves: 10 Soul-Shakin’ Dance Remixes

Description

Glory Grooves, sub-titled 10 Soul-Shakin’ Dance Remixes, is a multi-artist re-mix project released on Word Entertainment in 1999. The various tracks were remixed by Tony McAnany (tracks: 1, 2, 10b), Chris O’Brien and Graham Murphy (track 3), Dan Muckala and Jamey Lyons (track 4), Dirk Grobelny, Mikey “Bones” Malak, Phil Nicolo, and Phil Nowlan (tracks: 5, 7 to 9), Sal Salvador (track 6), and Craig Bauer and Lanar “Kern” Brantley (track 10a).

Any serious dancefloor aficionado is going to look at with misgivings upon a dance remix album that features such distinctly middle of the road names as Point Of Grace, Amy Grant and…gulp… Sandi Patti. But given the fact that this project could have been a monumental disaster and that the ’10 Soul-shakin’ dance remixes’ meaning gratuitous buchering of pop cuts in a misguided effort to graft on dancefloor relevance, this is not bad at all. For instance, Point Of Grace’s «Steady On» is wonderfully reassembled by mixer Roy Hendrickson giving it a Euro disco sock that few devotees will be able to resist while the crunching rhythm added to «The Big Rock» staggeringly manages to retain all of the hovering Celtic beauty of Marie Brennan’s ethereal voice while giving it a dancefloor turn only remixers Graham Murphy and Chris O’Brien could have dreamt of. There are plenty more surprises, soul diva Helen Baylor’s classic ballad «More Than A Friend» takes on a whole new head of steam once it’s speeded up and a new groove added. Not everything works as well. The original mix of Code Of Ethics’ «Hallelujah Y2K» is better than the contrived version here while rockers Skypark, although turning in a gritty remix, are out of place on the dance orientated set. And the sleeve, with it’s silly model in flares and afro, is a heavy handed attempt at post-disco irony that misses by a mile. But these are minor points. With a brilliant song «Carry You» from Amy Grant (originally recorded for the ‘Behind The Eyes’ album, and ludicrously left off and only released in its original form on the WOW 1997 sampler) and the aforementioned gems ‘Gloory Grooves’ is a zappy, snappy pop dance compilation your feet will enjoy as it feeds your soul. [Tony Cummings, Cross Rhythms, October 1999]

CD tracklist:

01. Amy Grant – Carry You (original track featured on the multi-artist sampler WOW 1998)
02. Point Of Grace – Steady On (original track featured on the album Steady On)
03. Máire Brennan – The Big Rock (original track featured on the album Perfect Time)
04. Foreverafter – The One For Me (original track featured on the album Foreverafter)
05. Cindy Morgan – I Will Be Free (original track featured on the album A Reason to Live)
06. Code Of Ethics – Hallelujah Y2K (original track featured on the album Blaze)
07. Skypark – Here Come The Bugs (original track featured on the album Am I Pretty?)
08. Helen Baylor – More Than A Friend (original track featured on the album Start All Over)
09. Sandi Patty – Breathe On Me (original track featured on the album Artist of my Soul)
10.a New Direction – Lighthouse (original track featured on the album New Direction)
10.b Amy Grant – Carry You (Extended Mix)

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Word Entertainment.