CD Reviews

Roger Sanchez: Release Yourself

Vol. 6 | Stealth

By MICHAEL FREEDBERG | November 14, 2007

3.0 Stars

This two-disc volume in Roger Sanchez’s Release Yourself series begins with a “pre-party” CD that includes many worthy house tracks: DJ Leo’s steamy, delicately rhythmic “Sex in the Morning,” Patrick Green featuring Will Barnes’s “Shades,” Claude Von Stroke’s “Who’s Afraid of Detroit,” Joi Cardwell’s “Imperfect.” Tastier still are the mixes that he makes of these tracks, delicately at the beats’ most delicate moments. Sanchez is known for intense mixes and loud, massive rhythms; to hear him moving on kitten feet takes some getting used to. And though the set’s “party” disc does rise to the slamming intensity that he’s loved for, he takes a long, wayward route getting there. Still, digression and eclecticism are an integral part of Sanchez’s live sets, and fans who’ve seen him in action will feel right home as he moves from Brazilianism (Relight Orchestra & Margareth Menezes’s “Uma história de Ifa”) to hip-hop house (the Nightcrawlers’ “Push the Feeling On” and Bebe Brown versus Phunk Investigation’s “Dark Beats”) to electro (Laidback Luke’s “Hypnotize”) and tech house (Agent Greg versus Audiopunch’s “Symphony of Love”) on his way to intense, deep, black beats, from Noir’s declarative, powerful “All About House Music” to Suzanne Palmer’s transcendent “Free My Love.” Sanchez tests the limits of the tough, the frantic, and the joyful. Fans expect no less.

Topics: CD Reviews , Roger Sanchez, Roger Sanchez, Claude VonStroke, More

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 05/29 ] PuppeTyranny present "Beans! Beans! Beans!" @ 95 Empire

[ 05/29 ] "2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition" @ Rhode Island Convention Center

[ 05/29 ] "TechnoCraft: Where High Tech Meets Handmade," @ Jamestown Arts Center

ARTICLES BY MICHAEL FREEDBERG

DONNA SUMMER, 1948-2012 | May 22, 2012
Donna Summer, Dorchester born and always Boston-loyal, died last week, reportedly of lung cancer.

DANCE MARATHON | March 04, 2008
A full brigade of House Nation citizens turned out for Victor Calderone’s marathon spin session at Therapy last Saturday.

HOUSE HEADS | February 19, 2008
The lounge at 33 Restaurant & Lounge on Stanhope Street in the Back Bay may just have Boston’s tiniest dance floor. The upstairs restaurant isn’t much bigger.

SANDER KLEINENBERG | January 22, 2008
Kleinenberg’s 28 selections were made by names not well known — the classic strategy by which a DJ projects his own sound, one unmistakable for anyone else’s.