DJ Woody: Selected Works 2002-2006

Electronic albums that admittedly are a collection of singles typically go one of two ways: they join a range of provocative oddities that didn’t quite fit in full-length format or they are a streamlined presentation of dancefloor jargon that betray an artist’s creative sterility over time (see Judge Jules’ Proven Worldwide). The debut LP from long time gigolo DJ Woody definitely falls closer to the latter category. Having spun in front of ecstatic German crowds for years, Woody’s Selected Works are just that, the acid and microhouse 12-inches that consistently raised the biggest crowd reaction. I’m a little on the cynical side myself — having been the victim of far too many boring club nights — so I have found that the most crowd-pleasing tracks are often the most simplistic and predicable. Naturally, there is nothing new here. Though it is assembled to a professional degree, all the sounds are recycled from the early ’90s, including that terrible synthetic hi-hat from the stock techno track they always played when Mr. Bean went out for a night on the town, and the few lyrics here are simply atrocious (“take you down to booty bar / then get on my smoke and drink / then take home and fuck a freak” from “Take It Down”). Underworld is in another dimension compared to this stuff, and their finest work was actually produced in the early ’90s. This DJ Woody’s tracks merely represent a sad parody of the era. As such, I can’t see these so-called Selected Works surviving the test of time.