Cafe Mambo 2000

A new year, a new summer's past, and an onslaught of Ibiza chill-out compilations. This entry by (ahem) indie-dance champions Columbia, rounds up all the usual balearic suspects: Moby, Chicane, Groove Armada, and, er, Timo Maas, in almost-mixed form by Pete Gooding. Joining the cause are hot upstarts like Bent (contributing their lovely "Swollen") and a few clever picks such as Leftfield's deep-end excursion "El Cid."Along the way hearing the Chill Out Mix you'll meet some old favorites from 1999 (Wamdue's "King of My Castle") and a couple of choices adding a jolt to the languid pace. Lovely on the whole, even if Thrillseeker's "Synaesthesia" shows the thin line between dreamy and dreary, that congenial if not always captivating music can be easily cranked out.Now About that Timo Maas inclusion - realizing that 30+ tracks of downbeat musings could trigger many a listener Blue Period, Café Mambo wisely arranges the second disc as a pre-club mix to get the evening started (which you'll probably play out of order, of course.) The organic Freedom Reform take on Isolee's heavily favored "Beau Mot Plage" certainly has the club lights spinning, but the meat of the set bangs out the diva-garage-how-loud-can-I-sing numbers you'll love or skip in blocks. I suspect the latter. Pulling it out at the end, though, is the ever-popular "Doom's Night" and the Svek Remix of Laurent Garnier's sax workout "The Man With the Red Face."House heads will get maximum bang for the buck; those not inclined have a quality wind-down disc. Better in theory than execution.

I love the chill out mix, can listen to it over and over again. A really nice mixture of tracks that relly chill you out. The club mix starts off great but after the first few tracks they all start sounding the same (they all have a similar beat) which I found quite monotonous. The only reason I have given this disk 5 stars is because of the chill out mix.

Even if next door to Cafe del Mar, why people keep comparing them? Cafe del Mar is balearic sounds and chill house at times, very mistic,whilst Mambo is HOUSE music. Get it right my friends. both bars are great for entertainment. Get that sunset in Ibiza. Very good cd this one.

This an album of mixed quality however the mix of "Heart of Aisa" is the best I have heard, exploiting a great tune, thats what I like to see. Evey other track is great, but the good tracks are fantastic. For and self-respecting trance fan this is a very worthwhile buy, just for the mix of Heart of Aisa.