Marcel Woods - Musical Madness 2Written by Youri Jozee  Album Review - You can bitch on endlessly about Dutch DJ/producer Marcel Woods' sound and that it changes more often than you change your underpants, but fact is that the man knows how to work a dancefloor... His recently released Musical Madness 2 mix album once more confirms this. Here's what we think.  Coming from a hardtrancey background, Marcel’s sound has shifted a bit more towards electrohouse and trance-injected hybrids over the past few years and not quite without success. Although it is remarked by diversity, the essence of Marcel Woods’ sound is that of a club-banging flow, a blend in which electrohouse, tech-house, tech-trance and hardtrance form a slamming combination. This often tends to result in endless cheesiness in the hands of rookie or plain unskilled DJs, but Marcel crafts his own niche in this area and he does so in style. This 2-disc compilation may therefore be considered a valuable addition to the collection of those who continuously seek straight-on, four-to-the-floor club tunes and do not shy away from a commercial touch here and there. However, the first CD opens a bit weak with a handful of dull tech-housy tunes. Yves V’s Insane Pressure could have been a cracking tuen if it wasn’t for that cheap, godawful ‘Turn It Around-vocal’. Luckily, the slamming Fly By Wire by Koen Groeneveld is there to respark the energy and from this moment on the CD gets better and better. Riktam & Bansi’s Green Space? Kills it, hands down, but shit really gets intense from Nic Chagall’s Plastic Light and Marco V’s massively stomping Greyhound, which is covered in that nasty V-sound the man’s loved for. Other highlights? The soaring, thunderous Eddie Sender Deeper Redraw Mix of Andy Power’s Das Is Good, and the stunning closing track: the trancey destroyer that is Anton Firtich feat. Victoria Mazze’s Meant To Be Free. A job well done, now on to the second disc. Sound wise, this second disc doesn’t differ that much from the first one. We again are treated to a solid array of tunes with a trance vibe, including some of Marcel Woods himself. His own tune The Bottle, which serves as one of the CDs opening tunes, is a rather uplifting affair with great synth work. Some may label it as too cheesy, but it will undoubtedly cause a mad raving flock when dropped and that’s obviously been the objective here. Across its duration, the CD continous to present tech trance-flavored tracks. Solitary Confinement by, again, Marco V in conjunction with Khashassi is a merciless rocker with a nasty oldschool hardtrance synth, but the Jonas Stenberg vs W&W remix of the classic The Beauty Of Silence by Svenson & Gielen isn’t by far as promising as it may initially sound. The Oxygen Shadow mix of Jonas Stenberg’s Timeline, however, does deliver the goods with its insanely moving structures and fat synth modulation. The CD then gradually comes to an end with a mix of both ‘hands-in the-air’ as less exciting stuff. Marcel Woods delivers a mix which is pretty much what we’ve expected from him: Nothing too much out of the ordinary, but that clearly hasn’t been the idea in the first place. What you see is what you get, that’s the credo that would describe this CD best. Don’t expect too many surprises in both mixes, although we’re happy to see the man abandon his traditional sound every once in a while in the form of tunes you would not expect to hear, yet blend in perfectly with his overall sound. Musical Madness 2 has become a well-mixed and solid delivery featuring Marcel Woods well-loved sound that is still well able to rock the floor. Musical Madness 2 tracklist: CD1
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