Masterbeat New Releases 12/14/08

Hey everybody! I took a couple weeks off from the music reviews to make sure I had quality tracks to let you know about. Here's some of Masterbeat's newest and best for your Holiday listening pleasure!

1. JR Disco - Found A Cure (Original Mix)
   I don't know about you, but nothing says Christmas to me like straight up disco goodness. Plenty of disco strings and horns, along with a classic disco groove and feel, and some great feel good vocals on top of it all. A great find in my book.
2. Tristan Garner feat. Akil - Give Love (Arias Remix) & (Jerome Isma-Ae Remix)
   I've mentioned it before but one of the things I love about house music is the spirit of wanting to make the world a better place. This is a great track that really embodies that spirit, which makes it perfect for this holiday season. The centerpiece of this track is the vocals -- "We gotta give love...'cause we've just got one world to share..." There are three main remixes; my favorite is the Arias Remix. Good energy, the instrumentation supports the vocals well. The Jerome Isma-Ae Remix is a little more high energy with a piano base. I found the Original Mix to be a little too busy for my taste.
   
3. Pepper Mashay - Does Your Mama Know (12" Extended Mix)
   I know a lot of you out there still love diva house and Pepper Mashay is here to deliver. You'll probably remember Pepper from the Circuit smash, Dive in the Pool. Yeah, that one was hard to miss back in the day. Truthfully, this track isn't quite as memorable as Dive In the Pool, but this is a solid track. There are quite a few mixes. 12" Extended Mix goes with a funky guitar line that makes the track a lot of fun. Corey D's mix is a piano driven track and if you're going for more of a Circuit sound, Tony Marino's mix sounds like it could have come from a more well known Tony M (ie Tony Moran). Not a chart topper, but another solid track from Pepper.
4. South Central - Golden Dawn
   Sometimes I like to go off the house/trance track and see what other good music is out there. I'm not sure how I'd classify this track, it's got a heavily filtered, indy-rock vibe with a bit of an electro attitude as well. I'm not sure how I'd use it in a set, but something about it really grabbed me. Worth checking out.
   
5. Masters & Nickson feat. Justine Suissa - Out There (5th Dimension) (Daniel Kandi Bangin' Mix)
   I don't think I'd use the term, "bangin'" for this track, or just about any trance track, for that matter. That said, this is a quality trance track to finish out 2008. I remember the vocalist, Justine Suissa, from Oceanlab's Clear Blue Water, Sky Falls Down and Beautiful Together, from 2001-2003, as well as Chicane's classic, Autumn Tactics. I consider those to be classic trance anthems, so it would be unfair to compare this track to any of those. This is a good fluffy trance track on the Soundpiercing: The Best of 2008 collection. Another good track on it is Sunlounger feat. Zara - Crawling (Club Mix). Good efforts for those trance lovers out there.