The Vitals:

Label: Queep Organic Music
Genre: Electro House
Number of Tracks: 12
How to Obtain: www.queeporganicmusic.com, www.beatport.com

Factor Scores:

Production Quality: 8.5
Programming and Arrangement: 8.5
Entertainment Quality: 8.3
Total: 8.5 - Great

Chris' Take:

I guess you can say I am a fan of Queep's music. The lineup for this collection of tracks looks more like a tracklisting to one of my recent sets. Cristian Paduraru, Timmy & Tommy, Layers Of Sound, Hatstandy Andy, Tim Richards, Man In A Room, Discount Rhinos (who contributes to two remixes)... all artists I have been throwing in my heavy rotation lately. Basically, when I saw this compilation, I was ecstatic. As some of you may know, I have become a bit of an electro house freak lately and Quelectro! Volume 1 feeds right into my hunger for this style.

Cristian Paduraru kicks things off with "Sharing The Dancefloor", an almost tech-trance house-ish thing that borders on electro but is too pretty to be actual electro house. Parts of it simply remind me of good, old fashioned techno that I grew to know and love during my days of discovering various styles of dance music. The electro tracks for me really kick in with Discount Rhinos' remix of Timmy & Tommy's remake of Blondie's "Rapture". Funky, gritty, and slightly twisted.... That's what makes a great electro house track, and T&T bring it deep here.

Layers of Sound is always a good choice for house music with a great bassline and a tinge of 80's influence, as they do very well with "And There She Was Just Dancing (Da Fresh Remix)". I absolutely love the vocals in this track. Marco Petralia brings lush pads, tweaky basslines, and spoken vocals in his ode to house music, "Just Believe".

Cheyne Christian's "Up On Me" is something that I personally don't really care for. It doesn't really develop into anything beyond the rhythm sequence, a bassline, and a spoken male voice.

Discount Rhinos return again with another fantastic remix. This time, it's Mr Fuzz presents Twisty Fuzz, "Berlin Flight #1" – just what I am needing in an electro track. Hatstandy Andy's "This Heaven" is also included here. I have been playing this track quite a bit, so it's pretty obvious that I like it.

Lars Schneemann's "Take Control" remixed by A.C.K and Simon Point is an amazing track with slight chord elements that remind me of Technotronic's "Pump Up The Volume". I can easily see this being mashed with Ya Kid K's vocals. With lyrics proclaiming that the music alone "makes me who I am", Tim Richards presents a deep, almost ugly (in a good way) offering of house music, coupled with nice synth hits and some nice energy to keep the track driving.

Musically speaking, I am almost convinced that Man In A Room can do no wrong. "Evolution" is a brilliant journey that doesn't rely on the usual gritty basslines of most electro house. Instead, they build their track on some clever tweaking chord play. Lyrically, the track reflects what the artist desires to leave behind as his legacy as his last will and testament.

"Girls Like Robots" is a funny track that uses a Speak & Spell style vocal pattern to deliver its weird message. Ultimately, Thee-O and Steve Edwards fall short here because the track isn't developed into anything spectacular. It seems as if they were depending on the vocals to carry the track through, but it simply doesn't.

Source Code brings in the final track "Club Culture", which is a very interesting and strange sounding track in spots. Overall a very good track, but the repeating vocal "this is club culture...club culture" gets annoying after awhile.

Aside from a couple minor flaws, Quelectro! Volume 1 is a stellar presentation for any fan of house music. I highly recommend it. Also available for those fans of dance music who prefer mixsets, Queep has provided a DJ-mixed version of this collection for free right from their website. Just visit this link to download the DJ Mix version of Quelectro! Volume 1: www.queeporganicmusic.com/queepdjmixes.htm

Enjoy!