We can't let the government bother me...

As I had written before, getting a dance mix CD is a hit-or-miss proposition. With a tracklist that can either be obscure, boring, or frivolous, they sometimes can have a shelf life a little longer than my milk in the frig. Usually signs of a worthy one are either 1) contains hard-to-find but popular tracks, 2) a good percentage of anthemic hit songs, or 3) an interesting mix format (you can usually never find all three together). Party Groove: Soakin' Wet 2 is pretty good with two of the three.

Since it's put out by Centaur Records, which pretty much is committed to dance music, the mixer David Knapp is able license out a lot of top-shelf hits, including five #1 Dance Club play songs, as well as a couple more hitting the top 5. That's half the tracks, so so far so good. The CD begins with the 2006 remix of Jody Watley's "Looking For A New Love" which darkens up the original without making it too overly tribal. Next comes Blaze's "Most Precious Love" featuring Barbara Tucker. Great retro-house anthem kinda remindful of Sounds Of Blackness. Georgie Porgie brings "Sunshine", a nice summer breezy dance song that's like a latin freestyle act like TKA doing a Whispers song. That's three #1's in a row to kick it off. Not bad.

Next Knapp pulls out a remix of "Le Freak" done by Japanese dance-jazz artists GTS with Norma Jean and Luci M from Chic itself. As this song is way hard to find anywhere, it's way appreciated, though I still prefer the original. From here though comes a little lull, with 3 lesser songs (Ceevox's OK "Quick Fix", and the forgettable instrumentals "Tabasco" and "Latin Express") losing your interest for a little bit. If you can hang on through that, though, you have the excellent Cruz mix of Deepa Soul's "As I Am", which pairs a dark tribal groove to a positive lyric message for a change. That flows into the sleeper diva-ish "Ain't No One" then to a version of Chus & Ceballos' "Low Frequencies" which is better utilized on other comps like DJ Boris' Unleashed. Then we're back in the larger acts with Funky Green Dogs' "Reach For Me" (not their best song, but not crap). Then when you least expect it comes another one-two punch of #1 songs, this time two gospel tinged house burners - Vernessa Mitchell's hard-to-find "Accept Me" and Sisaundra's uplifting "Shout". If it would end there it would be fabulous, but Knapp adds an expendable if not totally horrible version if "Could It Be Magic" be Vic & Chicola (I mean, we can get current remixes of Barry Manilow's, for cryin out loud). That choice of final song fizzles out the CD when it could've been more effective closing with "Shout".

Knapp mixes up awkwardly between the songs, making it almost seem saturday-night radio mixshow muddled. No breakdowns, no interplay, just straight beatmixing. Nothing's really taken for a chance here, so for that it misses it's total potential. However with a couple really hard-to-find songs like "Le Freak", "As I Am", "Accept Me", and "Shout", Party Groove: Soaking Wet 2 in end the has more assets than debits. Though you may be tempted to hit the forward button a couple times, not good for a mixtape.

Grade: B-
Best Cuts: "Most Precious Love", "Sunshine", "As I Am", "Shout"
Weakest Links: "Could It Be Magic", "Tabasco"

"Looking For A New Love" hit #1 on the Dance Club Play chart.
"Most Precious Love" hit #1 on the Dance Club Play Chart and #17 in the UK.
"Sunshine" made #1 on Dance Club Play, and #17 on Dance Radio.
"Le Freak" made #2 on Dance Club Play.
"As I Am" hit #4 Dance Club Play.
"Accept Me" made #1 Dance Club Play.
"Shout" made #1 Dance Club Play.

You can buy Party Groove: Soaking Wet either here or here.

To listen to the GTS version of "Le Freak" click here. (right click to bring new window)

And here's the very cheesy video to Georgie Porgie's song on this CD, "Sunshine".