Destination Lounge: San Francisco

HinweiseThis is an intoxicating double-CD set that fully captures the current chill-out scene divided neatly into two themes, "Relax" on the first and "Revive" on the second. As a resident of San Francisco, I have been to a few of the so-called chill-out bars in the area, such as Foreign Cinema, Swig and Levende Lounge. My belated entrée into this once underground territory certainly means this genre has come up beyond the musically hip crowd and turned into a strong commercial force that synthesizes electronica, downtempo, nu jazz and world music with true craftsmanship.

Disc one has a whirling sense of the Middle East and India heavily steeped into electronica. "Relax" offers an unmixed warm-up with tracks from up-and-coming musicians like Julius Papp, Romanowski and Joonbug. Standout tracks include Karsh Kale's "Milan", Romanowski's "North South East West", Mystery School Ensemble's "Transitions", and Karmacoda's "Awaken". Disc two is appropriately entitled "Revive", as it is a relatively more heated affair with San Francisco's DJ F mixing up tracks by local artists Miguel Migs and Jay-J, here appearing with Halo Varga and Latrice Barnett, as well as some female imports like Detroit's K Hand and London singer/songwriter Haley. In spite of its more uptempo presentation, the pacing on disc two is really mid-range and not all that aggressive. The tracks have energy but with a soft touch, starting off with the soulful jazz of "What I Want". "Palmetto", "Gotta Keep Movin'", and "The Night (Andy Caldwell Mix)" enhance the house-type theme, while more variety is introduced with numbers like the minimal "Listen to the Fog" and the pop-funk of "Get Down". This compilation proves there is life for this type of music beyond the clubs. Hard to resist the beats on these tracks.