Essential Mix

AMG Review of Essential Mix

MacKenzie Wilson
All Music Guide

Boy George is always an eclectic one who's a few steps ahead of the fashion game, but also one for a keen ear for what's stylistically enjoyable. He's fond of his days of fronting Culture Club, the dark and dreary ones, too, but he comfortably switched from cheeky pop to spinning decks as a mad mix master since the early '90s. His own Essential Mix is a testament to that rise, a trippy 17-track selection that boasts Boy George's own indulgence for dance music. It's a heavy spiral of agga and progressive house weaved with frenzied echno breaks, a tight swap of the new millennium's definitive music culture. He doesn't necessarily do something outrageously new, but the infectious club vibe in cuts like Boogie Macs' "Girl From Ipanema" and Cultural Diversion's "See Thru (MPcs Mix)" suggest Boy George's steady energetic pitch. His twisted "Trancesexual Mix" with Kinky Roland on Amanda Ghost's "Filthy Mind" transcends into vivacious groove of textured echno loops heightening Boy George's personal emotion that makes him want to feel the music. Essential Mix allows him to fully express his new musical jaunt without the pressure of what's current on the U.K. electronic scene, leaving him the opportunity to construct something that's compassionate, yet something wild.