Danny Tenaglia – Global Underground 010: Athens

Danny, i bought this on day of release and still listen to it, you're my musical hero, love you like a brother from another mother, THE best and most REAL DJ!!

Track 1 is this one, it's listed wrong here. https://www.discogs.sitioby.com/release/212943-Various-St%C3%A9r%C3%A9o-Dancer

***New Danny Tenaglia - Brooklyn #GU45 is coming....
https://www.globalunderground.co.uk/product/gu45-danny-tenaglia-brooklyn/
Looking forwards to this one :-)

Let it be known as I purchased this back in its original release of ‘99 that it still holds near perfect - my mid knight sound the likes of factory, industry and warehouses I dream. Felt all around with a feeling of infinite majesty, intrinsically coded as a transcendent script of the universe and nothing short of magnificence from the magistrate. Danny T is none too short a gentleman, scholar and true believer, to I as his lord classify mr. T the moniker of roundhouse music with another godfather alongside Frankie Knuckles in my personal round table. He gets my magistrate with my bum bam bang on the tam tam. Tom Tom for genius of the genesis. Consequence of confection, synes phone in halios for the answer. Celeda for the signal call shout of amongst the celestial comets round fourth. Dub wise short of reigning for Salena stars calling from within and within cultivating jah rule. The reaction is for yours to claim. There are moments of peaks and valleys in a rhythm of controlled computer madness, numbers leave none left behind. Words are often left for grabbing hands. Everything counts in mass. Hot or cold. Rays of pavilion through the unconscious, this double disc is truly special. The story contained within is best left open to interpretation and your choice to enjoy them. I can only recommend it as it is something that has kept me moving to swing and away as a classic for the ages. May it remain solidissimo of and as itself oval and opal containment to and rewards moments of ecstasy and towards a peak of pleasure celebrating club culture unclassifiable past its spinning disc and wheel er and time. To exist.
That is to say, it’s grrreat! Zion zaps zero. Slightly strike for Sinatra betwixt! The Hacker & Miss meowsers kittin. Rwoar alongside with no less a tiny tips of a tiger bite swift!

For fans of this mix, here's a list and links to the original records: https://www.discogs.sitioby.com/lists/Danny-Tenaglia--GU010-Athens-THE-RECORDS/967264#

It's my geeky little hobby when I'm bored :-)

GU10 is one of the most fully-realized dance music compilations of all time by a larger-than-life artist.

Danny Tenaglia has always been a deejay's deejay, an artist who stood outside the boundaries and made his own rules. He's not without his share of mystery-- something impenetrable about the man. His music, spellbinding, provides its own guilt-free vision of hell and no cliches. It was the perfect soundtrack to the hedonistic nineties. I miss nothing in life. No regrets. But I'd give anything to be back on that dance-floor at the Factory and that Steve Dash sound-system when Danny is playing.

I first heard him at Fifth Column in DC in 1992 or 1993 when Dubfire (formerly of Deep Dish) brought him so the rest of us could have a listen at his New York boy with the weird name that he kept raving about. And man. From the first time on you could tell there was fire in that belly.

LeTenia, Paris (2014)

The first disc of this compilation was basically my introduction to proper EDM. I still don’t really recall why I had a copy of it illegally ed on my hard drive (I’ve since bought proper copies of the CD) but I did and the rest is, as they say, history.

Ten years after first hearing disc one I am confident that my view that it is one of the finest expressions of electronic music you’ll ever hear is not about sentiment anywhere near as much as it is a reflection of the reality that disc one becomes more relevant every time I hear it. Timelessness is a great indicator of a quality release; that this disc seems to become more relevant on each listen suggests a rare genius on the part of the artist.

Before I go any further I ought to deal with disc 2 and the release as a whole. There probably isn’t much that can be added to the comments of those who have previously posted on this page. To sum it up, the two CDs are a perfectly cohesive narrative for an increasingly rare style of DJing/track selection and a sound that is essentially a genre of its own (GU 10 spans the deepest house through to uplifting trance and covers everything in between without a single hint that one sound is even slightly out of place).

The down point with disc two, following the inevitable comparison with disc one, is that it ultimately dated even if it took the best part of a decade to do so. It is probably just another way of articulating the strength of this release to say that the pitched down techno of disc two was probably the motivation for the dark tribal and progressive house favoured by many world renowned DJs for the best part of 10 years after the release of GU10.

Getting back to the first disc, I was initially fascinated by the raw sexuality present throughout which, when combined with the stunning depth of the opening sequence of tracks conjured a mystique about Tenaglia, NYC and Tunnel (about which I had read so much) which I’ve never really gotten over.

I wouldn’t even know where to start if I was to select a favourite track. Anthony and Tuttle’s (incorrectly referred to as “Stereo Dancer”) touch up of Cyrus’ “Presence”, renamed “Absolute Reason”, sets the tone perfectly with its cavernous yet slow burning dub chords. Lapis Lazuli is the bridge which connects the opening dub sequence with the irreverent sleaze and dark funk of BPT’s “Moody” and Ciafone’s Chiapet remix of “Turn Me On”.

Tenaglia consolidates with “System Error” which, again, bridges the previous phase of the mix with the next, soulful/tribal segment. The layering of the “Music is the Answer” vocals on Dahlback’s remix of “The Real Jazz” is a particular highlight, breathing a genuinely soulful flair into a mix that, to this point, has a purely dark aesthetic.

“Dom Dom Jump” and Delano’s “Dejabo” drag the mix back into the black with Dejabo in particular suffocating the mix under its distorted, grinding dubby stabs. This is somehow the precursor to the set’s most uplifting moment and perhaps its masterstroke.

The set then takes off, soaring on the back of “The Water Song’s” incredible otherworldly melodies, beginning the crescendo of the mix. Mull’s “Round Midnight” substitutes the uplifting grace of Scumfrog’s track with the driving kicks of one of the better tracks to come out of the first wave of Sweedish techno, while EBE’s “Deimos” takes the set to its climax. Any fans of Basic Channel and dub techno would appreciate that Deimos is one of the genre’s best tracks and, as far as I can tell, is a chronically under-utilised and under-appreciated techno track.

Finally, and without anywhere else to go, Tenaglia turns to the pure filth of Miss Kitten & The Hacker’s “Frank Sinatra” and Rother’s “Red Light District” in a move that seems ridiculously obvious, because it is such a perfect conclusion, but for the reality that DT is possibly the only guy that would think to pull it off.

With the benefit of five or six years of delving as far into house and techno, and electronic music generally, as time will permit it seems Tengalia’s masterful combination of deep and dark house, dub (even tribal) techno and electro was so far ahead of its time that the scene has only really caught up with it in the last few years.

Without having identified anything else that matches GU10 disc one earlier in time or in the 10 years following, I consider it to be the blueprint for a style of music that, whatever Tenaglia was doing at Tunnel aside, had no real wide ranging expression until 2008/2009 and the emergence of the NYC/Bunker guys like Levon Vincent, DJ Qu, Joey Anderson, Anthony Parasole, and Eric Cloutier. I’d love to get the views of this “second wave” on the significance of this release to what what they are now doing. It may have taken too long but it seems that this sound has finally founds its place. If this was their motivation it is no coincidence that these guys have gone on to take the world by storm.

Disc one is good, Disc two is one my favorite mixes ever. Recently listened to it on a road trip driving through the canyons of Utah as the sun was coming up and at that moment, with the scenery, it sounded amazing. I will always have a certain nostalgia for these GU Mixes. Athens, San Francisco, New York and London are my favorites. They were so influential to my taste in dance music throughout my early 20's. There is plenty of good music now [2016], but these early GU releases were in a class by themselves.

The first time I listened to this I thought it was boring, aside for two tracks that just totally captured me, BPT's Moody, and the John Ciafone dub of Turn Me On. I gave it a second listen, and I was like, wait, this isn't so bad. It's pretty good. "Frank Sinatra" is catchy even though it's completely stupid, and Red Light District is pretty groovy too. On the third listen, it finally clicked. It's an immense journey and certainly validated the hype that I was hearing about Tenaglia back during this time. It always puts a smile on my face. Everyone knows about Digweed's and Sasha's contributions to the GU series, but poor old Danny Tenaglia gets overlooked. Don't make that mistake.

One of my favorite mixes ever, especially ing being right there at the tunnel listening to Miss Kittin live.... not just listening to it, but watching it all happen in front of me word for word. This 2 cd set was perfectly put together and I will always regard it as one of the best, just like the DJ.