Tranquilo: The Winter Island Lounge Mix

This compilation came to market in late winter of 2006, a time when people in the Northern Hemisphere were starting to get just a bit impatient with the cold and the grey skies and ready for grooves that evoke sunshine and beach sand. DJ Sin Plomo (born in chilly Germany but currently based on sandy, sunny Ibiza) knew the feeling well and provided just what the doctor ordered with this collection -- one that has its share of generic filler but also offers some very fine and beachworthy tracks from a host of artists that will likely be unfamiliar to most North American listeners. On the less exciting side are a rather limp house anthem by NLS titled "Silk Samba" and the jazzy but ultimately repetitive and dreary "Fat Jazz" by Smoove & Spectrer. On the borderline creepy side is a strange exercise in found-sound lounge fusion by DJ FEX called "Mysterious Conversation." But these are nicely counterbalanced by Mikrokosmos' nicely jazz-inflected "White Window" and Grooveprofessor's soft and sexy "24 One," not to mention the subtly elegant groove of Nalin & Kane's "Beachball." Very nice overall, if not world-shaking.