One of the best things about the pandemic has to be how the music industry has come together to support each other through these tough times. In an industry that has seen virtually no support labels like Tidy have been innovative and reinvented what they do. The label is on fire at the moment and when you listen to this you will soon understand why.
Not only have we seen the birth of TidyPro and hard dance producers channelling their talents into Pure Energy Go, a fitness platform of royalty free dance music of multiple genres, they have still managed to find the time to make the music they have a passion for.
The Tidy Lockdown Annual is the result of this work and not only is it an album to celebrate the great music that has been made, it also showcases some of what is forthcoming on Tidy with one or two that have already been released on the imprint and its sister labels. We see artists such as Signum, Technikal, Lee Haslam, Steve Hill, Paul Maddox, Nicholson, Bryn Whiting and Adam Dixon with original material chosen by DJ’s who would love the opportunity to play these tracks out in a club right now. The DJ’s that chose the tracks are Sam Townend, Signum, Rob Tissera, Lee Haslam, Tidy Boys, Anne Savage, Lisa Pin-Up, Paul Maddox, Flash Harry, NG, Nicholson, Digital Mafia and Ben Stevens. How do you even mix an album on Zoom???
This is an incredibly tough project to pull off, especially as it is mixed by twelve DJs, but it works well from the outset. Sam Townend’s choice sets the foundations for a solid first mix. CD one just builds and builds through melodies and a euphoria of tracks, seamlessly mixed and selected by DJs including the Tidy Boys, Signum and Rob Tissera, packing a energetic punch before Ben Stevens’ choices brings madness to the mix for the final climax.
Lee’s selection kicks off CD two with his trademark tough hard trance sound which includes his forthcoming release on tidytwo, The Power. Maddox’s Slightly Mad is a good sign of things to come from the original wonder boy of hard house and BK’s remix of Delicious fits nicely into the mix, rumoured to be released again with brand new set of remixes. Digital Mafia brings an element of good old bounce to the party with the choices of Anne Savage and Lisa Pin Up continuing this theme selecting tracks including Ingo’s Strobelight and Alf Graham & Dan Diamond’s Bring The Beat Back.
The Lockdown Annual is a bit special as it comes with a third disc… something that has never happened on an Annual before and the third disc is mixed by Tidy Weekender competition winner Discam. His performance was so good that Tidy have decided to release it as a bonus mix. It is probably one of the most streamed competition mixes so deserves to be immortalised on a physical release. It really is a fitting honour and shows that hard work does pay off. For the tastiest of Tidy classics with a couple of Vicious Circles’ thrown in… you can’t go wrong. Discam has been rumoured to have bought a new cap to celebrate.
This is a must have if you have all the Tidy Annuals… if you don’t own them all then the Confessions of The Tidy Boys Annual USB will sort that little problem out for you.
Yeah… this is definitely dancefloor material and that bonus Discam CD is the icing on the cake.
And don’t worry… it wouldn’t be a proper annual without the trademark Annual booklet now would it!
