On October 7th, the dance world will get a chance to hear something that they have been eagerly anticipating for a very long time- Air Farina. Mark Farina, San Francisco’s famed house/downtempo DJ, finally drops his debut artist album of original material, and I have to admit that many longtime fans are approaching the release with a sense of slight trepidation. The reason for that slight apprehension is because Mark Farina means so much to so many people, and no one wants his fabulous reputation to get tarnished for any reason. Mark Farina is responsible for rocking many dancefloors around the world. He has introduced millions to the wonders of house music, while giving millions others the best clubbing experiences of their lives. He’s also responsible for a small portion of the world’s population thanks to the smooth, sexy grooves of his seminal Mushroom Jazz series.
Air Farina is designed with a transcontinental flight concept and incorporates a variety of travel themes into Mark’s original productions, which makes perfect sense considering how much time this man spends in airports; touring & playing year round to over 300,000 club goers a year.
Known around the world for performing his two legendary DJ styles- instrumental downtempo mixed with jazzy soul known as Mushroom Jazz and his funky, Chicago house sound found on previous Om offerings, San Francisco Sessions and Connect. For Air Farina, Mark chose to “include both tempos in my album giving it a little of my "mushroom" flavor and of course the weird Chicago/SF house goodies.” Joining Mark on his laptop excursions are special guests Kaskade, People Under the Stairs, Sean Hayes and Lance Desardi.
As long listeners approach this release with the knowledge that this album is original material drawn from the mind of Mark Farina and NOT one of his classic DJ sets committed to the digital domain, then I find no reason why anyone should be disappointed. Sure the songs tend to sound similar, but when we are talking about Mark Farina, is that really so bad? (A certain analogy between pizza & sex comes to mind.) Production similarity is the nature of an artist album, as opposed to a mix compilation of various artists, so get over it. It’s Mark-friggin’-Farina! How bad could it possibly be? Trust me- it isn’t bad at all.
