The first CD (featuring the mixing skills of Ben Sowton) is laden with soulful female vocal Garage tracks like "8 Letters" from Holmes Ives featuring Avalon Frost, Jay-J & Mark Grant featuring Latrice Barnett's "Love Is," and the charmingly cello-kissed "Dance With Me" from K-Klass with former Prince collaborator Rosie Gaines as well as plenty of repetitively mesmerizing, spacey tracks like Ross Couch's flute-filled "Feel It," the bongo-fronted "Controls The Sound" by Fresh And Low, or the graceful "Freeway" from Soularis. Chuck Love's "El Divorcee" has some lovely flamenco guitars over vintage 70s-styled organ while the "Beep beep yeah, hush hush yeah" loops on "Hush Hush" by Physics recalls Donna Summer's "Bad Girls," brought to you in a tightly complied, smoothly mixed set.
The Mateo and Matos mix on the second CD relies on pretty piano tracks with skipping beats like Vanessa Freeman's "The Way" or "Set You Free" from Eddie Matos as well as some more Latin-inspired tracks like two from Matos, "Cuanto Te Quiero" and "Quiere Bailar," both filled with sexy female vocal snippets over driving percussion and muy caliente piano breakdowns. This CD really hits its stride with the plethora of classic House-styled vocal cuts.
And as such while "Bar Grooves: Manhattan" was of course created to evoke the feeling of New York city nightlife, it should still be a firm fit with cosmopolitan types the world over.
