John Digweed – In Grooves & AOL Music DJ Sessions

John Digweed – In Grooves & AOL Music DJ Sessions

John Digweed’s latest effort is being exclusively released as a download as part of a collaboration between AOL Music and INgrooves. This is the first time the digital music label and AOL music will join forces to exclusively release an album online. It’s exciting times in the music industry — while some labels and music services scratch their heads over the iPod conundrum, a lot of creative folks are stepping up to solve new problems. And who better to start with than a digital pioneer like John Digweed. After all, a DJ set would just be downloaded anyway.

Stylistically, the set should come as no surprise to Diggers’ longtime fans. Chunky but funky deep progressive house, this is a showcase of solid set new tracks from lots of Bedrock artists, with new cuts that DJ’s are banging today in big rooms. Digweed is still less emotionally driven than his one-time Twilo counterpart, Sasha, and still eschews any vocal tracks, but he’s also got more house in his progressive than his earlier years, and it’s more fun.

While the tracks are solid and the marketing creative, the sound quality of the free download is someplace between "midi ringtone" and "rest stop Muzak". It would take a dedicated punter to sit through the free release. Maybe that’s how the team behind this release intends to get us to take the next step: to buy the album.

Rating 4.5 out of 5 stars