Global Underground: Transmission 00:1

Rating:
Summary: Spend A Day With The 'Boxed Boys'
Review: 'Transmission 00:1' is the first DVD released off the Global Underground label. What's included are loads of special features, including a private interview with Sasha by famed Mixmag Magazine editor Dom Phillips, a brief clip of the Berlin Love Parade with NY House DJ Danny Tenaglia spinning on one of the floats, and a short film titled 'Getting Away With It', which gives a unique look behind the scenes of the Global Underground franchise through the eyes of the two men in charge, James Todd and Andy Horsfield.

If you're not familiar with the Global Underground, here's a good opportunity to learn more. Notoriously known as the world's most respected label in producing quality dance mixes, it has released over 20 top-notch CDs that capture the sounds of the most internationally reknowned DJs on the planet. This is where pioneers such as Sasha, John Digweed, Dave Seaman, and Nick Warren have shaped the sound that they now play for dancefloors everywhere.

'Getting Away With It' is the main feature on this DVD, and was a documentary made for the UK's Channel 4. The film was shown at such locations as Australia, New Zealand, Eire, and at the Leeds Film Festival, garnering rave critical reviews from such sources as Jockey Slut Magazine, NME Magazine, and radio announcer Pete Tong of Radio One fame. Clocking in at around 50 minutes long, the documentary focuses around 'Boxed Boys' James and Andy and their escapades around the world with DJs Dave Seaman, Sasha, Anthony Pappa, Nick Warren, and Darren Emerson. They cover countries such as Buenos Aires, Budapest, Ibiza, and London to name but a few. Some highlights include Dave Seaman wearing a straw hat while trying to breakdance, Sasha arriving to perform at the mayor of San Antonio's private party only to find the nightclub near-empty (a very embarrassing but hilarious moment), and seeing Darren Emerson at his recording session for the 'Uruguay' CD. You also get to see the people behind the Global Underground's marketing (and what brilliant marketers they are).

The best part of the DVD, at least for me, was not the 'Getting Away With It' portion but actually two separate featurettes: 'Danny Tenaglia at the Love Parade' and the Sasha interview. If you've never been to the Berlin Love Parade (this includes me), this short clip will give you a very accurate feeling of what it would be like to be there. The Sasha interview was also a great added feature, probably mostly for the fact that this is the only DVD I can think of that features a Sasha interview.

The main reason I didn't give this DVD the best rating was because of the 'Travelling The World With The Speed Of Sound' portion. This was actually just instrumental tracks playing in the background while abstract images invaded your television. It was completely unnecessary, boring, and took valuable time away from the DVD that could have been used to put something more interesting in. Apparently, the images were just stock photography that weren't put to use in the main film. Very sloppily made. I also never felt that the main documentary was ever too entirely interesting either.

>>> 3 stars for excellent DVD packaging (comes in a unique case and design) and for giving us an unrestrained look at the globe-trotting business.

- the enlightened one

If Global Underground releases another DVD, they should definitely include DJ interviews with John Digweed, Paul Oakenfold, and Deep Dish. Wouldn't life be grand then?

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting, lacks music content
Review: this dvd was pretty cool but was not at all what i expected it to be, it is basically a documentary on the boxed boys and their travels with some of their artists, if you are curious on the global underground scene then this is for you, but if you are looking for music then this is definitely not what you are looking for

Rating:
Summary: An awful commentary on a series that isn't like this at all
Review: TRANSMISSION00:1 is the first DVD offering from Boxed Records in their Global Underground series. It combines several features from 1998 to 2000. First is the Channel 4 documentary "Getting Away With It", which tracks James and Andy of Boxed Records as they travel all over the world and coordinate one of the most successful compilations series in dance music. Three DJ interviews follows, with Sasha on a roof in Ibiza, Danny Tenaglia at the Love Parade in Berlin, and Dave Seaman in Buenos Aires. The final two parts are is "Travelling The World With The Speed of Sound", an unsubstantial "ambient movie", and a photo gallery of shots by GU's photographer Dean Belcher. While Global Underground has featured some of the best sets in the quality dance music of the last five years, this DVD is incredibly disappointing.

The first thing that strikes a person buying this DVD, even before you put it in the player, is how old the material on it is. TRANSMISSION00:1 was released in November of 2001, but the latest thing on it is from June 2000, which is ages ago in the fast-moving world of underground music. It would have been nice to see some more recent material, such as charting John Digweed's controversial and revolutionary L.A. sets in Fall 2000, and Danny Howell's entrance into the Nubreed roster.

The second problem with the DVD is how cheesy it is. Global Underground was the first series to feature dance music for its *artistic* value, and it abstained from the psychadelic anthemic trance that was followed by young people for its chemical scene. TRANSMISSION00:1, however, features a bizarre obsession with transvestites, inverted-colour shots of topless girls and lesbian homoeroticism, and slow-motion wading of enraptured dancers. All this would alienate any viewer not under the influence of drugs and it's a mystery why Boxed had to pack the DVD with these scenes. The interview with Sasha shows a DJ so intoxicated that he can barely form a sentence. None of this is helping to interest the public in Global Underground's excellent line of retrospectives.

Also, those looking to hear some tunes they've never heard before will find little new on this DVD. While there is footage of DJ's spinning, the soundtrack is replaced by loops of music from the CDs. The Sasha interview has the same few bars of Aquilla - "Dreamstate (LSG Mix)" looped over it for several minutes, which gets pretty annoying. "Travelling The World With The Speed of Sound" features original music by The Forth and Digital Monkeys, but listening to it shows why The Forth has remained a second-tier producer at best.

Global Underground CD's are amazing pieces of innovative dance music that don't fall to enthrall. If you've never heard them before, try Sasha's SAN FRANCISCO retrospective or Satoshi Tomiie's Nubreed006. TRANSMISSION00:1 however is an immensely poor quality DVD that misportrays the underground trance and progressive house scene and makes the Global Underground series look like ectasy-fueled psychadelia.