CD Reviews

Miss Nine

Yoshitoshi Ibiza | Yoshitoshi

By MICHAEL FREEDBERG | January 2, 2007

3.0 Stars

Recording her debut DJ CD for the Dubfire imprint Yoshitoshi, Miss Nine — a fashion model from Germany who has developed a solid reputation as a DJ in London — puts together a 12-track mix distinctive for its easygoing intensity. Harder, fiercer DJs (like Steve Lawler and Danny Tenaglia) may rule the dance floors of Ibiza, but Miss Nine’s softler, gentler sound will win over those who give it a chance. The set opens with an appropriate sigh of “oh how it feels . . . !” in Sultan and Zara’s “No Why,” and moves on up from there, to peppier and more-pointed beats — 16B featuring Morel’s “Escape (Driving to Heaven)” — to sky-high, European “psy-trance” (as the atmospheric ride of Anarcrusan’s “In My Mind” and PQM’s “You Are Sleeping” is called). Trippy sound effects, bizarre (and sexy) monologues, pinchy electronic beats, all of it much more lightheaded than the “obese bass” tracks found in much bluesier house-music sets, are the standard for Miss Nine. 16 Bit Lolita’s “Chunk Nology,” Cuba Computers’ “Haunting Me,” and Sam Perez & Dariush’s “Across the Ocean” all tell the same story, of faraway love affairs and flights of every sort of relaxing fancy; when the set finally gets to Eddie Amador’s well-loved (and somewhat sultrier) “6 A.M.,” you don’t really care any longer if the time is six in the morning or 15 o’clock in the bell tower. Exactly.

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