Om Summer Session

Album Review

If you've got a four-hour drive down the Pacific Coast Highway ahead of you, and you're running low on appropriate tunes, then the Om label has come to your rescue with this well-packed, budget-priced, three-disc set of sunny, summertime club grooves. Each disc is a continuous DJ mix featuring the talents of one of three mixologists: Groove Junkies on disc one, Chuck Love on disc two, and DJ Fluid on disc three. Although the house-heavy tracks do tend to run together a bit about halfway through the program, none of them is less than pleasant, and a few jump out at you with particular force. Among the latter are a powerful gospel number titled "He Is" by a group with the rather strange name Copyright, Micky More's "Victory Dance" (which features some very jazzy flute playing and some wonderfully wanky wah-wah guitar), Iz & Diz's saucy "Magnificent," and Samantha James '80s-flavored and swooningly hooky "Rise." As she does on every compilation on which she appears, Colette steals the show with her rendition of "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" (presented here in a new mix by Chuck Love). If you're not going to be driving down the PCH anytime soon, then you can put any one of these discs on repeat and close your eyes and pretend. Highly recommended.