Product Description

'First Contact' includes the track 'Another Chance' which provided Defected Records with their first no.1 single. The New York born DJ/producer/remixer provides his own brand of house and electronica on this release.

Track Listing

1. Computabank
2. Another Chance
3. Contact
4. You Can't Change Me
5. The Partee
6. Ventura
7. I Never Knew
8. Nothing
9. Prove
10. Try

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97399 in Music
• Released on: 2001-07-30
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Roger's been listening to a lot of Kraftwerk and Daft Punk lately, soaking up old German references alongside the French formula for commercial success with First Contact. "Computabank" takes us right back to the days of electro when Roger S (as he's billed Stateside) was a graffiti artist, breakdancer and architecture student. The 30-something New York producer has been slow coming round to making music. Despite being on the scene as a high profile DJ and remixer for some 15 years this is his first pure solo album. There have been singles (such as the amazing "Luv Dancin" on Strictly Rhythm to the frankly disappointing cover of Chic's "I Want Your Love" on Perpetual Records) but this time the S Man has hit all the right notes, albeit with a nose for the mainstream. This album has already given him a surprise UK No. 1 hit with the disco funk of "Another Chance" and there's perhaps a couple more top 10s in here, particularly the classic US garage sound of "You Can't Change Me", a cut well within the range of Arman Van Helden's and Masters At Work's best outings. He only really slips up on the cheesy "The Partee" where he tries to be too Latin for his own good, chasing that impossible Basement Jaxx/Ricky Martin crossover audience. A regular on the UK super-club scene and the Mediterranean isles, Sanchez should now be a permanent fixture in the charts. --Jake Barnes

Customer Reviews

3 years too late
This is a tired album full of filler material. This easy-listening house music died a death some years ago. Now Sanchez is on a one-man mission to bring it back. For such a talented DJ, this is a big dissappointment.

Roger Sanchez serves up 'Another Chance' and 8 album-fillers
Well, I dont want to have to slate this album because its true that there's a lot of rubbish in the charts these days, but I'm going to discuss the flaws of this album in the context of it being a Roger Sanchez release, the man who has such a sterling reputation for funky house tomfoolery to uphold. Anyway, the S Man's long-awaited solo debut has finally arrived on Defected, but those expecting a collection of tracks to begin to match the quality of 'Another Chance' are going to be a little bit disappointed. There is simply no other track on this album to even approach the appeal of the infectious disco groove and dreamy blue-eyed male vocal sample which helped rocket this track to a UK no. 1 spot.

The album starts off promisingly enough with the punchy electro bass thump of 'Computabank' serving as a taster for bigger and better things to come....but they never do, and after the joys of track 2, we see a slump into relative mediocrity. The collaboration with Armand Van Helden and N'Dea Davenport on 'You Cant Change Me' had potential for being a heavyweight tune, but in my humble opinion this track is ultimately let down by a shoddy, uninspired and frustratingly bland chorus hook, which I swear I could have penned myself after 8 pints of beer and a lobotomy. It's also a moderate waste of Davenport's obvious talent as a versatile purveyor of the soulful vocal, which is used to better effect on 'The Look Of Love', a heart-warmingly soulful ballad on Jose Padilla's current 'Navigator' release.

I really wanted to enjoy 'First Contact', and maybe I'm being a bit over-critical, but it seemed that the majority of tracks on this album were lacking something, whether it be a decent vocal melody, a funkier vocal hook or sample, or indeed a beat which doesnt sound as if it were a direct sample of Roger bangin' on a steel bin lid with a rolling pin, as is the case with 'I Never Knew', an otherwise faultless dancefloor booty-shaker which was originally released back in 1999 and would be so much better with one of Sanchez's more smoother flowing grooves. I've just noticed that it seems like the other 8 tracks on this album that aren't 'Another Chance' only server to while away a few minutes until you feel the need to listen to track 2 again..try it, its amazing how good Roger's biggest hit to date sounds after trawling through the rest of his album first!

Having said this, it's by no means a bad album, it's simply that I expected a bit more than 'Another Chance' and 8 run-of-the-mill cuts from the one they call the S Man.

Housing it up
This is a top class album that puts life back into the fragmented house scene. The success of 'Another Chance' showed that people can still pick a masterclass from the huge amount of rubbish pop and hip-hop in the charts. This album follows on from that success nicely by adopting different styles, such as funky house, electro, latino and chill-out. 'I Never Knew' is a real gem, which I believe will go very far, and 'U Can't Change Me' which will doubtlessly be a top twenty hit at least. 'Nothing 2 prove' featuring Sharleen Spiteri (The Texas lead singer) is another great cut of house music. It's not the best album to have graced our shores, but it puts many other albums on the market to shame.