by Sterling McGarvey

Big stupid house. You know you miss it. Occasionally, in the midst of your love affair with other types of house, you know you think about some obnoxious, big room party shit. Yes, you do. Stop frontin' because your Live Journal posting, IDM hipster friends are nearby. For those very reasons, you might want to consider the latest offering from L.A.'s own Richard 'Humpty' Vission. It's not sultry. It's not subtle. It's got the consistency of bubble gum. Once it loses its flavor, Vission pops in another stick and gives you more flavor (and more gum). It's a 60-minute party on a disc. It's designed to bang your brains out, nothing more, nothing less, and damned if it doesn't get the job done.

Starting out with his usual interweaving of multiple tunes at once, Vission grips the listener and refuses to let go. Alongside mix CD usual suspects such as JJ Flores & Steve Smooth's "Release" (last seen on Bad Boy Bill's Behind the Decks and DJ Dan's Mixed Live San Francisco) and DJ Dan's "The Phone Track" (seen on Dan's Mixed Live also), Vission profiles the tracks that kept him so low profile for the past year. Opening with "Supafunka Futaristic," this is the high-energy stuff that conjures up images of girls with exposed midriffs dancing on sound stacks. Richard's been incognito for a long time; thusly, his fingerprints are all over this CD. Alongside his introductory track, there's the breaky "Been Along Time," Vission's electro-flavored tune with Static Revenger, "Sexy," and his peak hour crown jewel (you can tell by its placement in the mix), "Never Let Me Down."

Since the number of tracks is so staggeringly large, and many tracks are linked by a few simple vocals and a rapid transition, your standout tracks tend to last about a third of the length of a commercial break on TV. Among them, though, are the aforementioned "Release," twisted up with the "I'll House You" a capella, Andrea Doria's "Bucci Bag" into Mischa Daniels' "Pumping Groover" (possibly the funkiest disco house tune I've heard in eons--we're talking Dan's "Funk the System" here), Heavy Rock's "(I Want to Be a) Drummer," and the home stretch track "Like a Saxmachine."

Plus, Richard finally quit playing all that damn jump-up drum and bass two-thirds of the way through the CD the way he used to. The Urban Takeover remix of "Dopeman" has now been replaced by M.I.S.T. vs. High Contrast's "3 A.M.," and it's a welcome change.

Let me say that by no means is it a perfect CD. Sometimes the Velveeta factor goes screechingly out of control. Yet, it's one of those "you know what you're getting into" situations. This isn't a CD for making love by candlelight. This isn't a soundtrack to a wine tasting (unless you call Red Bull and vodka, "wine"). In conclusion, if you've got a membership at Shelter and you party there until noon, you might not dig this CD. If your idea of partying hard is to stand on the floor and tap your foot to glitch, this might not be the CD for you. For everyone else, this mix satisfies that primal urge to pump your fist, be it in a club or on the drive home. For that, it's worth looking into.

Richard 'Humpty' Vission - Big Floor Funk

Disc 1:

1. Amazing [Antoine Clamaran Remix]/Supafunka Futaristic - Alex Peace
2. Ride/Tha Underground Sound
3. Your DJ/Boom Shaka - Tony B!
4. Release/I'll House You - Jungle Brothers
5. Classika - Antoine Clamaran
6. No Matter What You Do - Benny Benassi
7. Phone Track
8. Been Along Time - Richard "Humpty" Vission
9. Throw the Smack Down/Can't Give You Up/This - Bryan Cox
10. Movin' Thru Your Speakers - Bryan Cox
11. Bucci Bag [RHV Mix]/I Said/Pumping Groover - Andrea Doria
12. Get Naked
13. Born Too Slow [Erick Morillo Main Mix] - The Crystal Method
14. Bogota/In the Music/Exit 303/Freaks (Keep Rockin') - Richard "Humpty" Vission
15. Ain't No Doubt [Roqsta Mix]
16. Take U There [J Flores & Steve Smooth Remix]/Preacher Free - Roland Clark
17. Money Shot/Deeper - Raya Beam
18. Calinda [Dub Mix]
19. Like You Do [Extended Mix]
20. Who Said (Stuck in the UK) - Planet Funk
21. Funk System
22. 3AM
23. Soulshine - DJ Craze
24. Hardcore Mother Fucker
25. Sexy - Static Revenger
26. Never Let Me Down - Richard "Humpty" Vission
27. (I Want to Be A) Drummer [Original Mix] - Heavy Rock
28. Super Magnetic/I Said - Joey Beltram
29. Like a Saxmachine
30. Everyone
31. Never Let Me Down [*][Multimedia Track] - Richard "Humpty" Vission