4hero/Various

For the third release in the …Mixing series on Sonar Kollektiv, the helm is taken by 4hero’s Dego (Dennis McFarlane) and as one would expect, it contains its share of obscure, soulful, jazz/funk nuggets that influenced him so much, as was the case in their Life:Style mix. But where this album differs is in the variety of other classic gems from his record collection, past and present. Dego delves all the way into his favourites with some rich dub reggae (the Skatalites and Scientist), more recent hip-hop/R&B (Sa-Ra), Little Brother and the late J Dilla, right back to disco electronica with Two Sisters’ "High Noon” giving the mix a more interesting journey than those done before under the 4hero moniker. Interspersed with the elegant funky soul of tracks such as "Message In The Music,” the album remains rooted with 4hero flavour and though there isn’t a great deal of technical mixing, the 15 tracks flow well. Perhaps the only major criticism is that the CD ends a little too soon, at a spare 42 minutes.