Essence of The Forest

   by Deep In The Jungle Staff
   02/23/04

Introduction
Essence of the Forest is Deep Forest's new best of compilation. The new album features 21 songs (a hefty hour and 17 minutes long) from their four studio releases as well as one song from Pacifique. It should be noted that this greatest hits album is not entirely brand new, instead its more like Essence version 2.0.

This CD was initially released to Japan in February of 2003 (released to Australia in August 2003), with the slightly different title Essence of Deep Forest. The release came just prior to Deep Forest's Japanese 'Dear Friend' tour, which was supposed to be followed by an international tour (the world tour never panned out). Essence of Deep Forest was scheduled to hit the rest of the world later that spring, but the album got scrapped. Instead Deep Forest decided that they wanted the compilation to have a more chill-out/ambient feel than the Japanese edition, and so a new tracklist was put together.

Essence of the Forest not only includes the Yuki Song, Will You be Ready and Sweet Lullaby (2003 version feat Ana Torroja) mixes featured on the Japanese edition, but also included are new 2004 mixes of Sweet Lullaby, Desert Walk and Night Bird. That's six new mixes! This may be the first time you are better off getting the European and not the Japanese release.


The Music
Faster upbeat songs like Cafe Europa, Madazulu, Endangered Species and While the Earth Sleeps (soundtrack of Strange Days) were excluded from this mix, as well as any of their remixes from the mid 90's. The new song lineup is indeed meant to show Deep Forest's more mellow and ambient side.

2004 Mixes
The opening track of Essence of the Forest is the 2004 version of Sweet Lullaby. The new 2004 mixes are not different enough from the originals, that fans will miss them. The main vocals and overall feel of music remain the same. What slight changes were made, help to rejuvenate the sound of these three songs, and give Deep Forest listeners a small pleasant twist on their oldest music.

The new Sweet Lullaby has the most changes, a heavier beat, added digitized cricket-like chirping in the intro, and new yodel and pan flute samples played during the refrain. The new version of Night Bird also carries a harder beat, like in Sweet Lullaby, with the biggest changes being again in the refrain. It's hard to put Deep Forest's synth wizardry into words, but it seems like the vocals during the refrain were either further altered or replaced with samples that sound like a cross between a pygmy yodel and pan flute (cool stuff).

The changes made to Desert Walk are the most subtle of the new mixes. The percussion is the same as the original except it's more muffled, and when going back and forth between the original and new version, it's as though the pitch in the 2004 mix of Desert Walk was slightly lowered. The effect makes the mix sound slower, more mellow, probably done to meet the compilations ambient mood.

Bonus Tracks (2003 Mixes)
I won't go into too much depth about the three bonus tracks Will You be Ready (be prepared remix), Yuki Song (remix) and Sweet Lullaby (2003 version), since they were already reviewed when the Japanese edition came out. The remix of Will You be Ready is not much different, basically more guitars and clashing symbols, a harder rock feel.

The Yuki Song remix has some added piano at the beginning of the song (quite nice), and additional vocorder vocals by BJ Scott during the refrain. The remix personally appeals to me more than the original. Finally the 2003 version of Sweet Lullaby features Ana Torroja who replaces the main vocals of the original song. This mix was done in the style of Music Detected, with live drums and guitars. A nice alterative-rock-pop version of Sweet Lullaby.

Conclusion
It is hard to say much about Deep Forest's choice in songs. Putting together a best of album for a group like Deep Forest, where style varies so greatly from album to album, is very difficult. Few fans will find all the songs they were hoping for but most will find at least a couple. There are a couple things I'll note. One, the end of Anastasia contains the clapping that leads into Bohemian Ballet, but since that song was taken out, Anastasia instead rather abruptly continues on to Freedom Cry. Secondly, having two versions of Yuki Song and Will You be Ready, isn't neccessary. It would have been a better choice to just have the two remix versions and two other Deep Forest songs.

But, the six new mixes make this a worth while purchase, even for those Deep Forest fans who already own all their major albums. In addition to the music you'll also receive some nice new Deep Forest art within the CD case and booklet. The booklet also contains an updated DF biography (the reference to an upcoming 2003 international tour found in the Japanese edition was removed : ) and list of their major award nominations and album sales.

If the tracklist doesn't satisfy you, have a look at the Japanese edition. The packaging is almost identical, you don't miss out there, but you do miss out on the 2004 mixes.

Deep Forest's Essence of the Forest was release across much of Europe February 12th, and will be available in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand the first week of March. There are no release dates for the US and Latin America as of yet.