A Night at the Tables

by John BushDirty Vegas, the smoothed-out trance trio with a commercial hit (literally), gets the mix-album treatment here, presumably in order to instill some underground cred into an act who desperately needs it. (The vast majority of dance producers spend years in the underground, making the success of Dirty Vegas rather suspect in certain circles.) Besides the fact that there are barely any tracks here not available on CD, A Night at the Tables is inoffensive enough, and a bit of a treat for those who liked the group's debut full-length of 2002. After opening with a pop track, a remix of Kylie Minogue's "Love at First Sight," the trio illustrates its house smarts with tracks from Murk men Oscar G and Ralph Falcon (the tribal "Dark Beat") and Chicago legend Frankie Knuckles ("Keep on Moving") and spin through lush, swirling trance more akin to their own style (Underworld's sublime "2 Months Off" and the Timo Maas mix of "See" by Starecase). The trio also find room for remixes of a pair of solid tracks from their LP, "Ghosts" and "I Should Know." Though the Dirty Vegas trio doubtless spends more time at the craps tables than with their turntables (Dimitri From Paris has nothing to worry about), A Night at the Tables displays an appreciable sense of dance culture and taste -- certainly much more than their own recordings.