DJ Maxwell - Trust No One

Genre: Lento Violento, ItaloDance
Label: Atlantis
Type of media: CD
Bought at: www.saifam.com
Reviewed by: Christopher von Würden
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars


Massimiliano Pompegnani better known as DJ Maxwell started as a DJ in the 1990s in Italian radio but came out as producer in 2000 mostly as remixer, but soon got success with his own distinctive style. Later he got hired as producer of massive success group Paps'N'Skar, popular singer Billy More and Gabry Ponte. But after the descend in popularity of italodance the amount of releases from DJ Maxwell descended too and shortly after he changed style mostly to Lento Violento after meeting Gigi D'Agostino in a club.

Trust No One is the first album from DJ Maxwell. Finally released after the first rumors started circulating in 2007, although with a very different track list than first anticipated. It would be a shame to blame him for sleeping since the promised release in fall 2007, cause he has been touring a lot with Gigi D'Agostino who most certainly had a huge impact on the sound this album ended up with. With totally 38 tracks I will not go into details with every track. The album contains 2 CDs both very different in consistency but with the same first track in different versions "Fly To The Sky", a silent and a powerful version. A concept obviously inspired by Gigi. CD1 is the best of the two with the most interesting tracks such as "Wellness", "Love Is The Power", "Sandstorm" (A cover of Darude) and "Sottomarino" a powerful Lento Violento track.

CD2 includes the powerful version of "Fly To The Sky" which also is a very well produced track. Others worth mentioning are "Firewalker", "Dighi Bongo", "Shambala" - a very melodic track - and "Y We Go".
Unfortunately, and this counts for both CDs, they also include many experimenting, what I would call not-fully thought through, productions such as the Blade Runner theme remix, "Tipico" or "Rotolando" and this brings some inconsistency into the sound picture of each CD - What is a hard trance version of "La Bambolina" doing here?
It is not fair to criticize the overall production quality as it is fairly well, but the album sort of needs some individuality from DJ Maxwell's side. After 3 albums from Gigi D'Agostino and 1 album from Luca Noise the sound of DJ Maxwell is alarmingly equal to theirs. After being in the business for such a long time one should think he had a little more individual touch to add. Also, compared to productions from Luca Noise and Gigi, DJ Maxwell's are a little simpler while the others have more detail.

All that said it is generally a good album, however. Some of the previously mentioned tracks really gets you off the chair while some leaves you to catch your breath. If you just skip the worst productions you actually get a very decent listening experience. If you like the Lento Violento productions from Gigi D'Agostino and Luca Noise you will surely love this album, and with a little more originality Maxwell could quite as well become the most prominent producer of this trio.