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The best single word to describe this one: solid.

Product Placement’s Menacing Vibrations has an awesome, fat sound to it. It’s simply huge; pitched somewhere in between dark psy and dark progressive, it rolls and punches and some of the frequencies being used are little short of amazing. Sesient’s Mind Breath is edgier and more paranoid than anything on his recent Antifluoro album, more suited to the nighttime with an intense, driving theme.

Hedonix do well with their All Hail Discordia, a wibblefest of twilight crunch overlaid with all kinds of samples and noises. It’s confident, ballsy, noisy and fresh. Dusty’s N’Hoffman has a smart intro that gives way to a thunking, powerful bit of nighttime. The production is topnotch, but the track loses its energy and at around the halfway mark I can see dancefloors losing concentration.

Luckily, Pulsar’s Mad Groove Engine more than makes up for this; wonderful sounds, heaps of changes, a sterling sense of humour and an unfolding, shifting vibe that’s proper psychedelic. Sensum picks up the pace with Bunker Beats, starting out moody and gradually picking up some bounce, morphing into a beautifully fluid bit of trance that sucks you into its core.

Artax’s Le Frequence is typical Artax really; he’s not an artist I’ve ever really connected with musically, and this track like many of his other ones just sound like noise to me – too many sounds at the same volume, perhaps.. but then maybe I’m getting old.

Melee’s Get It Off rolls along nicely and has plenty to keep a dancefloor going, and Temporary Unknown’s cheeky Vicious Delicious (nothing to do with Infected, one presumes) is an epic bit of chase-the-dawn stuff with a punchy clarity.

And finally, Ploogle’s Cascading Geometry closes the album in a shifty-squidgy, kaleidoscopic style; just the sort of oldskool-y psychedelia that everyone loves.

All in all this is a nice little album. The mix of established and new artists is compelling, and with an undercurrent of slight paranoia (possibly effected by Sensient’s mastering) it’s got a strongly individual presence. Quality stuff.  

8