Various - Trance Europe Express 3 (T.E.E.)

The third in a line of innovative concepts from the Volume people. If you haven't yet discovered Trance Europe Express, it's an excellent guide to what's happening in ambient house, this new compilation boasting an encyclopaedic 25 tracks (across 2 discs) with a 194 page colour booklet! Innovative pieces come from a lot of the top names of the scene including Air Liquide, 808 State, Ultramarine, William Orbit, U-Ziq and Volume-favourites Sun Electric and not-so innovative tracks from Joey Beltram and The Grid, but then if you've got a good idea, milk it I say!.

'Kincajou' by Banco De Gaia is a very funky slice of rhythm that could be mixed into both an ambient set and a hardcore dance set to give everyone a breather. Currently some artists seem to concentrate too much on sounds and textures at the expense of melody and groove, so when Luke Slater comes in after Banco it begins to sound like filler. Luckily Pulse are then mixed in, 'Carino (Silencio)' is a bleep anthem highly befitting to the compilations title.

With so much music it's difficult to separate the wood from the trees, but disc two definitely works best for me. Biosphere never fail to impress and their 'The Third Planet' is a spaced-out space view of the planet in question (earth!) viewed from afar... The second disc ends with a unique piece by Emergency Broadcast Network - '3:78' - which sounds like a never-before-heard meeting of jungle betas and jazz samples and on page 188 of the booklet we find that they have a taste for military hardware and perform multimedia "press conferences" featuring painting, music and video!

In a fit of unbridled generosity 808 State who have offered a free copy of the package to the first person that writes to them (@ PO Box 808, Hook, Basingstoke, RG25 1UF) with the answer to this question: Ambient music - where will it all end?! (7)


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