Various - The Secret Life Of Trance 4 (Rising High)

Someone asked me the other day, 'where did rave go?'. Not that they wanted it to come back or anything, but they had a point. One moment it was there, coming at you big, fat and fluorescent from all angles via endless compilations and novelty singles like 'Poing', the next minute it's gone. Don't panic, rave isn't back but there's some of it's positive energy and BPMs in a lot of the tracks on this new quadruple LP, minus the any of the tacky hooks and chants, of course.

Sitting somewhere between ambient and jungle and with a touch of that rave energy are tracks from a host of atmospheric house artists like Neutron 9000, Air Liquide (who also remix M-Age), Influx, Basic Gravity, Phax and Caspar Pound, who also co-compiled the set. Quite a few German artists are featured but there's more softness and sense of melody than you might expect from a compilation that features bands with names like Tanzmuzik. Excellent sleeve too, courtesy of Jon Black, the label's "in-house artist".


This review also published in: On magazine