Collection: Trance Europe Express 2 Label: Volume/Total via BMG (UH) Techno: yes. Trance: usually. But most tracks have some beat to them, and some are really very dancey. The only things I really hated were I(12) and II(3), but there's lots of mediocre stuff, so watch your picks. Check out Disk II first, it's better. AMBIENT: _II(1)_ (with Fripp), _II(2)_, II(3) (cheesy) SOME BEAT, NOT DANCEY: _I(5)_, I(1), I(2), I(3), I(4), I(6), I(7), I(8), I(9), II(4) SLOWER DANCE: _II(9)_, _II(11)_, _II(10)_, I(11), II(6), II(8) FAST DANCE: _I(10)_, _II(7)_, II(5), I(12) (stupid lyrics) (more inside) -- JB (doom) Some good tracks: II(1) - Kicks off with a gruff male voice "Let's go...", goes into a solidly ambient piece with a cut-up symphonic feel to it, with the repeated sound effect of horse hooves on watery streets. Robert Fripp was involved with this one. II(2) - Watery lead in, spoken sample laden ambient piece. Something about Tarot cards? A male-female telephone dialog? I(5) - Starts with slow, sparse repeated chords, gradually fills in with touches of bubbly melodies, gets faster. Some beat, but not dancey. II(9) - Murky machine-like processed vox over rapid piston chugging beat deep in the background, then foreground dance beat comes in... moody. II(11) - Heavy dance beat, "tribal" collage. II(10) - Weird noises, a clattering buzzing loop. Beat comes in slowly, and becomes prominent. I(10) - Kicks off with a sound like a rattle and a digeridoo over a fast beat (which for once is not in-your-face). Both interesting and dancey. II(7) - Rapid electronic melody, long strings, buzzing tones, then the heavy kick drum comes in. Decent fast dance music. Note, this is "From the makers of Volume", which mean that this collection comes with a very slickly produced paperback full of photos, interviews and articles, and maybe it doesn't go far enough beyond the usual press release information, but at least it does make one less nostalgic for the sheer amount of stuff you used to get with vinyl LPs. DISC ONE 1 7:38 Microglobe Trust 2 4:32 Speedy J The Fun Equations 3 5:35 Analogical Camillo 4 6:30 Paul Van Dyk Today 5 7:27 Mixmaster Morris Lotus Position 6 6:54 A Positive Life Pleidean Communication 7 7:09 Salt Tank Dreams 8 7:02 Dave Angel Life's Little Pleasures 9 6:44 Eat Static Element 115 10 7:31 Megalon Symbols 11 4:43 Pressure of Speech Aphelion 12 7:42 Secret Knoeledge Afterworld DISC TWO 1 6:47 FFWD Lucky Saddle 2 6:57 Scanner Safety 3 8:35 New London School The Frenchman of Electronics 4 6:41 Richard Kirk Oneski 5 6:35 Pentatonik Real 6 5:11 Pluto Rockerfella 7 6:13 The Human Beings Orbit 8 8:21 Pete Namlook Escape to Earth 9 6:04 Autocreation Justice Loop 10 8:30 Hardfloor Reverberate Opinion 11 8:58 The Ambush Sun Contact info: 22/23 Brook Mews North London W2 3BW Phone: 071-706 8122 Fax: 071-706 8124