Various Digital Tribe Alchemy Records (UK)

Following on from the well-received Conspirators of Pleasure compilation, and selling well from the specialist online retailers, Shane Gobi’s latest compilation is sweet. Shift’s spriongy and blippy Impervious to Poison kicks things off in a suitably fullon manner, and Sesto Sento’s Boobla Cartoons is a right old panic fest to follow. With the vibe of global digital breakdown, heavy kicks and creakage over the dial, it’s real mountaintop hash oil madness sort of stuff. GMS’ Cheeseballs Remix is even more stratospheric than the original, with a huge stratospheric rush and a final run that’s a joy to get your teeth into. Miraculix keeps the vibe and quality levels reassuringly topped-up with Stop Them, smooth with a twisted wink, a tipsy-turvey melody, a delicious breakdown and an awesome buildup to a hectic and full-flava climax. Yum yum. One of the myriad GMS side-projects Soundaholix is up next with Drug Frenzy. A Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas sample kicks things off, which is mistake number one. We’ve already endured about 80% of all dialogue in The Matrix being sampled, and this is just asking for trouble. Please stop. Anyway Drug Frenzy has a tedious, floor-emptying first minute or so, which gives way to rubberball bass and then it’s the usual; it’s effective, it’s trance by numbers, it’s GMS but this sounds a little rushed. Dark Soho’s The 14th is cute, starting out with disjointed-feedback breakbeats (sounding a lot like Ed Rush was passing by). It picks up a 4-4 and runs off with it, adds a rising liquid lava bassline and some gabba-borrowed noises and wraps it up with a bit of salsa into one of the most instantly addictive and infectious grooves in a long time. At which point, it all gets a bit disjointed and a little out of place – someone needs to remix this, there’s a classic in there somewhere waiting to get out. Shane Gobi teams up with Dark Soho as Groundzero with Digital Plane, w grungey and immediate bit of big deep cascading lovelyness, and Onyx & Sundance’s rather lacklustre Burn & Transform closes the album in slightly disappointing style. All in all, this is good – the Alchemy style is deep and addictive and it’s good to see it developing and doing well. You’re just left wishing it was all as good as tracks one  through four.