Vaporize 2

Echo Ghetto from Earthling, Mekkanikka and Chromatone gets things kicking off nicely. It’s funky, it’s fluid, and the sounds develop by themselves without being forced. The breakdown is solid and grabs the attention before a very nice, smooth final run. Good stuff, this is something that I can see a lot of people getting into: it’s not derivative and it’s not clichéd.

Unfortunately, Mekkanikka’s next track Instru-Mental, is. It starts out promisingly enough with a nicely-pitched vocal loop, and things sound like they’re going to be understated and funky. About three minutes in, however, it’s all about thin topend eurostabs (you know the sort I mean), dodgy chord changes, stopstarts, hands-in-the-air breakdowns and Dream House piano.

Jirah makes a welcome return, Out Of Phase (Remix) shows he still has that fluff-free, easy-going melody working well. Meanwhile Audialize’s Revolution is decent until it ends up relying on generic hooks and high-end stabs again – as we see all too often these days, a more subtle approach would be infinitely more effective.

Electrypnose & Chromatone’s Paganoize has a nice progression and an intriguing mix of a menacing backbone with fluffy touches. It’s let down, however, by having too many stopstarts: at times there’s a break or a warp or some kind of other interruption every eight beats, which doesn’t help the flow much.

Tokyo artist Pure Pressure does well with his couple of contrinutions. Restart does have a slight fullon-familiarity about it, but the soaring acidline and shimmering atmosphere of the final run makes it something rather special. Meanwhile Blue Hole has a very absorbing sound to it, with a final run that hooks you right in. Proper trance.

Chronophasia from Chromatone & Winds Circle is decent: thoroughly solid, thoroughly danceable, and probably the strongest tune on the album. Polaris’ Connected sounds like every other Polaris track: inoffensive, chummy fullon with a big French melody at the end. It also has more polish in the production, which makes some of the other tracks on here sound a little flatter than they perhaps should. Lastly Ibojima & Chromatone’s This Is The Exit has a nice messy midsection that gives way to clarity.

All in all this is a pretty good collection. There are definite strong moments from Pure Pressure, Jirah and Chronophasia, but they’re tracks you might prefer to grab off Beatport than to get the whole album.