I gave this a listen after an "anonymous tip" on discogs and I must admit that I am happy I did. Aparently Suntrip's efforts are starting to pay off and other labels are jumping in the newschool bandwagon (which is a great thing IMO). So yes this is also newschool, but a different style than Suntrip's, it is on the crazyier more hectic side of things whereas Suntrip is more on the dreamy side. Although the comp starts off preatty weak I advise you listen to all the tracks before dissing it, the last tracks are well worth the effort IMO!

1. Pandemonium's track is one of the weakest here, a nice intro track but nothing special... NEXT!

2. On to Anakoluth which starts just as boring as Pandemonium until around 3:15 when a killer melody oldschool melody starts... But it only lasts a few bars and is just repeated over and over again throughout the track. So the initial smile of surprise turns into a grin of annoyance after a few more mintues. It has a kindof minimal feeling to it (I mean the kind of minimal that everybody loved in early 2000). This COULD have been a very good track if there was more creativity involved, sadly its repetitiveness makes it a letdown for me.

3. Jikkenetiki up next with a pretty average track. It starts pretty promising but then quickly becomes boring. It just goes on and on without ever really grabbing your attention IMO.

4. Alt Anesis next with (finally) a more dynamic track which reminds me more of the oldschool feeling but uses modern FX which kindof makes the sound less pure IMO. This is one of the better tracks here but at the same time something is missing IMO.

5. Then comes a collaboration with "the godfather of trance" as he used to be called, Har-El Prussky. OK let's be honest here: Har-El might have made some of the most beautiful oldschool tracks ever... but he also made a LOT of average tracks as well. Sadly this is part of the latter category. This actually reminded Chi-AD's new album: some oldschool elements blended into some new stuff making a pretty average end result.

6. KOB starts of with a tribal feeling which made me realize that it's been a while since I have heard djembés in a trance track... Sadly it kindof goes to shit after a while. The artist is obviously aiming for some Green Nuns of the Revolution-style crazyness but fails rather miserably IMO. This might also be in part to the new synths and FX used which make it all sound a bit plasticky... You just can't make this kind of music without some real 303s IMO...

7. I must admit that by now I was tempted to press stop and just discard the whole thing cause none of the tracks really got me going. Well, I'm glad I kept listening cause Merrow's track is a treat. This one sounds a LOT like Fractal Glider's Parasite (BTW whatever happened to him??). Anyway, this a great track.

8. Radical Distortion is up next with some more oldschool sounds. The track actally starts with some gating effects, it has been a LONG time since I haven't heard gating used in an intro, funny when you think that this was one of THE trademarks of goatrance back in the days and now it seems completly forgotten. Then some really nice melodies that reminded me some typical oldschool melodies, the kind of melodies that would make you move your body sideways when dancing (which I also realized that I haven't done in a while). Umm... I hope this makes sense to someone else than me lol Anyway, nice track.

9. Then comes the closing KILLER... Astrancer is just INCREDIBLE!!! Very dreamy stuff, it reminded me a lot of Etnica's Z Plane Sunrisewhich is IMO one of the best tracks ever made. The first few times I listened to Astrancer's track I actually had tears in my eyes, that's how beautiful it was. My only problem is that it is a bit too long (almost 12 minutes!) And it kindof loses momentum after minute 6... But you can always press "stop" before the end. But anyway, this is just a minor inconvenient, this is an amazing track, definately one of the best tracks of 2008!!

THE GOOD: The last 3 tracks are definately worth buying this comp, if you don't listen to Astrancer's track you're missing something special!

THE BAD: Too many filler tracks that don't really go anywhere... Also, too much use of softsynths, it gives most tracks on this album a plasticky sound that doesn't really fit in with the oldschool spirit IMO.

CONCLUSION: This comp does have its flaws but it also contains some of the best newschool releases of 2008. So as a comp it doesn't deserve more than a 3/5 because of all the bad tracks but that average wouldn't do justice to the absolutley great last 3 tracks. And if you had to choose between an album with 10 good but not great tracks and one with some bad tracks and some excellent, would you really hesitate?