The come-down…

American-slash-Swiss label Dropout Productions is out with their 5th opus – which is also their first downtempo compilation… We’re used to gut-wrenching, hard-hitting hypertrance from these guys, but now they unveil their chilled side… And as you’ll find out, this is anything but regular ambient/chill… More about that later. Let’s find out what the space divers are up to first…

It’s not every day you get to listen to an actual space dive. And I gotta hand it to Dropout Productions; this compilation is unlike anything I’ve heard before. It is a VERY mixed collection of all kinds of downbeat music. From downbeat terror to virtually beatless illbient, over soothing chill-out to beautiful ambient… Diversity is cool, but ironically that’s also this compilations biggest flaw. The many changes in style and direction kill every shed of flow potential, and as such it doesn’t really work when you play it from start to finish… And that’s a shame.

There are some really great tracks here, but unfortunately also a couple of tracks that seem oddly out of place. Even for a (self-declared) open-minded music freak as myself. With that being said, let me also stress that the great tracks truly are great. And a couple of less-good tracks can’t take that away. So, for home-listening this didn’t cut it for me, but chill-out DJs and single-track-download iPod fans will most definitely find something to their liking here… Enjoy!

Favourites: 1(!), 3(!), 4, 5(!), 8(!)