P-p-p-p-p-p-ound it! M-m-m-m-m-m-inimal! If that's your cup of tea, then Martin Eyerer's mix is the cream of the crop. Driving, deep minimal/techno solid on the track selection and groove, though maybe not so much on the mixing tecnique, inventive enough to keep it interesting but pretty straight forward if you ask me. And being this such a weary genre, it's no small peanuts that, after listening to this, you feel propelled to the next Eyerer appearances near your neighbourhood. Doesn't open any new ground, but he nails it.

About Oliver Klein, he does not let down either. "Timo Maas on a bad mood", as defined by a co-reviewer discoger, goes for a more housey approach than his colleague, undertaking some pounds but also a sense of melody and vibe change clearly lacking on side one. Though as the minutes go by the mix tends to the darker side, its more varied nature ends up building a much more interesting work than Eyerer's, and therefore gets proclaimed just winner of this two-for-one mix.

All in all, worth checking selection of well known (as well as lesser) known tracks.

Not much going on the mixing department, pretty straight forward if you ask me, but the track selection does the trick and the set grooves pretty solidly. Fans of the last two installments of Sven Vath's "The Sound Of..." crew will dig this as it builds on similar sonic concepts as those perfected by Cocoon's owner, but don't expect much innovation/experimentation around here: this is plain, straightforward house/minimal designed purely for the dancefloor, which is not a bad thing by default but might sound a bit weary a decade after the Minimal advent. Solid, but without surprises.

Great first album by Scorn, but don't expect your steady dose of minimal electronic beats here. In its first incarnation, Scorn was a pummeling Industrial Metal machine in which both Nik Bullen and Mick Harris had the same specific weight. Add Justin Broadrick's (Godflesh, amongst a myriade of projects) detuned guitar assault and you get an idea of the content on this disc. The first half is more straight forward Industrial sound, very metal, but as the record advances the sound widens up and gets kinda eerie, leaving space for some Dark Ambient and Dub references. Still, it's far from the later/Mick Harris solo incarnation of the project, but it is a milestone for all fans of the british Industrial sound from the first half of the 90's, and a really good record on its own.

Not a lot of reaction to this release, and I can't see why. Truly, the beginning of side A is kind of a letdown compared to previous works, but only for the unpatient: after some minutes of seemingly unmoving syncopation it starts rolling and evolves relentlessly towards the end, even if it may seem it goes nowhere... but it does, believe me. The other sides are more straight forward rythmically, yet they flow around eccentric efx closer to jazz solos than anything else, specially the hypnotic "Gugga Sempa". I agree that Villalobos' latest productions tend to be a bit too lengthy and the tracks on this double 12" may suffer from it, but that's part of their charm, and even when he's not 100% focused he can still dig gold from that trademark naive structures. Though it doesn't rank along with his finest it's still genre-defining rather than genre-bounded.

As usual with Mr. Hawtin's mixes, this one is ace from beginning to end. Recorded while on tour and clocking at a mere 35 minutes, it is comprised of unreleased tracks by such M_nus flagships as Marc Houle, Heartthrob, Gaiser and Troy Pierce. Due to its concentrated length it is less spacey than the Transitions opus, leaving less room to breath without sacrificing any of the tricks that have made Richie's DJ mixes state of the art. Dark atmospheres, fat bass lines, hard hitting beats, complex track interlocking... definitely a must for anyone into the M_nus sound and/or forward thinking Techno/Minimal. All unmixed tracks are available for high quality download at Beatport.

G-R-E-A-T release by The Roots, probably the record they were trying to do since 'Phrenology' and without any of the dull moments that made 'The Tipping Point' such and unfocused, so-so effort. Long time past the boundaries of Hip Hop, 'Game Theory' blends the social consciousness of all their previous efforts with an approach that has more in common with Funkadelic than, say, Beastie Boys. Soulful and joyful, it delivers the funk, soul, rock and everything in between, showing an incredible amount of talent, musicianship and production skills wether to build hard hitting rants or intimate atmospheres. And the rhymes are ace too! Fantastic, a must

Holy shit! you thought the previous DE9's were good? Wait 'til you listen to richie's latest installment! Up to par with the first DE9 volume and a big improvement from the slightly inferior DE9: Closer To The Edit, this is an effort pushing the boundaries of mixing and probably the peak in 2005's musical output regarding mix albums. Given the extreme lifting Mr. Hawtin has applied to all the material used for the construction of this suite most of the original sources end up sounding unrecognizable, which has lead to an entirely refreshing concept of the mixing experience. One recommendation? Get the long version on the dvd rollin' and swallow it in one sit, you'll understand the meaning of the word "build". Genius, period.

Dizzee's first cristalizes the urban paranoia and bad vibes of the east end through a sound that is as punk as hip hop gets, crafting an album that joins Roots Manuva and Techno Animal in the campaign for the destruction of corporate rap, and proves that the old continent is starting to generate its own personal, non-derivative hip hop artists. once again it is demonstrated that only underground hip hop stays true to the essence of the culture while looking forward. don't chek it and you'll be missing something

in this ridiculoid's opinion, one of the best Drum & Bass albums of all time. extremely detailed and fluid drum programming (check KJZ) that builds a complex spiderweb upon which images of the spacetime continuum and its interstices are projected. the perfect soundtrack for travelling through a black hole into the azoic regions

emerging at the other side of the black hole mustn't be an easy experience, and the proof is that with "Solaris" we arrive at a much more cold, mechanical universe. Where "Modus Operandi" evocated the coldness of a travel through the voids of cosmos and black holes, this album, even with its more soul/house oriented numbers, goes even deeper presenting a cold world, far away from the void and immensity of space. which maybe explains why it seems so distant even when it's aiming to the dance floor. the reference to Stanislav Lem and his portrait of the cultural clash between the old and the new (wether they're separated from atime and/or space) seems very accurate to me. i still haven't decided if i like "Solaris" better than "Modus Operanmdi", but be aware that richard parks, contrary to his fans desires, keeps his production work in motion and looking forward. and that can't be bad, right?