Cheesy euro trance a-la Alice Deejay, I have no idea why this kind of commercial pop is called 'progressive house' on Beatport nowadays.

I, like many others, don't understand the hype around this album. The off-key, often detuned sound is not as 'fresh and experimental' as it is annoying. So are the "chipmunks on acid" vocodered vocals. The main track on the album, "Limit To Your Love", sounds MUCH better performed by Feist, so the cover version seems unnecessary and sounds empty. The rest of the tracks sound very boring as they don't go anywhere... in fact the whole album doesn't go anywhere, it just ends the way it starts.

Oliver Huntemann's Remix is utterly boring. There's absolutely nothing to it except for tiring farty electro bassline and pedestrian 4/4 beats. For 7 minutes, it doesn't even go anywhere - just chugs along. I can't help but feel like he just used one of the demo tracks he made one sleepless evening in 1-2 hours and just added samples from the original to remind us the track is actually a remix of Do It Again. The fact that he didn't even apply any effects to vocals or other samples just backs up my theory.

Audion, on the other hand, has delivered a bloody FANTASTIC remake. I'm really thankful that he didn't just copy-paste the vocals on top of his own instrumental. Instead of that, he chopped them up in the most fabulous way and it's really spectacular that you can actually recognize all the samples from the original... but then, it sounds like a totally different track. It's in its own dimension... Very proggy ethereal spacey sound, which is totally different to the feeling of the Chemical Brothers version. Repetitive as it may seem, there's a lot of subtle changes going on throughout 9 minutes and somehow, I never get tired of hearing it. Tracks like this make me realize why so many people like minimal techno. Jaw-droppingly stunning.

James Holden does his magic in this outstanding remix. He turns "The Darkest Star" into a brooding spooky progressive minimal monster, which could easily be a soundtrack to some Dracula movie. Dave Gahan's slowed-down vocals are absolutely unbelievable and just add to the dark atmosphere of the remix. Stunning highlight of both Depeche Mode and Holden carreers.
Dub on the flip-side isn't as appealing though, it's less atmospheric and focuses more on glitchy minimal production. However, the complex structure of the track is definitely not to be missed.

Underworld's BRUCE LEE EP is surely one mixed bag of mediocrity, greatness and weirdness. The title track is easily one of Underworld's most mediocre, I'm still confused as to why it was even released as a single. However, The Micronauts prove that remixing can turn anything into something great. They take Bruce Lee into a dark experimental territory and put out a menacing squelchy monster. However, the real gem here is the incredibly beautiful and heart-warming remix of Cups by Salt City Orchestra. Truly music for the soul and one of most monumental deep house tracks ever produced. Dobropet mix of Bruce Lee is just plain weird - just crowd noise over glitchy 4/4 beat.

This is the kind of releases that's very hard to rate. On one hand, I could easily give 5/5 for tracks 2 and especially 3, but tracks 1 and 4 are really not my cup of tea. So, 4/5 overall.

Probably one of the dumbest house tracks I've ever heard, but damn, this is catchy! It's all in the "So f**king sexy...You're a sexy f**k" vocal sample - once you hear it, it sticks with you for ages. Production-wise, it's very stripped down - massive beats, electro-bass and nothing else, but it works really well on dancefloors. Steve Angello Edit is a lovely glitchy minimal piece reminiscent of recent James Holden productions - something for minimal techno sets. Laidback Luke Remix, on the other hand, sounds a bit too much - it's quite OK, but he totally overdid it and deprived the original of its charm.
All in all, a really worthy release - tongue-in-cheek house music for open minded people with sense of humour.

The main problem with The Isness is that it was released by people who are known to be FSOL and it was marketed as 'the first FSOL album in 7 years'. As a result, all the attention was received from IDM/ambient fans, whereas the fans of psychedelic and prog rock didn't bother with the CD because most of them surely do not care much about FSOL. This seems pretty logical, I mean... You can't really expect too many electronica fans to like Pink Floyd-esque prog/psychedelic rock music. Neither can you expect prog rock fans to start buying FSOL albums. Therefore, this album was only positively received by the most open-minded FSOL fans and occasional prog rock fans who stumbled across the album by accident or recommendation - and that's not too many people at all.

From the musical point of view, this album is miraculous. It's an absolutely unforgettable experience, a trip into a nicer world of positive sounds, asian motives and soothing ambient soundscapes. "Divinity", "Meadows" and "Go Tell It To The Trees Egghead" alone are some of the most positively charged tracks I've ever come across. The album might not be as innovative as FSOL albums, but all those pretentious seekers of 'innovative' music should go to hell. Not always does the music have to be innovative. Sometimes it can just sound good. It really does feel like The Isness was produced with great care and a lot of love was put into it. A really light-hearted album that sort of tells you "Don't take life too serious, have fun, enjoy what you have - that's the main thing".

It's an absolute crying shame that such a divine album never got a chance to do its magic and has always been surrounded by mixed feelings and disappointments. It's even more absurd that a lot of people were getting put off by the album even before listening to it, simply because the answer to their question "How's the new FSOL album?" was "Bollocks... Shitty hippy guitar stuff".

This album is one of the few TRUE timeless masterpieces. It's just that in a better world, it wouldn't be so slagged off and overlooked. I just wish with all my heart that The Isness somehow finds its way to people who need to hear it and can appreciate it as much as I do and as much as it deserves.

Whereas I think "Drowning In A Sea Of Love" is quite lovely, I can't help but feel like Nathan Fake desperately tries to sound like M83. "Charlie's House" and "Superpositions" sound a lot like tracks from "Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts", "Long Sunny" could easily be an outtake from "M83", self-titled debut album, and "Bawsey" resembles one of the interludes from "Before The Dawn Heals Us".

The album structure itself reminds me a lot of M83's debut album - walls of noise followed by beatless ambient soundscapes. Sad tracks followed by happy ones. All in quite unexpected order.

Being a big fan of M83, I quite liked this album, because style-wise it's quite similar. But I just feel that they are able to produce same type of material with more depth and emotion. It's quite enjoyable nonetheless.

James Holden does his magic on these outstanding remixes. He turns "The Darkest Star" into a brooding spooky progressive monster, which could easily be a soundtrack to some thriller movie. The slowed-down vocals are absolutely unbelievable and just add to the dark atmosphere of the remix. Stunning!