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Mixed by Dave Pearce

2001

Trance/Progressive Trance

BMG/Telstar

2 x CD

Most instalments of this excellent series of ‘Euphoria’ albums have been big successes so far and this one is no exception. With its bright, attractive packaging, great set of tunes and superb mixing this is definitely one to go for if you like trance. In my opinion Dave Pearce is one of the best Djs on today’s buzzing curcuit and never fails to come up with the goods, his tune selection is top notch and he always seems to manage to blend together tracks, both anthems and underground, making them sound bigger and better than ever before. Ok, so there are a few cliched, more commercial tracks on here but the majority are deeper, more ‘progressive’ trance tunes and a few harder tracks, like Warp Brothers – Blast the Speakers and BK & Nick Sentience – Flash, thrown in to spice up the mix. There are also a few classics here as well, Libra Presents Taylor – Calling Your Name and a new Push remix of Ramirez – Hablando give the album a nice retrospective slant bringing together the best of the old and the new. On the whole I would say that this is well worth buying, even if you’re not seriously into trance the melodics and sheer anthemic quality of these tracks will totally blow you away.

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LTJ Bukem

2002

Oldskool/Drum 'n' Bass

Good Looking

CD

Some of the prolific producer & dj's greatest moments all captured on this excellent artist compilation. LTJ Bukem has risen from being one of the legends of oldskool breakbeat history to becoming one of the finest creators of mellow and intelligent drum 'n' bass on today's thriving scene. Here you have 11 tracks in their entirity on single CD, ranging from his earliest creations like Logical Progression from back in 1990 to some of his more recent drum 'n' bass offerings. There is not one bad track on this album, Bukem taking time out to sift through his back catalogue and pick out some of the rare gems from yesteryear, I also like the way he writes his thoughts on each tune on the inside cover of the sleeve. My only gripe about this album is that he hasn't included the original version of the classic Demon's Theme and has instead opted for the second instalment of this tune which, despite being a quality piece of oldskool D'n'B, is in my opinion is not quite as good as the original. However, if you can manage to get hold of a copy of his classic old comp. Logical Progression Vol. 1 you'll find the original mix on there along with some other cracking GLR rollers from the mid 90s. All in all this is the best buy I've had in a while and with full length mixes of 11 awesome pieces of music at £10.99 you can't go far wrong. If you like your more intelligent sounding breakbeat you must get this!