Various Artists (The Intelligentsia Network) World Wide Kind 2 Play Sample:   56K Dialup   Broadband   Download Sample:   500K   1.5Mb (Excerpt from track(s) 'Binarhythm (Andy Pickford)')

The first volume in this series proved to be a very popular album and this follow up is at least as good. As before it combines some well-known artists with (at least to me so I suspect most of our customers) new names. We start with what I believe to be one of the first new solo tracks by Andy Pickford in ages 'Binarhythm'. Initially it has a rather spiritual feel with wordless choral pads mixing with the most gorgeous massed string backing. The pace becomes more urgent as melodic stabs increase the excitement level. Percussion is added as we continue the build up of this glorious track. A bass line and rhythm are placed perfectly in the mix as things reach anthemic proportions. Richard Wentk's 'Cloudwalking' combines a steady cool loping rhythm with melodic acoustic guitar flourishes. It should get the body moving in a lovely chilled sort of way- nice one. Victor Cerullo has produced quite a wide range of music in the past. Here he comes up with a track from the more commercial end of his talents.

'Freedom (is Like a Sweet)' gets into a pleasant groove with occasional use of a vocal sample reciting the title. At the half way mark it really kicks and produced ample opportunity for me to practice my air keyboard and air drumming skills. Another winner. I think 'Astromill' is decidedly quirky. Strange percussive effects suddenly give way so gentle Gregorian chants then sort of orchestral stabs followed by a powerful melodic synth solo- then back to the Gregorian choir etc etc! It rather gets under the skin but is so swap and change / cut and paste that it's hard to keep up- there's even heavy metal guitar in there! A talent to watch I reckon- as long as she doesn't try and get too clever. Next up is a new mix of 'Inverted Polarity' by Andrea Priora and it's back to playing air keyboard again. This is awesome- just like Mark Shreeve in his heaviest 'Legion' or 'Crash Head' form. Belting solos and wonderful infectious lead lines abound. Dr Jan Guru's 'Sahara Jungle' starts off OK with a pleasant syncopated sections but the vocal samples and rapping didn't really work for me I'm afraid, which is a shame as instrumentally it was an excellent body mover.

There is nothing Extreme about 'Eloper' by 'Extreme XS', rather it is a gently rhythmic melodic number. All rather dreamy and beautiful with some nice acoustic guitar. Andy Haggerty creates a lovely tuneful sequence on 'Sadly' with equally as appealing melodies weaving around the pulsations. 'Sleepy' by Alvaro M. Rocha chills things out still further as gentle piano notes are caressed, echoing into the distance over a fizzing electronic backing. Bill Canty's track certainly lives up to its name 'Dream Sequence' as gentle acoustic guitar runs float above sleepy electronic tones. Steve Deg picks up the pace with 'Spicetime' as he introduces a tribal rhythm and ethnic flute type instrument. All rather Shamanic and trance inducing. Arthur Loves Plastic sings out the title of her song 'If I Fell off the Earth Tonight' then gets into a body-moving groove with lovely wordless vocal colouring. She repeats the phrase from time to time. If you don't like vocals in your Electronic Music then I doubt I will convince you to like this but I think it is an excellent track. For a start she (I am assuming it is the artist singing) has a lovely voice and the rhythms as well as the rest of the backing really did it for me. One of my favourite tracks on the album actually! Anti Matter Man's 'E*People' on the other hand didn't light my candle too much as it came over more like a slowed down dance track with spoken text that just served to distracted me from the music. But this will probably be some people's favourite on the album- you know those cool people with more of a finger on the pulse than I.