The nature of electronic music being what it is, that it makes people slave to a rhythm and dilutes the human aspect of those involved, is something which might ordinarily lead you to expect a compilation to be one of two things. It could be fine examples of elec-exponents within one specific area, or it may just be a bewildering away of starling and inventive music. You know the vocals invariably come from some weedy berk with a face mike, layered in effects, so you’d hope for blood and muscle to come in the form of blinding bass and stiff, brutal percussion.

Or not! This compilation, to celebrate the exist of a dance event specialist, brings out the expected ranks of pleasant electro artists, and washes gently over you until you are the cleaner listener in town. Namnambulu manage to be dignified with their lightweight opus, which isn’t a stunning opener, and Eurocide drip more of the same, but with vocal disfigurement. FAQ do electro-rock which brings more humanity into the mix, and Blutzukker’s post-Techno banality hardly impresses. It’s the slow to anger Dairy Of Dreams who finally sound like an actual band, and Sara Noxx has an interesting use of vocals to mask an anaemic beat. Metallspurhunde have a great opening, with determined vocals, but nothing happens afterwards(which is the case with virtually everyone here), and in this company the Der Eremit dimwits sound like sonic commandoes! The Cascades are rocky buggers with a fabulous song, ruined by treated vocals, and Cell Divsion are reliably perky with a song that instantly rises above the major by being unpredictable, but the best song goes to The Last Dance who move gently but with an artistic purpose.

Access-Denied are unusually raw and jagged, Darc Entries overheat with pretty keyboards and a bouncing pulse, only for Diorama to be cute and lightly warped which ends the album like it didn’t matter. Maybe it makes a great memento for regulars at the TDN shows, but I can’t see anyone else being thrilled by its existence, despite having five unreleased tracks, because most of them should have stayed that way.

http://www.tanz-der-nacht.de
http://www.thunderdome.ch
 

03/26/05