Various Artists: The Gathering Compilation
(Kog Transmissions)
This is the second compilation from the incredibly successful Gathering festival, and it's a giant leap on in quality from last year's effort. There's a good representation of artists (all local) and styles, with some of the country's finest exponents of electronic groove demonstrating their production skills.
Epsilon Blue opens the CD with the shimmering trance of "Peaks and Valleys" before moving into Subware's "Music Matters", a deep throbbing slice of killer tech house with a 'music matters' vocal sample over the top. A stunner.
Baitercell drop some electronic drum'n'bass with "Starless" and Micronism delivers some lush ambient techno with "Evergreen". Welli heroes Cuffy & Leon take the thing deep with "Techsturised", a very accomplished piece of low slung techno and the Nomad closes the album in a chilled fashion with the slow motion dub of "Taxi".
With excellent tracks also from Pitch Black, Signer and Salmonella Dub, this is another 100% local compilation that oozes class and quality, and should serve as an excellent reminder of the fun to be had up the hill this year.
4/5