Various Artists
Themes From A Common Dream
Lowdown

Over the last couple of years, the Vancouver electronic music scene has been one of the most fertile in Canada, with studios and labels like Subconscious, Map and Subduction revealing the sounds of Canada's west coast to the world at large. Lowdown Records easily joins those esteemed ranks with this compilation, a gathering of works by seven Vancouver artists - Iridium, Mince, Catalyst Sound, MK Naomi, Steb Sly, Prime and Phaedra - most of whom work in the tech-house and trance realm of electronic sound.

Admittedly, the repetitive nature of much of the material causes the tracks to blur into one another somewhat as the disc progresses, which is fine on the dancefloor but generally not what I want when listening at home. Despite that, the material is still excellent, and the closing track - a quirky, distorted slab of intelligent techno by Phaedra - makes it worth sticking around until the end.

Copyright © 1998 Greg Clow