Above & Beyond does a fantastic job compiling a silky smooth and sexy trance-dance compilation on their latest release in the series "Anjunabeats Volume Five." Each song carefully merges into the next with a delicate touch, and each and every track seems to make sense in this description of the never-ending trance journey. We hear spacey, angelic sounds sifting our mental awareness through the cosmos as well as hard-driving road rage beats which pound us into the surface of dance awareness. I can't say enough about how many times I listened to this double-disc and how truly amazing it is.
The ultra stellar numbers on this compilation were as follows. Kicking it off on Disc One was "Zeppelin" by Michael Cassette, featuring a Kraftwerk-like tone that permeates a pulsating beat. Then, "Battery Life" by Chunk & Twist feeds us with an Orbital-esque female vocal properly stutter-stepped into spliced techno bliss. "Spacelift" by Jaytech has wonderful spacey synthesizers as well as spooky echo-chamber vocal samples. "Good For Me" by Above & Beyond concludes this side of things with a phenomenal female vocal packed full of emotion and tender dance energy.
On Disc Two the first and second selections rock the house with sultry female vocal samples and pulsating energy, featuring "Shapes" by Maor Levi and "Megashira" by Marc Marberg. Classic trance synth sounds dominate "Razorfish" by Above & Beyond presenting Tranquility Bass. Immediately following, "Make Me Believe" by Daniel Kandi throws a refreshing bit of dance piano at the listener. Then "Home" by Above & Beyond completely brings the hard dance pulse to an emotional soft place with pristine, angelic female vocals serenading about "a place called home." Toward the end of the CD, "Never Gone" by Adam Nickey thrusts forward a harder, spookier female voice into the mix.
In modern dance music, the purpose has evolved to be focused on setting an electronic mood or disposition as opposed to overwhelming the listener with repetitive beats and cheesy lyrics. What Above & Beyond accomplishes is moving us steady in the direction of keeping the beats and blips rocksteady, and Anjunabeats, Vol. 5 does just that.
