Happy thirtieth to R&S! And what a roster they have. How could you possibly do justice to their arsenal of amazing tracks in one compilation release? Well they have a good go here, although in a collection that also brings in tracks from their sister imprint Apollo there is just a bit too much genre hopping. What there is though is pretty stunning, and you could hardly do better than the stunning techno triptych at the heart of the mix – Jam & Spoon’s ‘Stella’, Jaydee’s ‘Plastic Dreams’ and Joey Beltram’s ‘Energy Flash’ wiping the floor with any competition. To follow that lot with the head rush that is Ken Ishii’s ‘Extra’ is pure insanity! Elsewhere there is one of the greatest ambient tracks ever written in Aphex Twin’s ‘Xtal’, plus an unlikely singer-songwriter moment from Cloud Boat. While variety is definitely the spice of life there is definitely a bit too much of it here – but that shouldn’t detract from the awesome collection that R&S have at their disposal. If you don’t own any of it yet you’ll certainly be buying some after listening to this!
