seven

this compilation could be a good argument in the hands of those that blame synthpop for being excessively light and cheesy. indeed, this is the first impression that one gets after listening to this disk.

however, besides excessive amount of "sweetness" and unbearable primitivism in some of the tracks (color theory, blue audio, new slips), you will be able to find quite intelligent and nice compositions that resurrect the best of the genre - very danceable compositions with plenty of clean catchy vocals, light keys, floating synthlines. plenty of exclusive remixes should satisfy the hardcore fans out there.

the ones that caught my attention and deserve mentioning are neuropa's "again" that is almost too sweet, but yet catchy and danceable. brave new world's "regret" (wait… is it "children" by robert miles I hear?!) is quite pleasant melancholic piece with strong beat and nice vocals. dale's "confusion" reminds me of better synthpop acts with darker and stronger sound. the nine and beborn beton are obviously above competition. avantgarde's "time gate" is a slower and very nicely arranged track that escapes dominating lack of originality on this disk.

throughout the album I had the constant haunting feeling that I already know the song and the band, but cannot quite remember what it really is. some of the newcomers on this disk apparently did their research and successfully acquired many features of popular synthpop acts (I guess it explains constant feeling of deja vu I had listening to this disk). overall, as with other maschinenwelt compilation efforts, this could be rated as "average" release.