seven

this two-disk compilation continues famous "we came to dance" series. it appears that this sampler is considerably better than previous ones, showing a strong line up with only few poor tracks.

one of the biggest things I've been looking for on this disk were new tracks from velvet acid christ, suicide commando and funker vogt.

velvet acid christ did not disappoint, but did not deliver anything unexpected - "never worship" is clean, trippy track in the recently adopted goa-influenced percussion-heavy manner with excellent production, clean synthlines, dark atmosphere and some interesting percussion thrown in the middle of the song. if you were following the rants on brian's site, you should have an idea of what the next album is promised to be, and so far "never worship" confirms that.

the next big name was suicide commando - with excellent "sick in your mind". if you do not listen to the lyrics too closely, concentrating on the overall track atmosphere, you should enjoy the track immensely. familiar minimalistic slow intro transforms into creaking, breaking, torn sound with saturated beats and nicely distorted vocals contrasted by clean synthlines.

"martian on the moon" by funker vogt continues in the vein of previous releases with simple straightforward sound that possesses all familiar funker vogt elements together with nice melodic passages. nice militant track with no surprises here as well.

judging by noisy ebm of tumor's "die neue rasse", it seems that the band is getting better avoiding cheap samples, and using more diverse, cleaner sound. I was pleasantly surprised by sona eact's track that appears to take the better elements from tunnel (which, in turn, incorporates better elements of hypnoskull) to create explosive, heavily distorted rhythmic track; their upcoming full-length should be quite interesting.

remixes of famous tracks deserve special mentioning - great remix of vnv nation's "dark angel" by das ich where, similar to their excellent remix of la floa maldita (their '98 "destination heaven"), das ich created missing depth and added stronger trademark das ich beats to "dark angel" creating new sound dimensions. other excellent remixes include more lightweight and techno-influenced version of pierrepoint's "sie sind nicht grün"; quite unusual mix of "we are the sinners" done by controlled fusion that leaves almost nothing from the original track - this leaether strip song becomes an elegant minimal composition with graceful synthlines and torn vocal samples; very impressive is club edit of "kuenstliche welten" by wolfsheim - a stronger, edgier version of the original that does not sacrifice its softness in favor of club sound. other strong remixes include galan pixs, in strict confidence, das ich, front 242.

less-known bands on this comp will provide enough new material for any thrill-seeker that would not be satisfied with compositions from big names. this is a strong release in the series, that does not present anything radically new, but is a nice reassuring statement from many famous bands.