DJ Anneli - 10 Years of Communication

It has been some time since I’ve heard new stuff from Phantasm, one of the oldest still functioning labels from the beginning of psytrance way back at around 1993. I say it up front: respect. Anyway, now it’s time for another compilation from this (once very busy) label. Nowadays they don’t release that many CDs so when one does come out, it usually grabs my attention. Although I must say that this one didn’t quite grab me at once when I saw it. The cover has DJ Anneli in a grinning pose, and although most guys would probably think she’s nice eye candy, I always get kinda turned off when I see a psytrance CD with that kind of cover. It brings to mind CDs that I didn’t really like, like the latest from Yahel or Hypersonic. But never mind that; let’s talk about what it sounds like. It’s a regular full on compilation as most of you will have guessed considering the artist roster on this one. DJ Anneli did a good job of selecting some really busy tracks with lots of energy emanating from them. A few surprises, like new tracks from Eskimo and Insomnia, both of which we haven’t heard much from in a while. Eskimo takes the recycling path with Recycled (T2) and uses samples from old house/techno tracks and the piano melody from U2’s classic New Year’s Day and mixes this with a regular full on sauce and truth be told it doesn’t sound all that bad. But, not great either. Insomnia deliver a bigger surprise with Ms Error (T7),a darker track sounding a lot like old Hujaboy style. Great stuff. The Logica remix to Modified by Zen Mechanics (T8) kicks ass as well. Logica rounds the album off with yet another cover, this time to The Prodigy’s all time classic Smack my Bitch Up. It’s not all that bad, but hey, where’s the originality?

Recomendation:  All in all this is quite a good compilation, although not amongst the strongest Phantasm has released. Most of the tracks are pretty ok, with a couple of standouts, most notably tracks 4, 5, 7, 8. Tracks 1,2,10 aren’t really my cup of tea and the rest is ok. It’s an ok compilation to get if you’re looking for some more full on to add to your collection.