Review: According to the label, opening track "Meharee" is 'a bracing ride across the Arabic desert'. It's not hard to understand how Systematic arrived at this description: its flutes and mellow pianos are mixed with mysterious eastern tones and supported by a gentle, undulating groove. You can almost feel the warm air against your face as the track unfolds. By contrast, "Capacocha" is a darker affair, with a menacing bass providing the basis for twitchy percussion and haunting melodic tones. On "Landscapes", there's another shift from Oniris and this time classical piano keys unfold over a mellow groove that bubbles and pulsates seductively.
Review: Clocking in at 50 tracks, Tour shows that the German label isn't just about naive trance melodies and rickety, minimal beats. It starts with the deep ambience of Tominic's "Shine", which over the course of nine minutes moves into bleepy, minimal pulses. In contrast, there's the dubby house of Paul Bart's "Call It Anything You Want" and David Heckhausen's "Hang Zur Sonne Paul", a clicky, mid-tempo groove covered in organic textures. Despite this, trance fans won't be left disappointed; there's the buzzsaw bass and organic textures of Theo Meier's "Eichhorn", the gentle, spiralling melodies of Peet's seductive "Timers" and best of all, the brittle rhythm and day-glo hooks on Reinier Zonneveld's "Gevorderd Spelers".
Review: Had enough of Ibiza's pounding tribal house and party minimal sounds? Bedrock feels the same way. Or at least for the duration of this excellent compilation they do. Jon Digweed has used his A&R (and persuasive) powers to their fullest, commissioning ambient and down tempo pieces from artists more commonly associated with peak-time club bangers. King Unique and Charlie May contribute haunting, fragile ambient tracks; the Ibiza Summer Balearic remix of Jimmy Van M and AFFKT' "Dreams" featuring Luxor T comprises lazy beats and sun-kissed vocals, while best of all, the Japanese Popstars' "Out Of Nowhere (Reprise)" is a stunningly cinematic ambient trance piece.
