Empire

Amazon Editor – Review

Another excursion into the pacier side of trance compilations, Christopher Lawrence’s collection of mixed cuts carry the atmosphere of mainstream Saturday night contemporary discoland, as well as the fluidity you’d expect of trance masters such as Van Dyk and Digweed. In other words, the cheese flows but it tastes really good, electro-Velveeta style. Old-school club-floor “builders” such as Cassidy’s “Implode” find synergy with sex-stuffed grinders such as Icon’s “Slowburn” and the wonderfully Adamski-esque “Sound System” by Colossus. But it never gets better than when Lawrence sneaks himself into the proceedings. Coming off the back of Baby Doc’s thumping, hedonistic 2 a.m. “Hard Work,” “Renegade” sees Lawrence working his way between the sea of dance floor hands and Goa-spiced progressions. And as for “Rush Hour,” it might well be that Danny Purists and trainspotting types find Lawrence’s mix a little too easy, but for the average electronic ear, it’s a pleasant, digestible mix that will happily entertain without requiring too much effort.