| Artist |
| Various |
| Title |
| Orbit Electro |
| Format/Cat |
| 2CD |
| Label |
| Major Records |
| Style |
| Synthpop |
| Date of review |
| December 2009 |
| Reviewer |
| Carl Jenkinson |
| Rating |
| 8/10 |
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If you're interested in checking out the full range of modern electropop styles then you'll not do much better than this 2CD, 29-track sampler from Major Records. It covers pretty much every style you could think of, from the traditional 90s stylings of Eden, Celluloide, Foretaste (with Sylvie Billy in typically sexy voice!!), Antilles (whose 'You And Me' is one of the best tracks on the album) & the typical German style of P24 through the chilled-out electrolounge sound of Onetwo (which brings together the talents of OMD's Paul Humphreys & Propaganda's Claudia Brucken, of course) & the infectious modern pop of Dragons (as remixed by Danny Saber) & on to the acoustic-pop stylings of Mesh's 'So Important' & Aerophonics' lively 'My Space' as well as Northern Kind's laidback but rather twee 'Into The Blue'.
As you might have already noticed, there's a good mix of well- & lesser-known names which makes it all the more exciting, of course, with such luminaries as Ladytron, who are represented by a very chilled-out remix of 'Destroy Everything You Touch' & IAMX, whose 'Nightlife' is given a minimalistic danceable makeover by People Theatre, being counterbalanced by the newer talents of The Attery Squash's 'Devo Was Right About Everything' (remixed by Devo themselves-if you like Client then check this out) with its very English vocals & Ultima Bleep whose 'X The I's & Dot The T's' is turned into a dynamic dancefloor pleaser by none other than Funker Vogt while Mink's 'I Don't Care', with its sassy vocals & melodics, has the potential to be one of the year's trendiest tracks if it gets marketed in the right way! Elsewhere Loic Rathscheck make their mark with the instrumental 'Robots In Love' while Lavantgarde's mix of electronica cleverness & poppy catchiness should make them a few friends & fans of The Cure will no doubt be pleased to see Mechanical Cabaret covering 'Let's Go To Bed' & if you like what he's done here then be sure to make his new album your next purchase!
In a similar manner to the 'Elektrisch!' sampler there's a good chance that this could achieve some level of mainstream club crossover &, if that ever happens, the tracks from Empire State Human, Tenek & Polaroid Kiss as well as Razormaid's danceable remix of 'Blue Velvet' from Boytronic that stand to benefit from this. That this is on the label's mind is perhaps a reason why there's very few 80s influences to be found, the only obvious one being Scarlet Soho's totally analogue 'Modern Radio' which, in resurrecting the spirit of John Foxx's 'Metamatic' is totally atypical of their most recent work although it's a very welcome addition while the inclusion of The Strand's 'You Make Me Crazy' was a surprise but, with its spikey synthetics & almost vocals, it shows they're not scared to take chances! Other artists worthy of note include Nono & Die Loge, the latter ending the collection on a nicely sumptuous, slightly melancholic note.
What this fine compilation does prove is that synthpop is alive & well & that there are a number of promising artists with the potential to give the established names a run for their money; now, isn't that something to smile about?
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