If the DJ needs a break at the next electro-party, he will have now an effective way to make the people stay at the dancefloor. The follower of the successful first ELEKTRISCH!-sampler is not a loveless accumulation of tracks played to death, but collects exclusively (rare) remixes of well-known artists of the synthie- and electropop-genre, from heroes of the 80s like ERASURE, ALPHAVILLE or CAMOUFLAGE over “newer” acts like CLIENT, IAMX to German bands (DEINE LAKAIEN, UNHEILIG).
The quality of the tracks is mostly brilliant and the selection well balanced, almost too homogeneous but mostly danceable. There are numerous highlights, so it is in a way difficult to point out single contributions of the journey through the trendy electro-genre. Anyway the “old representatives” of synth-pop give a good account of themselves. Sebastion Komor from Icon Of Coil transforms the ancient To Germany With Love from ALPHAVILLE’s debut album into a modern sound. The relatively new contributions from BOYTRONIC and CAMOUFLAGE fit the overall picture whereas ERASURE provide the necessary pop-appeal. Bands like GOLDFRAPP, CLIENT or IAMX are in no way inferior to it. Beautiful voice Alison GOLDFRAPP delivers pleasant club sound, the secretaries from CLIENT deal with Adam Ant’s Zerox Machine, while the eccentric Chris Corner and his project IAMX create the emotional peak of the compilation. His killer-song Spit It Out gets the floor hitting kick by techno producer Alexander Kowalski but looses a little emotional depth. DEINE LAKAIEN and UNHEILIG stand out from the very British sounding rest, which is strikingly enforced by MESH and the newcomer MECHANICAL CABARET. DEINE LAKAIEN provide familiar high quality work with the Memphis Mix of their hit Where You Are, but UNHEILIG’s Graf cannot maintain the high level of the other acts with his blatantly club-capable track Ich will alles.
I can recommend ELEKTRISCH! 2 to all fans of electronic sounds. The record is a worthy follower of the first release and even now one sampler-highlight of the year. If you are fast enough, you should snatch the limited edition, which comes as a double-CD with several extra tracks.