"Ever get the feeling that it'll be the third millennium by the time this series ends -I thought the first one was just a one-off, but now Mr Jenkins has gathered together an a range of synth superstars, together with a couple or three fantastic musicians from other areas, creating a selection of compositions, all previously unreleased and all exclusive to this album. The list of musicians reads as Deep forest, Bernard Xolotl, Dave Greensalde, Logic System, Micheal Stearns, Nick Rhodes, Spiral Of Silence, Ryo Okumoto, Wave World, Nash The Slash, Michael Rother & Dieter Moebius, Clearlight, Modulus, Bernd Kistenmacher, Nick Magnus, & Paul Haslinger. Clearly it would take an eternity to review each track in details so going through it, what are the highlights and the lowlights? Well, it starts badly enough with a slice of overly fast Deep Forest that owes more to an synth-playing ethnic Micky Mouse than anything, but then Xolotl rescues things with a gorgeous slab of symphonic synth textures, that ooze classical from every pore. Then you get Greenslade sounding identical to late seventies Edgar Froese care of some neat remixing, while Logic System let loose a giant slab of ultra-hard industrial techno-synth, laced with Kraftwerk-like melodies, Enigma-esque samples and furious guitar sounds, guaranteed to wake you up and shake you up. Stearns creates multi-layers and textures of glorious space synths with carefully placed samples to introduce a piece that amazingly turns into a drum-driven, synth-laden gem and, while wholly uncharacteristic of his overall cosmic image, is actually remarkably modern sounding but losing none of the old Stearns feel, as strings smother the surface and depth is the key word. Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes turn in a directionless piece of nothing, lacking any real purpose or heart despite its latent dynamics, although Spiral Of Silence start surprisingly well with a sea of twinkling synths, electronics and wordless female vocals, but then this poem is recited and you lose interest. Spock's Beard's synth/keys man Okumoto gives us a track of piano, mellotrons, synth choirs and synth that combines melody, tune and depth to excellent effect. Wave World, unsurprisingly, go for the all-out epic approach to space music, the perfect musical accompaniment to science fiction scenarios of stranded astronauts trekking through dense undergrowth on an unfamiliar and somewhat eerie planet. Nash's track is a neat piece of laid-back melody, a bit more symphonic than he normally gets, and sounding curiously English in its construction, but a track that builds as it goes, galloping gently along - not one of his best, but I suppose that's why it's here and not on one of his own albums. The Rother/Moebius track comes from their live concert in London in 2000 and is as lightweight as you'd expect with light drum samples, light synth melodies, all icing and no cake, making me quite pleased I didn't stick around to witness it when I was down there. The two minute Clearlight track is delightful - make of that what you will- with violin, rippling piano and gentle percussion, almost chamber music of a sort. Modulus wake you up with a piece of bass-driven, fast-paced rhythmic synth/sequencer stuff that is mood through and through and quite dark, as the synths, electronic drums and swooping space synths boom and layer on what is a very riveting track. Kistenmacher gets the Jenkins remix and comes out sounding a lot more polished, but the music mix leans more to Vangelis than Euro-synth, although just missing being great in either department, but still sounds pretty good. Nick Magnus again uses mainly piano and mellotron and really goes for tune, melody and atmosphere in a big way, creating a piece that rises up in anthem-mode, the sort of thing the BBC would use to bring to a close highlights of three days worth of athletics meetings or something similar - not a dry eye in the house. Finally Haslinger gives us a track that owes more to Michael Garrison than T. Dream, although as a mix of the two styles, it works surprisingly well. That's it - my overview for what it's worth - for the quality, about 7 out of 10 I suppose, and there's nothing in there other than the opener that would interrupt the overall flow for all but the most narrow-minded of synth music fans, so definitely worth a try. C&D Services, U.K., March 2001