Above Board Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Anyone with an ear to the underground will be familiar with the name Kenny Hawkes. The late great house artists had a great influence on the scene and that legacy lives on through close friends such as Classic Music Company boss Luke Solomon, with whom he ran the legendary Wednesday night party Space from 1995-2002. Here Luke has linked up with Space regulars Jonny Rock and Leon Oakey to curate a loveling selected mix of tunes that pay tribute to Hawkes. Space Part 1 is a must for house fans - there is steamy deep stuff from Hawkes himself, post-rave dreamscape material from Cine City, punchy tech house done right and booming, and loopy grooves for dancefloor hypnosis. We hope there will be many more to come after this great first installment.

Review: Ed Cartwright's first compilation, which is landing in two parts (this is the first), celebrates the period between 1992 and '96, when electronic music in Britain was going in a multitude of different directions, and the (ultimately unfulfilled) 'brave new dawn' offered by Blair's New Labour government was still some way off. Cartwright's selections thus flit between gorgeous UK techno (Syzygy's 1992 gem 'Meditation'), sub-heavy post-bleep brilliance (Cabaret Voltaire), classic IDM (the Black Dog's Ken Downie as Xeper), mind-mangling slow acid (Thunderhead's excellent 'True Romance'), anti-Criminal Justice Bill material (Ultramarine's 'Happy Land') and some early Matthew Herbert brilliance ('Housewife'). Throw in extensive liner notes from dance music historian Matt Anniss, and you have a fantastic package.

Review: When it was released a few weeks ago, the first volume of Ivan Smagghe and Vladimir Ivkovic's two-part IDMEMO: A Future of Nostalgia compilation delivered a killer collection of largely forgotten or overlooked gems from the Artificial Intelligence-era of electronica and ambient techno. The second installment is equally as inspired, with highlights including the ever-changing, acid-flecked exoticism of the Black Dog's 'Psyil Cosyin', Autechre's haunting, 12-minute remix of Seefeel's 'Spangle', the Tangerine Dream-does-ambient trip that is Beautyon's 'To Swing Pil', and the stately beauty of Beaumant Hannant's 'Utuba (Reprised Version)'. Look out also for a largely unknown - and pleasingly melodious - remix of Soft Ballet by Richard D James under his infrequently used Polygon Window pseudonym.