Blutonium Presents Hardstyle

Hardstyle - it's kind of hard house and trance mashed into one thing. Naturally there's going to be a lot of Blutonium Boy on this album - he produces, he remixes, he DJs - the boy's talents are endless it seems, but rather than suffocate the mix with same-sounding tracks, this makes for a CD with a distinctive sound - that of Blutonium.

Disc 1 warms up nicely with melodies and a little bit o' breakbeat to ease you into the hardness. There are plenty of bass-heavy moments throughout this CD, 'Dreams In My Fantasy' of particular note, but this is not an indistinguishable mash of ear-bleeding noise - there are plenty of breakdowns and atmospheric interludes to contrast. BB himself does a bouncey trance turn with the nicely titled Go Burn A Fatty Ass, followed up by the synthed-out Brainshooter. Exciter introduces a female vocal to soften up the middle and keep the girlfriends happy, Explorer giving you two for the price of one. The remainder of disc one maintains the energy and interest with frequent changes in sound and effects, melody in focus and a few more well-placed vocals with beats not too hard for your hardstyle (excepting maybe Resistance, which makes the windows rattle a bit). Overall, a disc that is probably only slightly harder than your club trance.

Disc 2 would be your more serious hardstyle, with beats and bass assaulting the eardrums from the word go. There's less by way of melody, more by way of effects, computerised vocals and straight-out banging, the type many a punter has lost themself in until sunrise. Edge Of Sanity makes no illusions about being some hardcore house, an approach taken by the majority of the tracks on this disc. Make that all of them. So not for the feint-hearted, the hooks and unrelenting tempo will indeed have you sweating out an organ dancing to this at home. Make sure you have drinks and towels on standby.