VA by KasKade - Bring The Night

It's rare these days for this hardened cynic of a reviewer to press the play button and then have to peel himself off the back wall, due to having been so seriously blown away by the resulting sounds. Yet it happened here. This album has a clear, tight and robust sound to it: KasKade has taken the view that the sounds are the stars, blending them together and letting them do their thing. He allows each track its own little moment in the sun before moving it along briskly and each one complements the others perfectly in style and sound. Armand Van Helden's NYC Beat is a perfect summation of tone and mood as bristling electro soundscapes soar out of the speakers, strafing their way into your eardrums. There's a fresh, forceful energy here many other albums would kill for. [Jonathan Robert Muirhead]