Armand Van Helden: Killing Puritans (ffrr)
This time around, no one can tell what comes next. Nicking samples from Gary Numan and The Scorpions, reinventing hip-house, doing a solo rap run, getting his mother in on the act, using a system of symbols to name every track: Armand Van Helden may be the maverick's maverick, but Killing Puritans will ensure few can follow him. It's the energy and flow which are the most impressive; a low attention span may be one way of explaining the vibrant vroom of Koochy or the rampant darkness of Little Black Spiders (with Ma Van Helden supplying vocals), but within the space of another few tracks, another dozen new genres are created, deconstructed and despatched. Dance music has not sounded this essential or exciting in quite some time.
Jim Carroll
Various Artists: Homelands Ireland: The Album (Sony)
Relive the mudness of Mosney with this souvenir CD, featuring 21 massive dance anthems from the likes of Propellerheads, Basement Jaxx, Leftfield, Orbital, Underworld, Agnelli & Nelson, Chemical Brothers and Paul Van Dyk. Nothing particularly innovative here, just a solid set of huge tunes, mixed together with workman-like skill by Cheeky Paul and Andrew Gallagher. The selection runs from heavy techno to big beat to indie to trance to house and back again, with a few oldies from David Holmes, The Prodigy and Fatboy Slim thrown in for good measure. Should be subtitled Now That's What I Call Mosney!
Kevin Courtney