Digital Information Ensemble - D.I.E.

As wild hybrids of current electronic music genres go this debut release from Digital Information Ensemble has to be a pick of the crop. But don't expect a mess as the styles collide, rather marvel as they somehow come together and produce a cohesive and vibrant energy.

At the heart of it all is a guy called Matt Stein, who pulled together his crew from a wide variety of sources. DJ's, producers and performance artists make up the ensemble, which might explain why the music on this CD often seems to come from many different directions at once.

Thought's To Live By, one of the few tracks that features vocals, is a dreamy combination of as many differing grooves, SFX and assorted ephemera as you're ever likely to witness. But it holds together. It's the story of the whole CD. Tons of stuff all craftily moulded together by Stein, engineer and producer for the likes of Laswell, Dee Lite and Grace Jones (to name but a few).

Rating - 815,266 (out of a possible 1,000,000)