No sane person could argue that Bexta’s debut album hasn’t been a long time coming. Taking her awesome live show on the road as far back as 8 years ago, Conversations with Ones and Zeros is an album Bexta has been promising since the heady days of trance in 1999. And while her mix CDs have often been of an inconsistent quality, singles like Make it Phunkee and One for the Road have never failed to rock the Australian trance fraternity, as she has proved herself time and again to be a talented producer. But for her debut, Bexta wasn’t content with delivering an album full of her trademark bangin’ hard trance – instead, she wanted to release something with a little more credibility. So while Conversations with Ones and Zeros features plenty of the recognisable Bexta classics, it holds more than a few surprises.

The beginning of the album itself is a little unexpected from Bexta – Spaces Between Silence is a soothing, ethereal offering that veers heavily towards chillout sounds. Full of soft synths and relaxed drum rolls, it rises to the level of a house beat towards the song’s end. Let’s Go Tomorrow and Alien are both notably accessible, with a mood that can be likened to some of the more poppy offerings from Sonic Animation, while Nightmare demonstrates Bexta’s talent for delightful trance melodies that aren’t quite as relentlessly hard as the style of music she has become associated with. But one of the premium choices on Conversations with Ones and Zeros that really stands out from the rest is Rising Sun. Trance with a delicious pop edge, a U2-style guitar solo taken straight from the Joshua Tree-era kicks in during the middle, with the soaring female vocals really giving the song a unique and uplifting difference.

Bexta’s use of vocalists on Conversations with Ones and Zeros isn’t quite as effective as music from more experienced dance producers, and her excursions into more accessible pop-like sounds are sometimes not quite as successful as you’d hope. But they are effective nonetheless, and this refinement is something that will follow from Bexta getting more of her work into the public domain. But over the years, one thing that has been consistent in both the DJ and production work of Bexta has been a bouncing, unremitting energy. So fittingly, when the album heads into the halfway point it enters Bexta’s trance-smash trifecta – Universe, Ice Raver and Drum Beats all in a row, flowed into one huge track. Universe was released to vinyl junkies in the middle of last year, while the pizzicato strings that are heard in the beginning of Ice Raver gradually amplify up into a huge hard trance chorus. And the new mix of Drum Beats is just as slammin as it ever was. Bringing back memories of sweaty Transmission parties from several years back, the seething hard trance melodies and rolling kick drums are an example of Bexta at her most pumping and energetic best.

Many Bexta fans (including yours truly) would have been perfectly satisfied if she had released an album full of sweltering hard trance – and it is almost disappointing that she didn’t take this sound as far as it could go over the course of her debut. You also can’t help but feel that if this were the direction that Bexta had taken, it would have been an unstoppable killer opus. Hard trance is what she knows; when she strays outside into new territory, it’s not quite as solid as what we’ve heard from her in the past. Tracks like One for the Road always seemed one step ahead of a lot of the other hard trance coming out of Europe, but a song like Alien isn’t injected with quite as much of Bexta’s refined and unique musical identity. And surprisingly, Conversations with Ones and Zeros can occasionally sound very much like a debut effort, something from an emerging musician who is only just settling into her musical maturity. This IS surprising coming from Bexta, as she’s been producing music for over a decade. Or perhaps it’s not so surprising – as many of her impatient fans would attest to, she should have had her debut album out years ago. Perhaps it’s a consequence of her sitting on her material for so long and failing to release it, rather than really pushing herself as a musician.

But to dwell on these minor criticisms is to give the wrong impression – Conversations with Ones and Zeros is an excellent effort that works very well as an album, and it already looks like it’ll be the highest selling Australian electronic release of the year. Her hardcore fans may have preferred her to stay within the realms of the hard trance that she’s known for, but you have to respect her for taking the more credible and difficult path – it’s a move that always pays off in the end. But a really great artist needs to hone their craft with experience, and it’s hoped that this is the path that Bexta takes in the future – even if it requires her to give the mix CDs a rest and scale back her DJ commitments a little. After all, we don’t want to have to wait another excruciating 5 years for the next Bexta album.