To many, the inaugural Future Music Festival in Sydney was considered the best dance festival of 2006. Needless to say, many are eagerly anticipating the arrival of FMF in their capital city in March. In a similar fashion, I was just as eagerly anticipating the arrival of the CD that would go with it; released by EQ/Stomp, the Future Music Festival CD 2007 is a double CD mixed by our very own Derek {K} and the so-called ‘best thing to come from Scotland since Mylo’, Chris Lake. The end result? Sheer quality.

On the first CD, Scottish supremo Lake shows us why he is fasting becoming globally recognised as one of the most talented producers and DJs to emerge in recent years. The mixing is flawless, the track selection is spot on, and the juxtaposition of some of the tracks is impressive, to say the least. He gets the ball rolling subtly, and you can just imagine warming the crowd up on a Saturday afternoon in March with Nitefall (Vance Musgrove Peaked mix) by Headland; it gets increasingly chaotic the longer the song progresses. Wow Wow by Micky Slim follows it nicely, with its ridiculously chunky bass souped up flange-like effects – a killer track – and looped into Crop Duster by Shlomi Aber, they continue to get the temperature well and truly rising. While the latter gets just a touch repetitive, it works well into Walking Strangers by Tim Davision (Max Graham Club Mix), which provides for a more uplifting experience with some handsomely placed drops scattered amongst just as impressive effects.

Lake launches into his own Carry Me Away , and here we have a track that could very well be his next big thing. It’s the Sebastien Leger mix that gets a run here, producing a slightly more funked up version of the more vocally influenced original. Leger has not only done the track justice, but has brought out the awesome vocals of Emma Hewitt (who has also collaborated with our very own Deepface), and this song has got serious legs – all 7 minutes of it. He mixes flawlessly out of his own track (maybe even reluctantly) and crosses into Fugitive by Justin Martin a song that although having been around for a little while (was actually on the inthemix.2006 CD) it is loaded with heavy drops and clever overlaps – the perfect foil to the previous track. Lake pulls it off in style though, and the highlights keep coming. Cage Me In by Angel Alanis feat. Renee (Leger mix) breaks up the tempo briefly, Gaz James & Hauswerks get into a breaks-electro sub genre (if it exists) with Monsoon and even Lake and Leger return with their Aqualight, a track that – with an almost Mason Exceeder feel to it – could be just as big this year. D Ramirez and D Bobrov combine for a strong electronic finish in Pleasure Me, and Lake has wrapped up 80 minutes of some pretty wicked stuff. All up it provides for some solid highlights, featuring a wide array of tracks with minimal cheese. With a few new tracks thrown in for good measure, this has real potential to grow on some people. Rest assured, it almost certainly will.

Throw over to the second disc, and we find Derek {K}, one of an increasing number of shining lights to have emerged from the local scene, and the invitation here (and to Future Music in March) is arguably an illustration of it. Not that he even needs it. The man has had invitations from, and worked alongside names like Felix da Housecat, and he’s done FTV, Pacha, Mischief and Summadayze. The youngest ever DJ to play on the Gatecrasher and Two Tribes bill, the list of achievements goes on, and it’s obvious that his star is indeed a rising one. On disc two he shows us why. He gets straight into it with a potential dance monster in the Axwell remix of Counting Down The Days by Sunfreakz featuring Andrea Britton (arguably appropriately named with less than a month to go to Future Music), and while it may be just a touch cheesy for some, with a catchy tune, solid drops, a touch of vocals, and some very subtle yet smooth key changes – it is right on the money. I can already see the arms waving to this one in a few weeks. Here, it sets the tempo perfectly with a nice uplifting feel, and it is one that Derek {K} manages to sustain well. Moving into Hypnotize by Laidback Luke ft. Stephan Granville and Take Me Higher by Mischa Daniels – they are both solid tracks that will get plenty of punters going, dancing, clapping, arms in the air – yep, all that; after all, this is a festival release. One of my highlights on the second disc – and there were a few – was undoubtedly Frankfurt by Pryda... it may start relatively innocently, but when it drops about two minutes in, my ears were at full attention, and it epitomises what has made electro-house so successful.

Derek {K} loads this disc up with some very impressive tracks: Crunch from Mark Knight, with its almost outrageous bass and drops, Your Eyes from DJ DLG and Dance is Dead (Tocadisco remix) from Boosta are not far behind. At the other end of the spectrum, with a truly laid back uplifting experience, is Sugar by DYAD10; a song which if this set were a cyclone, this would be its eye – calm, but chaos on either side! The quirkiest track by far was Stabbing Sally by Marcella – together with the lyric: “strange things are happening, women stab men with their umbrellas…”. Indeed. Then again, it wasn’t that long ago that you were being asked to ‘put your hands up for Detroit’ – so who knows – maybe nothing is too quirky for the electro-house genre. The ‘K’ man (can I call him that?) wraps it up with Radio ‘84 from Lifelike, which contains vocals that actually sound like they did come out of the same year, and all up, it is a solid ending to a hot piece of work.

This is a festival CD, and on both discs that vibe keeps coming through; it is not the CD you throw on while you’re kicking back with a quiet drink. Rather, it is the one that comes out as you’re about to head out on the weekend, or even better, let’s say Saturday lunchtime over the course of the next month. With only a few weeks to go, I didn’t think there was anything that could possibly get me even more excited about the Future Music Festival. I was wrong, and I’m very glad I got my hands on it. I suggest you go out and do the same.