The Ben Watt star continues to rise. Fresh from a tour that saw him travel the globe, together with a smash and grab whirlwind tour of Australia with sets at inthemix.2006 parties in December, he is back. Delivering the latest instalment of his tremendously popular and widely acclaimed Buzzin’ Fly series, it has got the typical Watt energy, and just the right amount of chic.

He kicks things off with the future electro sound that he’s been so closely associated with; relatively chilled stuff it may be, but you can’t help but get the feeling that he’s just setting the mood. Long Shadows by Pedro Madeira is close to the perfect illustration of it, the Portuguese producer’s gentle tech sound building the Watt crescendo nicely. His own Just A Blip sees it grow, giving you a sense that it’s one of those tracks of considerable proportions, you keep wanting just that little bit more. And just when you’re wanting a bit of oomph from Mr Watt, he delivers; Mind Games by Abyss is the perfect tonic. Watt threw this track on the inthemix.2006 release, and rightly so; the song is one of the best of last year, and it provides eight minutes of unadulterated electro-tech delight.

Watt’s become pretty good at this DJing caper, and as he mixes in and out of tracks with a lazy two-minutes to go, it’s impressive stuff. The tracks glide seamlessly in and out, and with extended cross-fades, and filters providing appropriate tweaks. Watt is bang on the money. No fist-pumping vocals here; but still plenty to get excited about. Magnetic from Manoo & Francois A is one such reason, and as Watt lifts the BPMs, the bassline becomes that touch chunkier, but still with plenty of dance pads to keep things in check.

The best is kept till for the very end though, with some absolutely cracking tracks; the first one in particular being Lost – a hot new track from Parisien resident of Pulp and Rex Mile Caro and Frank Garcia mixed seamlessly into Silver Ponds by Figurines (Ben Watt Dub). Together with Down to Earth by Kimouts, Watt leads us out of his electro dream, and with the mix ending (just as it started) with further spoken word extracts from Watt’s long running and acclaimed Outspoken project, featuring Oslo-based Iowa narrator, Jennifer Valone – mixed into The Sad Piano by Justin Martin, odd track names aside, it makes for quite the production.

And my friends, that’s a wrap. This CD has got serious ‘growing’ characteristics. While it left me a little unsatisfied on the first rotation, the more I listen to it, the more I want it. While there is nothing too daring here – in my opinion anyway – that’s good part of the attraction to this genre, and there aren’t many better proponents than Watt himself. Again, Watt has provided a fresh collection of tracks that have not only defined his label in recent times, but tracks that we can arguably look forward to in coming months. With the man himself set to touch down in the land down-under in coming weeks, all we can say is, “Mr Watt, we love your sounds.”