San Francisco based duo Gabriel & Dresden are without a doubt one of the leading names to emerge from the US in the world of dance. Their careers both as a production pairing and as individuals have seen countless successful releases with an undeniable focus on melodic, progressive house. Toolroom Records is the UK based label known for its forward thinking underground electro and tech house releases. Usually associated with slamming club cuts, they have recently ventured into the world of the mix CD, and this is the second release under the Toolroom Knights banner. At first glance, the union of G&D with Toolroom seems an odd pairing. With the number of electro and tech house producers releasing material on Toolroom, Gabriel and Dresden are a leftfield (and perhaps inspired) choice.

Disc 1 starts with a very grounded, organic feel, with the opening stanza concerned more with lyric and melody rather than the beat. The Hot Chip remix of Junior Boys In The Morning, is all syncopated beats and breathy vocals. The King Roc dub of Above & Beyond’s Good For Me is nothing short of sublime and demonstrates how tech-house is able to (occasionally) simultaneously capture darkness and beauty. With two remixes of indie rock and trance classics to start things off and ten minutes in we are already heading somewhere good. The familiar sounds of Claude VonStroke’s Who’s Afraid of Detroit takes the mix into darker, more familiar territory and sets things up nicely for the discordant soaring vocals of Like a Pen from The Knife.

By the time the mix has reached G&D’s reworking of Colombian Soul, we are firmly in dancefloor territory. Things take a momentary dip with the inclusion of Stephan Bodzin’s Fahrenheit; this track ends up coming across as the somewhat incongruous minimal meat in a rather melodic sandwich. The tail end of disc one seamlessly eases itself from soaring melodies down to a more restrained and sombre conclusion. Crosstalk from Josh Gabriel is a cracking track and keeps things moving along apace. Wippenberg’s take on G&D’s classic Tracking Treasure Down keeps the energy up, while tracks from Merkins, Ozgur Can and Trentmoller gradually wind the intensity back so that the mix ends in similar territory to where it started.

The mixing on this disc is not particularly groundbreaking; most of the transitions occur at the very end of each track without much melodic exchange between the tunes. However, the programming is superb. The first disc flows from melodic, to deep to slamming and back again, with the mix always being underpinned by a strong melodic sensibility. While there are a few dips in the overall energy of the mix, this disc is a keeper.

The second disc starts very much where the first left off, with the bouncy tech-house sounds of Monochrome’s Pearl. G&D add their own swirling melodic touch to this track before dropping it into the epic tech-house stylings of Blonda from rising Israeli stars Shlomi Aber and Itamar Sagi. For the first time, we see a little DJ ingenuity with the clever layering of the acapella from Turn Off The Lights over James Holden’s A Break in the Clouds, adding a touch of soul to the deep, driving sounds of the original. The vocal intertwines with the original melody to create a swirling, euphoric interlude to the rolling high-hats and pounding bass. The first original G&D production to make an appearance here is the sparkling sounds of Eleven, yet another track that has been doing the rounds for a little while now.

While there are some good moments, the second half of this disc never really finds its groove. There was some melodic cohesion on disc 1, but here G&D seem to meander a little more aimlessly through the clubbier tech-house sounds and it all starts to feel a little disjointed. There are some standout cuts, like the updated 2007 mix of G&D’s Enemy as well as their remix of The Killers Read My Mind, but they appear out of context. Melodic tracks tend to follow on from others that verge on techno (such as Dusty Kid’s Tsunamy) on what becomes a bit of thematic merry-go-round. Just when things begin to head somewhere, the energy moves in a new direction. The dynamics of the mix are far more muted and while this is certainly still a quality mix, it shines less than its counterpart.

The Gabriel & Dresden sound has certainly shifted in recent times, both with the direction of their original productions, and now with their DJ stylings. This compilation could be seen as the end point of a very conscious re-positioning of the Gabriel and Dresden sound. While there are plenty of familiar, perhaps even dated tracks here, the end result is a solid compilation featuring a potent mixture of the familiar with the new. Some standout tracks make this a worthwhile compilation to get your hands on. In many respects, it captures both the underground house sound that Toolroom is known for while managing to form an accessible mix that will appeal to chin-strokers and dance music tourists alike. All of this is accomplished without losing a distinctive Gabriel and Dresden fingerprint – no mean feat indeed.