German-bred Malente has hit our shores, playing at a host of gigs over the silly season, including Field Day and Sounds on Sunday in Sydney, Summafieldayze on the Gold Coast, and even the Court Hotel in Perth. On Whow!, his DJ mix CD, he has compiled and mixed together a string of his tracks of 2007. The end result, lots of electro, with a solid enough tinge of breaks, and with a stack of rare and elusive tracks, make it a pretty good listen.

It is an odd start to proceedings in the form of You Got The Love by The Longcut that sounds out of place. Ridiculously so. But from thereon, it is a fun and frenetic ride. Kicking it off with Disco Shoes from Acid Jacks – and in true Malente style, it is a ride loaded with chunky bass lines, heavy drops, electro, electro and a bit more electro. Little wonder he scored himself a Field Day invite. We Were Wild from Markus Lange and Daniel Dexter is an interesting tune; while it is far from out of place and is quite solid, the vocals are slightly amusing; seriously, she sounds like she is in pain. Through Make My Day from Eyerer & Chopstick and Galia Melon out of the James Harcourt stable, the chunky beats continue and make for a decent listen.

It gets a bit crazy (is that a touch of breaks I hear?) with Audio Riot from Full Mental Slackers, but it is not all that long until electro reigns supreme again with Victorian Noir from Mascotte, with the chunky beats loaded with tweaks and rips not backward in coming forward. Wink Wink by Fil OK for me had a notable uplifting sound, and after a number of listens this version, the Touche remix, confirmed itself as the track of the album for me; a solid inclusion. It’s the kind of festival song that makes you want to just lose your shit. Speaking of festivals, recent visitor Claude Von Stroke and his Whistler is given the Aston Shuffle treatment, although its always going to be difficult to improve from a quality original like that. Malente joins forces with Moston to try get things Fu*ked Up – with, well, a track with exactly that title; fair effort on both counts really, the pumping bass is well… appropriate. The Yuksek remix of Hands of a stranger from Teenage Bad Girl is tweaked just nicely, and towards the end of the release, it offers something just a touch different. Only a shame there was not a little more of it.

All up, this is a solid and overwhelmingly decent offering, albeit a little unadventurous at points. The mixing is hard to fault, and while the ride is a bit constant, with nothing to really throw things around too much, it delivers.