Having played host to some of the world’s key movers and shakers in the dance scene for almost 8 years, Global Gathering has made a name for itself as a worldwide event which you really ought to attend if the opportunity arises. Starting out in the UK, it’s making its highly publicised entry to Australia later this year (head to www.inthemix.com.au/globalgathering for all the info!) After the successful UK event in July, we thought we’d take a look at this import CD, which features music from artists who featured at this year’s festival. So, what’s in store when you put it on?

Disc one offers up a variety of the latest electro house, with tracks from Audio Bullys, Moby, Underworld, Digitalism and David Guetta, along with a host of leaders in the genre. The set starts out with a hot remix of Mark Ronson’s ‘Stop Me’ by BBC Radio 1’s new DJ star Kissy Sell Out. It then gets sweatier and harder with The Audio Bully’s ‘Gimmie That Punk’, progressing along the same lines through Fake Blood’s ‘Mars’ and D.I.M’s ‘You’. There’s a couple of real gems thrown in there, such as Laidback Luke’s remix of Underworld ‘Ring Road’, as well as Sven Vath’s ‘The Beauty & The Beast’, which take you right down into the depths of a dark Berlin club. However the whole thing may have started out a bit too fast, so to be honest the first disc starts to flounder and fall apart by the middle. It never really regains its momentum, hobbling to a close with Tocadisco’s remix of Dirty South ‘The End’. The mixing is not particularly inspiring either, but it certainly doesn’t leave you grimacing. It’s a fair effort, but not exactly groundbreaking stuff.

Disc two goes a lot deeper, taking in the recent sounds and remixes of trance and progressive house. Starting off with the dancefloor winning Mark Knight and Funkagenda remix of Laurent Garnier ‘The Man with the Red Face’, it then moves through more recent fare including The Shapeshifters remix of Orbital ‘Chime’, The Beloved’s ‘Sweet Harmony’ (credited to Serge Devant here), Jose Amnesia vs Karen Overton’s remake of Billie Ray Martin’s ‘Your Loving Arms’, and later on Paul Oakenfold’s remake of the Grace hit ‘Not Over’ (now with vocals by Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic). There’s much more to keep you entertained on this disc, but it also appears that if this is anything to judge a genre by, then trance has run out of ideas. Much of it is simply reworked tunes from back in the heyday of ‘98-‘00. It’s definitely worth a listen though, because the remixes do the originals some justice.

Overall the album isn’t a bad effort, there are a few knockout tracks and remixes to get into, but is it worth you shelling out your hard earned cash? Well, if you want a taster of your festival filled summer, this will probably suit you nicely. But if you want something original to keep you interested, then you might want to look elsewhere.