Secede, Vega Libre (Sending Orbs)

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To start at the (wonderful) end, Secede´s sophomore release on Sending Orbs features a remixed track by Tetsu Inoue, serving as a calming-down, majestic coda to Lennart van der Last´s wildly orchestrated electronica.

Secede trades not in micro- or glitch-electronica, nor in pastoral ambient, but luxuriates in the gigantic, technicolour, Busby Berkeley-choreographed, all-singin´, all-dancin´ electronic blockbuster. Flashing lights, bright colours, beeping, booping, zeeping and zooming up videotronic hill and down virtual dale. Secede always displays great versatility at the controls and quite simply dishes up first-class electronic entertainment. Never a dull moment.

Worth special mention is the brilliant "sci-fi comix" cover artwork by Jeroen Advocaat - on the few panels available to him, he offers up a broad narrative of what looks like a downtown city core in the middle of some municipal celebration being suddenly and maliciously attacked from above by the cruel and destructive laser beams of unseen alien warships.

Advocaat would appear to be the house visual designer, as his artwork graces everything Sending Orbs has released thus far in its infancy. Including, fresh off the presses, Mings Feaner (sounds like the name of a Cockney hooligan, but probably actually means something in Dutch) by a trio calling themselves Legiac.

Quite accomplished, but the variety of styles on display could be hinting more at a lack of identity and own sound than desire to show off a broad, sophisticated palette. A very soothing opening quickly gives way to bongomania, drum´n´bass breaks, a vast array of mainly beat-driven styles, though there are also extended instances of space drift. A smorgasbord of electronic fun, not gelling into a whole, like Secede does, but then again, variety is the point of the smorgasbord - you pick what you like from the plenty on offer.