Various Artists
CLUB SERIES VOL. 4
(Strictly Hype)

Despite the anonymity of the title, this 17-track CD displays, and epitomizes, all the fast-flying power, orchestral gleam, and stratospheric highs that make Eurodance go. The music compiled here is the rougher, techno-influenced version of Eurodance more typical of clubs in Ibiza than the honey-sweet, ethereal style that prevails in Germany and Italy.

Still, if your idea of dancing free is to have your feet never touch the ground and your body float free of time and place, this CD has what you want. Even dedicated Euro fans aren’t likely to have heard of any of the artists and singers herein mixed by DJs the Riddler (10 numbers) and Christian B (seven), but who needs known names? Few stars leave as unmistakable a mark on your soul as these 17 tracks, which are full of fast deep beats, cathedral orchestrations, divas molting, sighs and pauses, and choruses of voices longing and lusting. A special high point is " Inferno, " in which the impossible soprano of French mediævalist diva Emma Shapplin sings in Latin, beckoning, and mocking, the rational, the earthy, the matter-of-fact.

Issue Date: March 29 - April 4, 2001