There are some albums that you think are amazing straight away, and after a few listens just fall short of your initial excitement. And then there are other albums which you pick up on and it takes a while to kind of fall into place, but eventually they knock you sideways, and you truly unravel the sheer genius of it all. Finally, there’s some that somehow manage to pull off both with considerable aplomb, guts and balls. You know the kind where you’re hooked off the first listen and still there weeks, months, and in certain cases years later. We maybe late in letting you know on this one, but we’re quietly confident this is one of those rare beasts.

The Soup’s been in control of this for a while now, listening repeatedly for nigh on three months. We’ve had it on in the office, on the iPod, round our mates at parties and cranking in the car, and it never fails to impress. The first listen constituted mainly of disbelief, because we weren’t quite sure what to make. It was good, in fact it was amazing, but the glory didn’t quite settle in. We’ve held back on a review because we didn’t want to half heartedly write the praise we’re dishing out, we didn’t want to get excited and then realise we were wrong. That’s changed; we really, really think this is something special. The best release mix wise we’ve heard all 2007.

Now we’ve heaped on the praise, let’s get scientific. The content is fabulous, there’s mesmerising techno from Carl Craig, ethereal pop from Brigitte Bardot and synth driven disco from Cerrone. Their Djing flair is fantastic, segueing the shuffling grooves of Franck Garcia and Mlle Caro to the futuristic synths of John Carpenter in a moment of breathtaking brilliance, only undone by the magical transformation of The Streets string laden ‘Too Late’ into a beguiling slice of Detroit Techno when sat against Quarion’s deep house. Then there’s the devastating programming, check the way Booka Shade’s own melancholy masterpiece ‘Estoril’ melts into the power strut of Yazzoo’s ‘Situation’ or Aphex Twin’s languid ‘Alberto Balsam’ shifts at breakneck speed into the punky stabs of Heaven 17’s ‘Geisha Boys and Temple Girls’. These are just the highlights, elsewhere there’s plenty more moments of joyous abandon done so brilliantly well that it’s almost like they’ve created the perfect template for how to create a home listening mix. This is a schizophrenic masterpiece that can’t decide whether it’s for the dancefloor, for horizontal consumption or for wistful pondering, and the indecision is all part of its alluring brilliance. In a series that has consistently broke new ground, this may well very be the best yet. Awesome.