Every now and then a compilation comes along and ups the stakes. This is one of them.
First up a word about the title 'click' - it's a bit of a misnomer. 'The Magnificent..." has got little to do with electronica's glitchy sound, or the European click house style.
Instead this of it as a round-up of all that's exciting and edgy in the electronic underground, minus any garage and junglist beat-junkies.
A 'Now That's What I Call Dead Exciting vol 1' for 2003.
Herbert is surely the most click artist of the compilation, and he appears four times. He remixes Akufen and the godlike Ursula Rucker, the latter a brooding lament on love and relationships.
There's a cut from his absolutely classic 'Around The House' LP, and an exclusive from his singer Dani Sicilano.
Her voice is jazzual and dreamy, the perfect foil to Herbert's crunchy Concrete sound.
Other big names include Mr Scruff in unusually abstract territory, junglists Total Science in exquisite breaks mode and an Ian O'Brien classic from the mid-90s.
The latter's techno-jazz approach only serves to remind how ahead of his time his 'Desert Scores' LP was.
Planet E's Recloose does his quirk-funk thing and Chateau Flight remixes Brandy in an Afro-Mr Fingers style.
The compilation's highlights, after Ursula Rucker and Total Science, have to be New Flesh and Rich Medina.
New Flesh's 'Stick & Move' is a ragga-ish UK hip hop anthem to rival in bass and energy anything Roots Manuva can muster.
But the Rich Medina vs Kemeticjust track 'Minstrel Speak' is heart-stopping. Think Gill Scott Heron produced by Jazzanova.
If only all underground music had this much to say.
by Martin Clark