Various Siesta – Compiled by Alien Project Phonokol (Israel)

The idea of Alien Project laying down a chillout album sounds like the beginning to a musical joke – like the idea of Axl Rose duetting with Bette Midler, or of David Bowie still sounding good on his new album. Nevertheless, that’s what we have here – ten tasty tranced-out takes of ticklish tranquil tuneage. Earthling’s Chill Or Be Chilled starts things out with a nice dubby flavour (albeit with a crap piano part), a vibe maintained with the sweet and sumptuous Jah Feedback from Water Spirits. Earthling’s Helix is pleasant, and Space Drifters’ Reveree is wonderfully atmospheric with a sort of archaeological exploration vibe – perfect movie or videogame stuff. Cryptic Aliens from Orion vs. Alien Project is very special – sounds layer and twinkle, the groove doesn’t budge, and it unfolds almost all of its own accord. Earthling again with Kilimanjaro, a very deep shpongley tribal tune with enchanted vocals, though the rather lame brass synth detracts from its overall feel. A rather special remix of Etnica’s Triptonite will delight the old skool veterans no end, it’s been dubbed up and spaced out nicely, and the sounds hang together just as dazzlingly as you’d expect. Sheer class. Alien Project’s Crystal Skulls track is presented here in its delightful ten minute-plus full length version that’s a fatty boombatty for the soul, and Logic Bomb’s Normalised brings things to a close nicely. This is pretty faultless stuff – a little less Earthling wouldn’t have gone a miss (he’s involved with six out of the ten tracks, and bearing in mind two of those are Logic Bomb and Etnica, it’s a little over-exposed.) Whatever, this is nice and classy chill and evidence that Alien Project certainly knows how to go deep.

Just a quick reminder that there's an archived mix by Tristanmix at Groovetech.com, get in there.

And while you're there, check Lucas (TipWorld, London) who has a monthly show on Groovetech where he mashes everything together in one go, and on November 4th from 10:00am

• 12:00am (UK time - an hour later for European) Rikki Rocket (aka Richard, label manager of TIP/10 Kilo and Surround Sounds) guests.

We'll send out a reminder next week but thissounds like a definite one to watch!