Nitrous Oxide has established himself as one of Anjunabeats top artists over the last few years and often appears on live DJ sets with Above & Beyond and other members of the Anjuna crowd. You can understand why, with this debut album presenting a really good snapshot of Oxide's capabilities.
It is, in short, melodic trance, the sort of trance music that can uplift you without the need for vocals. There are some vocals on a few tracks, but gladly they generally blend in with the keyboards and synths rather than strangling them with overpowering screeches. The music is powerful and packs a bit of a punch, although perhaps not as much as you might expect - Oxide's sets are usually filled with hard-trance, or at least that's what it sounds like when you're standing next to huge speakers. This isn't gentle or hard trance, and fits somewhere in between.
The album as a whole may not stick in the memory, which may sound like a criticism, but there are some excellent tracks on there. A few are little flat perhaps, but the majority are passionate and pure-trance smashes. 'Downforce' and 'Endorphine' fit this bill perfectly. I should also mention that the version of 'North Pole' is different to the one we heard on Anjunabeats Vol 4 - it's slower and contains a more sophisticated use of the bass. It's difficult to call but I think I prefer this version!
It's certainly an album I would recommend for trance music lovers, and I sense I don't need to persuade followers of Anjunabeats to give this one a listen!