The long awaited new chapter in the excellent DJ Kicks series is a bit of a disappointment after one listen. Of course expectations were a bit high when K7 in December last year announced they had a Trüby Trio mix-CD in the can but confronted with the gentle sounds on the actual CD one wonders "this is all a bit '99 innit?", pseudo acid-jazz that sounds just too gentle and safe instead of the Pan-European Sound of the Now that most avant-lounge should aim for. Patience has its rewards as usual. After a second and third try one grows into this world, which is quite a nice place to stay for 70-odd minutes. But one has to work at it, first of all a lot of tracks have vocals that in the true acid-jazz tradition sing about nothing of interest, trite nu-hippie shit about planetary consciousness and getting in touch with oneself. Which is bad in itself, but what I don't understand is how most of the vocals are left intact, there's a disappointing lack of dub magic which in the end makes Kruder & Dorfmeister a superior proposition in this area. With a bit of effort one zones out on the lyrics, even though Africanism's mythical Egyptian tale 'Edony' possesses a certain cool charm.

One last hurdle to take is that when the dub factor is played down a sort of smugness pervades, the haughty "we are sophisticated so we mention jazz a lot" attitude that also makes Jazzanova such an unbearable proposition at times. Already it seems a lot to ask then, but really there are plenty of rewards here. Notwithstanding the ridiculous title, Trüby Trio's own 'High Jazz' is a pleasurable chant but it pales in comparison with Block 16's 'Find An Oasis' that follows. This is exactly what most of this music should aim at, creating an aural oasis. Jhelisa's voice helps here, soft and warm, just repeating a couple of phrases which eventually get caught up in light echo effects, the rhythm suddenly shifts and pushes the blissful synth swirls into stellar regions. Stunning.