At last - an artist who understands that dance music and musical composition are not mutually exclusive arts! Folks, this is a refreshing, refreshing find - even my intense dislike of a few aspects of this song cannot prevent me from endorsing this artist's work.

So many things are dead on. The engineering is magnificent - clean and clear, with just the right amount of air. The sounds are punchy and deep, but rarely are in your face. This is an electronic track with a deep sense of style, combining the best elements of breakbeats, house grooves, and acid jazz into a whole new thing.

The composition and performance are superb. This is a well-written song in any genre, but in the dance music genre this is nearly a magnum opus. The structure is very sound, perfectly balanced, and even includes (gasp) a piano solo! When is the last time you heard a dance tune that actually had a musician PLAYING an instrument? Mind boggling. This is a great fusion, folks, one you have to check out.

There always has to be a "but", and this track is no exception. In this case, I have to complain bitterly about the horrible housey piano patch used to establish the main chord progression. During the main body of the song, it works fine. But at the start of the track and during a few of the breaks, when all you can hear is a groovy beat and this monstrously loud and awkward piano, the synthetic decay of the piano just makes me want to gouge my fingernails into my cheeks. This is particularly unnerving given the delicate sensibility used in selecting the rest of the track's instrumentation. Fortunately, this is a short-lived nit, but it is something worthy of note.

But, as I write this, I'm hearing the piano solo ... and the smile is returning to my face. All is not lost.

Overall, this is a very interesting track by an intriguing artist. The track is not perfect, but it is absolutely worth a listen, and perhaps even a download. I'm definitely going to check out the artist's other work.

The Drum n Bass scene has reached a point where many of the best innovations are coming from artists who are not dedicated to the scene but rather general electronic artists dabbling around in the mysterious world of ‘broken beats’. Desire, by U.K. sound smith Empathy is just such a track. Billing his work as “Dance Music with Originality”, the artist starts with an intro that could have just as well been a part of any suspense movie soundtrack. After nearly a minute, some deep chopped breaks are dropped in the mix and soon blossom into a full breakbeat. The plucked strings and cinematic chord patterns that introduced the song are then joined by (and eventually give way) to a deep, winding analog bass that doesn’t rasp so much as saturate the sounds cape. Just when you think the track is going to turn into a full-throttle dance-floor killer, Empathy eases on the drums, swinging the entire track in a more contemplative direction … and just when you get comfortable with that … well you get the picture.

The recording is fairly clean and sequencing is meticulous. The mixing seemed a little bass-heavy, to the point where a lot of the mid-range seemed suffer. It was kind of like listening to a regular CD after your ears have popped from changing altitude. Granted, the bass was essential to what the Empathy trying to emphasize but sometimes artists have to trust the integrity of their original sounds and the listener’s equipment to get the proper accentuation. On a balanced system this track sounds like it was ruined by a bad EQ job. Other than that there are virtually no technical quibbles to be had.

Desire is a classic stop-and-go track that has moderate potential as both a movie score and a dance floor track (if squeezed between two uncompromising 2-step tracks – I’d actually like to hear Andy C or a similar DJ attempt to do this). Drum n Bass fans starved for something out of the ordinary might want to check this one out.