Alice Deejay are the all-female Dutch group who wooed Europe in 99 with a particularly nasty strain of trance-by-numbers. From out of nowhere, they released the singles "Better Off Alone" and "Back In My Life", atrocities that managed to infiltrate every youth club and boutique from Reading to Rotterdam. The arrogantly titled Who Needs Guitars Anyway is an album worth of similar crimes against humanity. It'll come as no surprise to hear that, of the 14 tracks here, there's little in the way of variation. Most songs (and the term is used generously) consist of dumbed-down saccharine riffs, simple, two-fingered Hi-NRG basslines and the kind of metronomic beats that would keep a hypnotist happy for years. The singing is equally loathsome, revelling in its attempts to exert cutesy adolescent angst over the anodyne backing tracks. Perky synth lines, crashing cymbals and funny whooshing noises might be all the rage at seven year old's birthday parties, but really, this kind of Fisher Price trance makes Sash! sound like Beethoven and is best avoided. -Paul Tierney.

Here, Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy reprise the System 7 sound decently enough, though a few more vocal performances might have given the album a little more character. Nonetheless, this makes for pleasant, if inessential listening. "Interstate" is carried along by a sample from Krautrocker's Neu!, over which a Hillage guitar solo breaks like the rising sun. "Civilisation" features a thunderous electro contribution from Carl Craig, "Good Morning" is as luminous and vitamin-enhanced as the title suggests while "Davy Jones' Locker", written with The Orb's Alex Paterson, is an undersea musical excursion worth taking. The Power Of 7 is not a masterpiece, but it was certainly an antidote to downbeat 1990s miserabilism. -David StubbsEND.

Surprisingly Loud is only the debut LP from German house don Timo Maas, a super-talented remixer and incendiary club DJ who's risen into the international DJ super-league through a mixture of hard work and no-nonsense crowd-pleasing. Now, though, it seems he wants to be the Chemical Brothers as well. Loud is a proper artist album-fourteen tracks of mainstream, club-friendly electronica, peppered with special guests, and bulging with the sort of eclectic muscle to rock the alternative crowd as well as the club fraternity. The opening "Help Me", all ghostly theremin and funky deep house bassline, features an uncharacteristically-restrained vocal performance from Kelis, while an on-form Finley Quaye weighs in with a handful of demented, stoned ramblings on the shimmering, psychedelic "Caravan". Elsewhere, the chunky acid squelch of "Manga" and the Teutonic disco pulse of "Shifter", featuring the warping vocals of garage MC Chick-a-boo should appeal to fans of the tune that made Maas' name back in 2000, his pioneering overhaul of Azzido Da Bass' "Dooms Night". Ultimately, Loud is a spot more refined, progressive and laid-back than the cartoonish pop antics of this record's closest precedent, Fatboy Slim's You've Come A Long Way Baby-but it might just catapault Timo Maas into a similar league. -Louis Pattison.

It's easy to dismiss the music of this cute, vegan, bare-pated relative of Herman Melville, especially if you don't actually listen to the music and focus instead on his ultra-PC interview style or the manner in which he sold dozens of songs to commercials and film soundtracks back in Y2K. But to do so is to knee-jerkedly miss out on some very fine and innovative music by one of the most influential musicians of the last decade. With the exception of two tracks (one of them the title tune), Go is a best-of from the years that Moby's been on the V2 label, from 1999's breakthrough hit Play onward. But Play-with its uncanny reworking of field recordings with playful beats and ambient textures-remains the artist's finest moment. A full disc of remixes and a smattering of unreleased songs (including a rad new number with Debbie Harry on guest vocals) make this an essential purchase for rabid fans. And, as a judicious selection of Play-era material is included alongside the finest songs from Moby's subsequent albums, 18 and Hotel, this is also the perfect entry point for the more casual fan. -Mike McGonigal.

Toby Marks of Banco De Gaia has steered a fairly consistent course since his 1993 debut Maya. Often filed under "techno" in music shops, in fact his brand of spiritually uplifting music for mind and body only cherry-picks from this genre, adding elements of world music-particularly Middle Eastern styles-ambient dub and ambient. Magical Sounds, the first release on his own new record label, is a straightforward progression from previous work. The opening "I Love Baby Cheesy", the only consistently dancey track on the album, makes characteristically fine use of unusual vocal samples in the midst of an upbeat, rolling sound. Other numbers, like "Harvey And The Old One" and "144K?" mix a long and mellow introductory section into some later heavier beats. "Sinhala" is a wonderfully organic chant-based number; "Touching The Void" begins with rainforest sounds that flow into a nicely paced backbrain romp; "Frog's Dinner" is mostly spacey and deeply textured yet will get your hips swaying in its funky breeze. The closing "No Rain" is another upbeat track which nevertheless maintains an appropriate feeling of release and winding down. Overall, in a field where so many appear to consider unrelenting beats suitable for repeated home listening, this fine album succeeds because of Toby Marks' awareness and use of dynamics and space. -James Swift Combining elements of world music with a techno aesthetic could easily end up sounding contrived, but in Banco de Gaia's hands, the combination is light, bubbly, and incredibly fun. The sunny momentum and cleverness of "I Love Baby Cheesy" alone makes this one of the best dance releases of the year. [+]