Like all the best fusions, Above & Beyond knows intrinsically how to reach sonorously inside your soul and pull out every question related to trance and dance and house. This creative threesome has mastered the art of sounding broadly familiar, while cutting a fresh set of furrows in previously unmade ground. To be quite frank, I was hoping for some more from this highly memorable trio and, just to remind you, they are Jono Grant and Paavo Siljamki, who both met while studying at the University of Westminster a decade ago.

They were joined a year later by producer Tony McGuinness, who brought them in to lay down some backing for another band. However, the Anjunabeats sound was already rocking the mixing desks and starting to make a name for itself. Since that time, the threesome has caught the eye of the great and the good both here and across the Atlantic and, it seems, everybody and their dog wants to grab a little bit. Their collaborations and remixes are providing tremendous pay dirt for the outstanding group and this latest twin-CD, Anjunadeep 01, a self-recorded gem, provides some subtle starters, a collection of intriguing amuse-bouches and a hearty repast of their progressive sound that crosses so many barriers so effectively.

It was always their intention to serve trance DJs but there was a will and a demand to fill from other quarters and, while the UK dance music scene is packed to capacity with innumerable categorisations, as Jono Grant states, “This is something that the trance guys might want to play too!” and, if you want to know something, he has hit the button squarely. This is no compressed gamble with listeners’ emotions. Instead, it is a rich assembly of high quality and uplifting sounds in a compilation of unparalleled excellence. It gets my vote and I am not even a trance fan!

Iain Robertson