Billed as “new tunes out of DJ Acan’s recordbag”, Freeride is an great collection of previously unreleased trance electronica. The CD is an eclectic set, but it leans towards straight-ahead instrumental trance and psy-trance.

DJ Acan is a popular Vienna-based DJ best known for his work in the psy-trance genre. In addition to playing around the world, he runs Synergetic Records, which is the label behind Freeride.

The CD should appeal to trance fans, but also to fans of instrumental electronic music. Acan has done a great job of finding interesting tracks that combine great synth sounds and effects with hard-hitting beats.

Acan contributes some of the tastiest work to this CD with his On the Way. Other hot tracks are Purple & Acan’s Kilowatt, and Purple’s Twisted. The highlight of the release, though, is S>Range vs Selective Memory, with Tricky. The track features wonderfully syncopated sequences, punctuated with strange and interesting synth and percussion work.

Interestingly, this is not a mix CD, unlike so many DJ compilations. Instead, it sounds like Acan pulled some tracks out of a recent playlist so you could get a taste of some hot new trance music. This may make it especially appealing to DJs that want to introduce some new psy-trance into their playlists.

The tracks can be previewed at the Synergetics site.

Tracks:

• FUNKY DRAGON – OMEGA RISING
• PURPLE VS. ACAN – KILOWATT
• ACAN – RETRO BLASTER
• S>RANGE vs. SELECTIVE MEMORY– TRICKY
• ACAN – ON THE WAY
• TALIESIN – SPACE BOOGIE
• OLIVER PRIME – VELVET SUNSHINE
• PURPLE – TWISTED
• FREELAND – RADIO FANTASTIC