CD Feature/ OceanLab: "Sirens of the Sea"

Talk about a no-brainer. With their past DJ compilations and original work, progressive trance dudes Above & Beyond have quietly set the dance-sexy bar higher than Kylie Minogue could have ever dreamed of, weaving miles of subtle, classy chill into their stuff.

Accessorize this with session singer Justina Suissa, whose minor Sarah McLachlan likeness and fetish for Enya has made her a go-to voice for Armin van Buuren and Chicane, then dump the whole thing into an Ibiza recording studio and it’s, well, almost too much magic at times – they don’t need to tell us what it’s like to have a few shekels in their pockets while strolling the acres of hot Greek bodies on the beach, but they insist, leaving “On the Beach” as the lone phone-in on their second album (2004’s Satellite yielded a top international dance hit or two, instantly propping them up as the next Delerium).

And so ends the bad news, pretty much. Suissa has a firm grasp of Enya’s way with multi-tracking her voice, leveraging it to best effect in “Just Listen” and the title song, both of which could be massive club hits. The Above & Beyond fellas lay a trail of slow, medium and medium-fast synth arpeggio percolation that Suissa follows, hypnotized, into an undersea-scape of techno bliss that will, no idle promise, improve your summer experience.

Homepage: OceanLab
Homepage: Ultra Records