Album Review: James Brooke - Trance Elements 2012: Water

James Brooke is a busy man, what with hosting his weekly radio show Elements on Kiss FM whilst running Australia's biggest trance label, 405 Recordings. And all at the ripe old age of 25. It's fair to say that he enjoys his trance. Luckily for fellow trance fans, James also funnels his passion into some very solid mix compilations, the latest being the second in his Trance Elements 2012 series: Water.

Not having listened to the previous 'element', Earth, it's difficult to distinguish the particular watery qualities of the release from other mixes, except maybe to allow reviewers with a fondness for puns to wet themselves. Does that mean the mixes flow poorly? H2O no! Diving right into CD1, Brooke submerges the listener in a number of choppy tunas by the minnows of the trance scene before dumping some tsunami-sized thrashers like Norin & Rad's Pistol Whip and James Dymond's Paladin. Shorely it can't get any better?

Oh buoy, it certainly can. Brooke lets the tide ebb early on in CD2, calming the rough seas with a babbling brook of tracks like Adriano Migliorino's Harmony delicately trickling out. Not one to be koi, he then lets the mix swell with titanic tunes by the likes of Sean Tyas and Solarstone. Hoping not to drown us with epic trance, James opens CD3 with jazzy house number How You Make Me Smile by Jody Wisternoff feat. Pete Josef. But with a sense of porpoise, his final mix is soon awash with main room bangers from Sunny Lax and John O'Callaghan. The listener is never left to flounder across the three CDs whale Brooke captains the boat with confidence. Shrimply brilliant.