The third release in the “Izm” series, celebrating ten years of TCR, has Ellis Dee dishing up a delightful mix that involves your ears in a hedonistic orgy of groovy breakbeat for party animals. Ellis Dee comes from a background of rave, one of the most hedonistic scenes the world, and was one of THE biggest rave DJs in the early days of the scene and the man largely responsible for introducing breakbeat to the acid house generation. On this CD he showcases not only his mixing and production talents, but also expresses the rave influence on this emerging dance music.

Beginning of with Clubriders’ (aka Ellis Dee & Syrus) Set Free, remixed by Ellis Dee and Rennie Pilgrem, featuring samples from KC & the Sunshine Band’s That’s The Way I like It and MC Hammers’ U Can’t Touch This, we see the early house influence on Ellis Dee. It’s such an excellent use of samples and every time it’s played in a club it gets people moving, and starts the vibe of the CD nicely.

Following this is a very cruisy set, including McMillan & Tab’s Lost World, and the incredibly funky “Latina” remix of Vigi & Zero’s UltraFunk, with that awesome Latin drum sound making you want to shout “ARRRRRRIBA!!”. Ellis Dee knows how to tease, and he teases us by getting a little faster with London Funk Society’s Now We Found Dub and Boundarie Hunters’ Self Destruct, both of which cruise along at a steady pace, threatening to explode but not actually take you anywhere.

Not that this is a bad thing in and of itself, but with the approach of the “Rewired” mix of Koma + Bones’ Powercut, it’s like cruising along at 100 mph, then hitting the ‘Turbo’ button. This tune simply rocks with its gritty bassline and squeltchy synth noises screaming over a fat breakbeat, carrying the listener to a higher level of enjoyment. Following this is the Autobots with Chickers and Blogger, continuing the hard, energetic flow, featuring rave sounds galore, testament to the early influences playing through breakbeat at the moment. Uplink by Breakneck follows this, pursued by Ellis Dee & Syrus’ the Chase, both of which feature old rave samples reconstructed to sound new and exciting. Zero’s Emit/Collect and Chris Carter’s Random Factors keep up the pace until the end of the album.

Throughout the album Ellis Dee shows his mixing skills superbly, cutting and fading and cleverly bringing in a “LSD” sample throughout, but without showing off too much and detracting from the music. This is a funky and danceable mix, which is a good move from the average “tech / progressive” breakbeat mixes available. The only fault I can find is with it is that it’s only 55 minutes long and leaves you wanting more!