Erol Alkan A Bugged Out Mix Review 496t2h

For the past five years, Erol Alkan has been educating clubbers with his unique concoction of energetic, trashy, disco blended with electro beats, new romantic rhythms and the spirit of '70s punk, '80s rock and '90s house.

What started out in London at his residencies at the End and Trash playing dance music that rocks, and rock music you can dance to, quickly mushroomed around the globe. The Face magazine even went as far as calling him the new Fatboy Slim.

Conceived as a going 'Out', staying 'In' collection, musically the former finds the Erol creating anarchy on the dancefloor. He plays electro-etched numbers (Roman Flugel, Tiga, Soulwax), enriched with polyrhythmic techno (Etienne de Crecy, Alter Ego) and dirty nasty twisted acid house music (Wink, Francisco).

Although the one glowing omission across this 2CD mash up is his acclaimed re-edit of Mylo's "Drop The Pressure"; thankfully his superior rehash of "Rocker", Alter Ego's underground monster, shows there's more to the DJ then turntable skills alone.

In stark contrast, the Bugged In selection is an anticlimax after the energetic heights of the party side. Sure, 5am will eventually come around, but I don't want to chill, I want more 'Out' and less 'In'. But for your money the second disc shows the downbeat side of the man and his equally diverse record collection. From the Concretes sublime reading of the Rolling Stones' "Miss You" to '80s soul from Imagination ("Just An Illusion") and Julie London's surreal "End Of A Love Affair".

It's a compilation of two halves, where the wishy-washy downbeat drowns out the boisterous clubbing experience - a feat Tom Middleton pulled off considerably better on The Trip. That said, the Erol Alkan name is fast approaching premier league status - the throngs of clubbers queuing around the block at his gigs are proof if it were needed. In conjunction with the Bugged Out brand the two will, no doubt, similarly shift a fair few compilations in the process - shame it just wasn't an Out and Out experience.