With its lame artwork and K-Tel-like boast of "18 More Chart-Topping Dance Floor Hits!"
Pure Trance, Vol. 2 looks like a stinker that other bandwagon-jumping labels would bother to dress up a little more. Water Music should enlist at least one of the many rave-flyer designing iMac users because the collection does a decent job of collecting credible trance.
DJ Tiësto,
Armin van Buuren, and
Paul van Dyk are some of the big names who contribute a tune or remix, and the guest vocals of
Sinéad O'Connor,
Clannad, and
Natacha Atlas sweeten the deal. Some of the lesser tracks try to get away with the idea that five notes and a clever sample of some woman babbling about something really trippy is enough. Luckily there's always a strong number like
George Acosta's "Secret Memory" or
Sasha's "Xpander" around the corner. The real bad news is that most tracks run below four minutes and feel positively hacked. If there's a need for an unmixed, "radio version" collection of trance, then
Pure Trance, Vol. 2 succeeds. Those with healthier attention spans should look elsewhere.