Techno sampler is a great party CD.

Once upon a time, there was a wonderful little CD exchange in Hampton, Virginia, with the kind of knowledgeable, impassioned clerks found at struggling indie bookstores. I bought CDs recklessly, knowing I could readily exchange them, and felt free to explore anything that roused my curiosity.

On the day of one exchange foray, the word buzzing in my ear was "rave," a style recommended to me by an old high school friend of impeccable musical taste. Generally, I detest compilations. But I had no idea what rave was about, so I took this CD to the clerk for her pronouncement, and she grinned and congratulated me in having stumbled over the best rave (techno) CD in the shop.

As always, the clerk knew her stuff. This LP-length CD (53:47 total) is a gem of a collection and a satisfying work in its own right. Although a compilation, there is enough commonality from piece to piece to give the impression all numbers were performed by the same musical troupe.

This electronic music, voiced and sequenced and sung entirely by humans, is as capable of expressing the gamut of human emotion as any composed for and played on mechanical instruments. Many selections are crafted with loving attention to detail, as if each note is the most important thing on the planet--just the way I like it.

With relentless energy and frequently with white-hot vocals, the best of the tunes explore a range of moods from dark menace to pure silliness. The worst of the tunes at least have enough of a beat to get you to the next good tune, so they won't disrupt the mood at your party.

Parental note: contains some rude language.

1. F*ck You (Singalongmotherf*cker mix) - Ottorongo: A fun little tune with an irresistable groove, the spoken vocal (sounds like a Dutch voice) cheerfully targets politicians, the army, and finally the DJ himself.

2. Jump (Mutha mix) - The Movement: Starting at a frenetic pace, the tune falls into a tasty deep-groove meltdown and gradually accelerates back to the original insistently frantic tempo.

3. Get Ready For This (Orchestral mix) 2 Unlimited: An excerpt of this mindlessly cheerful tune, used on commercials for sports telecasts, is the only snippet from this CD I recognized elsewhere. My least favorite cut on the CD, but YMMV, and if you're playing it at a party, it'll pass soon enough.

4. Can You Feel The Passion (Palladium mix) - Blue Pearl: A wonderfully dangerous sound wedded to equally dangerous lyrics, both spoken and sung (the hook is "The only time you feel it / is when you're playing with knives." When the downstairs neighbors woke me up with their stereo, I put this tune on and cranked my rig to 11 (an all-out effort that predictably toasted my voice coils). I stayed there for many more months, but never was bothered again.

5. Dreamer, Dream - Code Red: An ultra-hot tune that hammers its way into your senses with its driving beat and screaming vocals. Well, the screaming isn't in the class of Thunderthighs' scream on "Gimme Shelter," nor the moaning screaming wordless nirvana at the tail end of Dark Side of the Moon, but it's satisfying nonetheless.

6. Stylophonia - Two Little Boys: Presented as a commercial and instruction manual for a fictive child's musical instrument, this lighthearted narrated instrumental is nothing but fun.

7. Injected With A Poison - Praga Khan Featuring Jade 4 U: Another hammering tune with nice textural pacing and some nice vocal punctuation.

8. Green Man (Rum & Black mix) - Shut Up & Dance: The second-weakest tune on the disc whose lead electronic voice unfortunately brings to mind a duck, it's almost saved by the breakdown section that builds from bare violins.

9. Take Control - Lords Of Acid: A pumping beat is all this intervallically spastic tune really offers, but nobody at your party's going to object.

10. A Million Colours - Channel: Starts with a spacious intro and jumps into a pumping beat with intervallic hiccups.

Overall, this is a great driving and party CD, very energizing and very crisp.