Various: The Green Room 003

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * * )

The compilations by Loop out of Wellington have been showcases for like-minded local electronica/ambient experimentalists, and its Good Shit Happens CD/DVD package of late last year, which includes the award-winning short film Two Cars One Night, was one of the finest local compilations we'd seen in some while.

This time the label, for the first time, connects locals with internationals. The Black Seeds' Turn It Around, Pitch Black's Lost in Translation (a tricky and tasty sampler from their forthcoming Ape to Angel album) and a terrific, classy and sophisticated unreleased track by Emma Paki (the lyrical Stand Alone) rub shoulders with the Franglais trip-hoppers Inrush-A, Nuremberg's Strike Boys with Danish reggae-soul singer Emo (which sits well with the slow Aotearoa reggae-dub of Jo Dukie and DJ Fitchie on This Room) and the appropriately named Red Eyes with High Place.

Lots of downbeat dub massiveness and smokey sounds.

Label: Loop