Gareth Emery: The Sound of Garuda Chapter 2 is a hard-hitting compilation of new club anthems and EDM hits from Gareth’s record label. Not only does the album contain new tracks from one of the biggest frontrunners young EDM producers, but it also features plenty of tunes from others on the label that range from moody and dark to fast and adrenaline-pumping.
First up, Gareth Emery has two new tracks on this album that he collaborated on with other producers. The first was a project with Ashley Wallbridge, and is called Mansion. It is a club-mover, with a huge build-up that leads to some intense drops and drum sounds, and quickly falls back down after that to soothing sounds that remind me of Ashley’s remix of Arrival from the Re-lit Northern Lights album. It’s a great combination of sounds that I’ve come to expect from both Ashley Wallbridge and Gareth Emergy; electric quick beats mixed with synth and an overall tone that makes the track great for the dance floor.

Mansion moves into Craig Connelly’s Manchester Am, which has a fade back from a banging initial tune into a synth-guided drop, guided by sounds that remind me of Sander van Doorn. The track sounds like a combination of Sander’s electro sounds and Citadel overall. Damien William’s Astrolove takes this Garuda album into a housier direction, and is followed up by some standard uplifting fare from Filo and Peri with The Hardest Thing featuring Sara Crockett and Goodbye Pluto.

Following that is my favorite track from this album: M.I.K.E.’s Ecstatic. This track takes the sound from the album into a darker and moodier direction. A Gareth Emery sound mixed with harder, deeper beats in a minor key. Its trancey fade into nothingness is even more phenomenal, as it pulls away all sounds and leaves only a lingering and very lightly played synth. From there, sounds are added back in, until the bass slowly returns and the drums lead into a full-powered drop. It’s the kind of manipulation of dark sounds and lack of sounds that you would come to expect from the man behind Universal Nation.

Other tracks from producers such as Ben Gold, Jonas Stenburg, Chriss Ortega, Alex M.O.R.P.H., Michael Jay Parker, and Triarchy follow Ecstatic. Each using their own unique sounds that still go together and fit with the overall feel for this mix, each a combination of elements from EDM. Make no mistake. The Sound of Garuda Chapter 2 is not exclusive to trance or house. While the trance sound is more evident in the producer’s tracks, there are also plenty of other great elements pulled from other EDM labels as well. It’s no surprise for Garuda, or for an album with Gareth Emery, who prefers that his music be called electronic music and not stuck to one specific genre.

The album rounds itself out with Mark Eteson’s Breathe On My Own featuring Audri Gallagher, remixed by Daniel Kandi, Paul Webster’s Reload, and of course Gareth Emery and Ben Gold’s collaboration on Flash. Breath On My Own has some great vocals, with Daniel Kandi playing some pretty classical trance elements in his remix. Flash, on the other hand, was not my cup of tea. It just sounded like too many of Gareth’s other tracks, specifically Exposure. Paul Webster’s Reload rounded things out and helped recover some of the lost excitement from Flash, with a familiar but rocking dark trance tone.

For fans of the Garuda label and its artists, the Sound of Garuda Chapter 2 will not disappoint you. It features some great new productions from some of the electronic scene’s best. Mansion and Ecstatic both make this album worth it to me, and most of the other inclusions are also toe-tappers, with a nice range of house and trance elements that we’ve come to love from Gareth Emery and his label.