Kern Vol 2 CD

There's something admirable about the Kern series' remit, which asks DJs to dig deep and join the dots between contemporary cuts and lesser-known releases lurking in the far corners of their record collections. DJ Deep did a superb job with last year's first instalment, so the pressure's on German veteran DJ Hell to make this second volume equally special. For the most part, Hell rises to the challenge, offering a fluid, energetic, well-paced trawl through three decades of electronic music. Predictably, there are some brilliant surprises - No Smoke's 1989 Afro dub-house cut "Koro-Koro" and Joey Beltran in deep form for Nu Groove with 1991's "Quad 1" - as well as a smattrering of recent bangers (see DJ Yoav B's "Energize").