Three CDs clocking in at over an hour a piece, 36 different artists from all over the world-- how could I possibly sum up Clicks & Cuts 2 in just 700 short words? There is no way, hombre. But I have an idea; let me just take a suitably minimal approach and sum it up in two:

It's excellent.

Notice I didn't say, "It's fantastic." I reserve that two-word review for Mille Plateaux's Modulation and Transformation 4. That 3-CD set, released in 1999, turned my head all the way 'round when I heard it. This was back when Mille Plateaux had a roster that ranged from the sine wave tones of Ryoji Ikeda to the comparatively thick drill-n-bass of Panacea, from the vast spaciousness of Terre Thaemlitz to the microscopic fixations of Curd Duca. What an incredibly varied field of music that comp contained, something for the curious in every subgenre of experimental electronics. No, Clicks and Cuts 2 can't quite compare to that.

Notice also that I didn't say, "It's okay." That was my two-word assessment of the first Clicks + Cuts compilation, released at the time that Mille Plateaux realized there was a revolution afoot, and that it had done as much as any other single label (if you include their associated Force Inc and Force Trax imprints) to set it in motion. That compilation was not a statement about the label per se, but a presentation about a very narrowly defined permutation: the world of glitch techno. The variety the label is known for wasn't relevant to that particular statement, which explains why artists who'd released brilliant work on Mille Plateaux (Gas, Thaemlitz, Oval), but didn't fit in with this aesthetic were omitted.

Clicks & Cuts 2 far surpasses its predecessor, primarily because this compilation is open to a much greater variety of sounds. The focus here, in both the music and the MP-standard expository liner notes, is on making music from botched transmissions. A fine image from the liner notes comes from Philip Sherburne, who says, "The pearl is an error, a glitch in response to impurity." He's right, of course. A shard of something winds up inside the shell of an oyster and the creature goes to work on it, smoothing out the harsh edges to avoid irritation of its muscle. To my ears, it's not so far from this image to the music of Jan Jelinek (who chips in here with an incredible track called "The Videoage [re-edit]," possibly a remix of "Rock in the Video Age," though it sounds new to me).

Unlike the first volume, not all the tracks are minimal; in fact, the rhythms and styles are all over the place. Hell, to my ears, a good percentage of the music here even borders on pop, with relatively conventional melodies and instrumentation. Here is a true blueprint for one possible music future, not the dry, academic lecture that was the first Clicks + Cuts compilation. In addition to summing up the glitch genre thus far for the acolytes, Clicks & Cuts 2 also serves as a perfect introduction to this world. It's accessible, and yes, even fun (you just know if Matmos is invited to the symposium there are going to be a few giggles). I have to think anyone with open ears would find something here to love.

Take Frank Bretschneider's "Walking on Ice," for example. Though it does indeed have a few snaps and pops, this track is, in fact, a dead ringer for Boards of Canada! It would be impossible to imagine such a warm, snaking synth melody and hip-hop inspired beats fitting in with earlier incarnations of the Mille Plateaux theory. It's applying the glitch to the song, which seems a natural progression.

Coming from another sphere completely is Austrian guitar genius Fennesz, who contributes "Menthol," a jittery dissection of processed harmonics with gurgling melody bubbling beneath. It's the kind of track that seems completely random at first blush, but reveals careful, intricate patterning upon closer listening, and it makes me salivate for his latest Endless Summer. Of course, there's not a 4/4 rhythm in sight.

The ever-mischievous DAT Politics offers the distorted, fucked up (but funky!) bubblegum tune, "Hardwai." It's like a fax of Alvin the Chipmunk stuck in a blender with Alan Sutherland and uploaded to a Linux server. And Rude Solo gets all toyland electro with the fantastic "Tight," complete with a killer vocal sample, not at all far from the best of Two Lone Swordsman's Tiny Reminders.

There are, of course, a fair number of 4/4 techno bits with clicks and so forth-- this isn't a complete departure from the first collection. But these tracks, which can seem ho-hum when stacked back to back, blend nicely with the more experimental work (the choppy beat static by Thomas Brinkmann on "0100" is particularly striking) and the aforementioned poppier material. The sequencing is exceptional, the tracks first rate, and the working thesis of the label is becoming clearer. Clicks & Cuts 2 is a vital compilation that shows where this strand of electronic music has been and where it might go.

-Mark Richard-San