Armin Van Buuren 002: Basic Instinct

AMG Review of Armin Van Buuren 002: Basic Instinct

Dean Carlson
All Music Guide

On Armin van Buuren's second double-disc mix album, there is a bald-faced statement neatly printed on the cover -- marketing machines must love this -- democratically letting his fans decide which tracks he'll spin. While the fear of 27 different versions of "Kernkraft 400" lodges into your spine, the results are far more successful than expected: van Buuren presents a progressive yet populist slant to rance with most of its fires stoked while Signum's "Solar Level" is the sound of an angelic choir stopping brush fires with a simple curve of the lip. Suspicions aside, this is quite possibly the only rance compilation of 2001 that spans both athletic range and fatalistic audience compromise with total self-assurance.