UR* – Interstellar Fugitives 2 - Destruction Of Order

SO, Shiva says "deeply disappointed", but did you notice the 4/5 star rating? That's right! This release kicks all kinds of ass. Compared to Mike's early work like on "Revolution For Change", which is mostly straight beat techno, this release, like Volume No. 1, offers a wide variety of The UR crew from people like The Infiltrator, Nomadico, and Suburban Knight. Nothing typical, nothing ordinary, all extremely creative sounds. Love it. Check out the tracks Sonic Samurai and Fuji, which were released on the S.I.D. imprint, only found here for general release. Great release. Don't forget this music usually ages pretty well, so give it some time and it's genius will hit you!!!

This is a tough one to grade. Thirty four tracks covering virtually everything and anything with Detroit as a common denominator, "Interstellar Fugitives 2 - Destruction Of Order" is really all over the map. As usual, when you have stuff released on Underground Resistance, it is nearly impossible to place anything in your CD player without preconceptions, and expectations are up there where Milky Way is.
The good thing is that there is a bunch of music here, so a new comer to the U.R. camp will get a good first glance at what the whole deal is about. Unfortunately, every coin has a flip side as well, and this double CD has the misfortune of being completely random, with plenty fillers, and to my dismay is sub par when compared to jewels released by this collective such as the first "Interstellar fugitives" compilation or the "Electronic warfare" releases. Thing is, those ones will hit very hard on your wallet, and while this release will cost you less, it won't fully convince you. Underground Resistance have justifiably earned a reputation of knocking the world off its axis with every new release, and the music displayed over these two discs doesn't really do their amazing legacy justice.
Don't get me wrong, fans of glitchy electro, with robotized vocals, tongue in cheek cocktails of styles and moods, laser gun effects and erratic, broken beat drum patterns will get their money's worth here. But if you're expecting Drexciya like exploration of outer space and Mad Mike's insane, rhythmically dense production wizardry, you might want to start saving up money for some other, more elusive release on the imprint.
Personally, as far as the first disc goes, the only works I find inspiring are The Infiltrator's "A delicate balance" and The Unknown Soldier's "Babylon's gifts", due to their really great melody work, well incorporated with electro. True Detroit marvel. DJ 3000 brings forth a peculiar combination of oriental melody, subtle flute lines in the background, sitar and clapping percussion. Well done, although it's acquired taste.
The second disc really shines when Mad Mike and Suburban Knight step up to the bat, with their respective contributions, "Attack of the sonic samurai (the battle within)" and "Moon Rays". Both tracks are soulful, harmonic Detroit funk at its best. They might not impress the typical club goers right off, but in return they do offer such a cosy and warm sound, you will just want to open your windows wide and blast that stuff for the entire neighborhood to get with the program ;-)
Other then that, I enjoy The Infiltrator's "Mindsweeper", which is great electro work-out, with a really dark and melancholic lead, painting the music with that layer of the macabre. I really like it. Plus it has this amazing futuristic sound effect throughout, as though it was recorded aboard the Voyager and teleported to planet Earth.
Basically, as far as I'm concerned, the other stuff doesn't relly suit me. Like so many other compilations with as much music as this one, it is really hard, if not impossible, to maintain a constant level of quality from track to track. With that in mind, you won't be purchasing a stone cold classic here. Rest assured, there are tracks here good enough to sit by the finest U.R. works, yet simultaneously, there is music which doesn't sound like much more than transition material from one gem to the next.
Overall, when a release tries to mean many things to a wide spectrum of people, you know you will most probably obtain mixed results. And this is no exception. Unquestionably, nine out of ten listeners will find something to their liking here, but from what I've gathered up to now by talking with people, those same nine listeners will detect mediocre material as well.
Underground Resistance enthusiasts and collectors will buy this on sight, casual listeners might want to use this as good starting point, but it really isn't a benchmark release like the already mentioned "Electronic Warfare 2.0 - the other side of bling". For a competent introduction to the label's style and aesthetic, I'd say go for it. But then, if you really like what you hear, make sure to not to call it quits here, and don't make the mistake of identifying this double pack with the imprint. There are far better U.R. tunes out there, a lot of them released on, and reserved for 12" vinyls.

Very solid release. Spanning different genres from mellow downtempo, dark electro, detroit techno, hard breakbeat, it brings some massive tunes, Mad Mike's ones above all.

Just a curious thing: the cover is based around the Ultradyne logo.