A dense double cd set (an audio disc and a dvd) featuring all exclusively commissioned works focused on the themes of contemporary surveillance methods, from exterior (police monitoring of demonstrations and public protest) to domestic (CCTV, control cameras, etc.). The audio part generally reflects Cocosolidciti's slant towards beats/glitch/minimal techno (except Kaffe Matthews' skeletal work on frequencies), and one more time I wondered about the socio-political potential of modern electronica (or "avantgarde" as well) - I mean that all the artists involved have obviously something to say about the subjects, but if you just listen to the tracks, it's mostly nice, well-executed rhythmic electronica. I think it'd be quite hard to distinguish Battery Operated + Made, for example, from other similar projects/records, if you hadn't read before that they "look at how the control spaces of surveillance can be subverted to create radical new architectures and environments". Unsurprisingly, Ultra Red are more immediately recognizable and thanks to their use of field recordings from various specific demonstrations. So let's say the audio part is ok per se, but a bit disappointing if we look at the purposes. Now, the dvd helps a lot to potentiate some contributions - Matthews' and Maslen's, for example, turns into a sort of Kafkian nightmare with its stark, obsessive use of CCTV footages; and Ultra Red's documentary-like images add much strength to their protest techno. While not entirely convincing (Coldcut's and Outerbongolia's video is actually pretty bad), the dvd definitely makes this sampler much more thought provoking and effective.