Hailing from a small small town just outside of Vancouver Canada Max Graham isn t someone you would expect to find associated with the latest Transport (formerly Tranceport ) disc. After all the first in this esteemed series was done by trance superstar Paul Oakenfold and the other two by already rising stars Dave Ralph and Sandra Collins. However after breaking into Oakenfold s center of influence with his slick and effective production work featured to maximum effect on Oakenfold s Perfecto Presents Another World Graham has been thrown a very big bone. He doesn t waste it; Transport 4 comes close to being a masterwork. It s trance without the progressive tag served up straight bold and unadorned with neither Ibiza glowstickwavers nor the sinister (though stillbrilliant) edge that artists like John Digweed have increasingly brought to the genre. The first disc a studio mix is a carefully planned slice of euphoria with high points such as Blackwatch s mix of Greed Feat Lesley s Strange World Sudden Journey from Mad Dogs and Graham s own Tell You. Centering around a slippery quick little piece of hyperactive keyboard melody and a dreamy vocal Tell You is an impossibletoresist bravura piece of production work. The second disc is performed in the studio live and further illuminates Graham s heretofore unheralded DJ skills. One example? Mixing Timo Maas s amazing No Trance into Ayumi Hamasaki s Vogue cleverly keeps the same skittery vibe alive while allowing for a quick and necessary pause. Or what about his ultrasmooth blend of Hybrid and Underworld toward disc s end which sets up Kittens for the maximum impact that track should always but rarely does have? It s not flashy it s just smart and it delivers the goods like you wouldn t believe. And that pretty much sums it up. Matthew Cooke SKU:ADIB00005A0IL