Anyone familiar with Nano Records and The Commercial Hippies will know roughly what to expect from their recent work From Beyond. It's the kind of work that many reviewers might describe as "stomping", "banging" or "fucking right on mate!"

But that is to overlook what The Commercial Hippies truly excel at and that is their relentless energy. There is absolutely no let up - they keep pushing you to dance. You might say that this is par for the course for dance music producers (well, most of them anyway) but these guys do not resort to cheap anthemic trance tricks, although there is the occasional forgivable and (dare I say it?) welcome nod in that direction. Nor do they simply make the tracks faster and harder. Instead there is a multi-layered build of tension and release that stems from superbly chosen synth lines and shifts in rhythm. While the beats are summed up as four to the floor, the lead lines add just enough rhythmic variation to prevent the tracks from descending into the hypnotically boring music we've all come to know and hate. (Refer to "The Best Psytrance Words: Nick AmissAlbum in the World... Ever! Volume 8,964" for more information.)

Just to labour the point, those synths are perfect! The melodies are typical minor key lines but The Hippies have obviously spent time carefully crafting their synths to sound just right. It is a pity that so many producers waste their efforts by having a stonking set of lead lines that are then let down by the fact that they sound like My First Casio Keyboard's 'electronic synth 2'. Not so with The Hippies - they all sound the canine's testicles and what's more, it's the subtle changes in the synth textures and rhythms as each track progresses that largely contribute to the non-stop push to dance. While there may be nothing new or groundbreaking about what these guys are doing, the point I am trying to make is they do it very, very well. The result makes you want to be in a field in the sun with a horde of other like-minded people, stamping away and kicking up a cloud of dust.

The first three tracks are probably my favourites: Like I Do, Imaginoid and Live. More than any of the others they exemplify what I've spent most of this article waffling on about. All Systems Go follows in these footsteps but doesn't quite pull it off with the same panache as the previous three.

Tricksy could have been penned by Infected Mushroom themselves, and this is definitely the odd one out on the album - and is by no means unwelcome because, in my experience, psytrance albums often tend to be rather samey. It kicks off with a rather wistful harpsichord refrain that quickly gives way to a pulsing mid-bass line that then sets the actual tone. Just as you think it's gonna be a typical full-on affair it breaks and a spooky female vocal appears, acapella apart from one of those excellent Hippie synth lines. The track then drops into slightly more funky territory and builds up again, yet before it collapses back to full-on mode the eerie woman starts singing again. It's all a bit Tim Burton to be honest...

Can't Stop Progress won me over, largely because it samples someone talking about the Woodstock festival - if ever you wonder what the '60s were about then, just watch the old cine footage and you'll see what a real, raw festival is all about. That aside, this track is in the same vein as those excellent first three (perhaps I should name them the Holy Trinity) but this one builds up to a more party-pleasing full-on finale.

Out of the Light is a considerably more mellow affair; the foot has come off the accelerator but we're not really slowing down yet - in fact we're cruising down a hill in neutral. But it's a deceptive hill that gets gradually steeper until a girl asks "Can you hear it?" and pretty soon, you do. At this point you realise that a slower track from the Hippies is not an opportunity to stop moving. You may dance slower, but you WILL still dance.

I was a little surprised to find that the final track, Stranger Things, was not the typical down-tempo psybient affair that I've come to expect from most producers in this genre when finishing their albums. It does start off more laid back, but it's not really any slower than the rest of the album. If you've paid attention to anything I've said about The Commercial Hippies then you'll know the start of a track is deceptive. From Beyond
Nano Records (2009)
Website: www.thecommercialhippies.com
If you were playing in a chill-out area but wanted to make people get off their arses and start dancing (instead of just gurning) you could pop this track on and no-one would be any the wiser for about one minute... although having said that you'd probably not be booked again for a chill-out gig...

So a superb album, strongly recommended - my only warning is be careful if you listening to it while driving. I write this review in Aberystwyth and I arrived here from London considerably earlier than my satnav indicated I should have. Although I largely have Honda and the M6 toll to thank for that, credit must go in no small part to the Commercial Hippies, and if there are any traffic officers reading this then I was driving at 71 miles per hour. Honest.