By Christian Hoard

Daily Arts Writer

DJ Dave Ralph's "Love Parade: Berlin" might easily have been called "Intro. to Trance, Vol. I": Sure, it's got all of the trappings of a trance album (dark grooves, spacey effects, only the occasional melody), but it never really makes much of the genre's vast sonic possibilities. Considering that its title refers to one of the world's biggest and hippest raves, the disc sounds remarkably flat and even accessible (in a lame sort of way), so much so that it could conceivably appeal to those rock 'n' rollers who, though enterprising, wouldn't dare set foot in a dance club or otherwise give a shit about electronic music.

Perhaps it's unfair to say that "Love Parade" is a little lacking in variety, since the whole point of trance is a sort of hypnosis by way of musical repetition. Still, there's nothing terribly memorable here, save a bunch of gimmicky transitions and melodic interludes that serve only as brief respites from the invariably up-tempo grooves. Having spun since the late '70s, Ralph has as much street cred as any DJ out there, but with "Love Parade," he's produced a disc that only encourages the uninformed to write off trance as little more than ultra-chic background music.

Grade: C+