In an age where downloading music for free has become the rule and not the exception for many music fanatics, the fact that Kompakt can release several 12″ singles (on both the parent label and several assorted sub-labels) and at minimum a full-length album a month over the course of a year is a testament not only to the loyalty shown to the label, but its overwhelming popularity in a dance community that is gradually shrinking and eroding away from its strong base in the early part of the decade. But Kompakt has always prided itself on being the exception to the rule and once again pulls out all of the stops with their latest addition to what has become the audio equivalent of a high school yearbook. Again repeating the double-disc format, Total 7 showcases the best of the Kompakt family’s massive 12″ output over the past year, and does so in grand fashion. Like every solid edition in this series, there’s a mixture of established artists and young scrapping newcomers all awaiting the chance to become the next big producer from the Kompakt stable. Tobias Thomas and Kompakt label head Michael Mayer team up again à la the old Forever Sweet days for the hypnotic “Sweet Harmony,” and the always consistent Justus Köhncke makes a stellar contribution with “Love & Dancing.” But it’s a trio of relatively new Kompakt artists that steal the show: Hug’s “The Happy Monster” is a peak time dancefloor number and Gui Boratto’s “Arquipélago” shows why he’s a force to reckon with behind the mixing console. And last but certainly not least, the Field’s shimmering “Over the Ice” takes bits and pieces of Kate Bush’s “Under Ice” and turns the samples into a seven-minute opus that ranks up at the top of Kompakt’s finest moments for 2006. Granted, die-hard fanatics will always have room to protest or squawk to their friends about how the track listing should have been sequenced, or how their favorite tunes were left off the compilation in favor of something inferior; a testament to how deep the Kompakt catalog runs. But Kompakt’s ability to stir up such conversations proves how thriving the label truly is, and how its best days still (hopefully) lie ahead. – Rob Theakston