t can be hard to trust a compilation album enough to buy it. The best case scenario is that the compilation was put together by someone with tastes similar to yours, or even better than yours, but how many people out there really have great taste anyway, much less taste that is better than your own? In most instances, you actually take the time to check out a compilation because you noticed it included a few artists you liked, you love the label issuing the compilation, or you’re a fan of the genre. Also in most instances, once you check out the track listing, you notice some people you’ve never heard of before. This can be exciting if you have a lot of faith in the label that put the album out, but in most cases, you’re left with the nagging, dubious thought that at least a few of those mystery tracks are going to prove to be filler.


Luckily for me, I only had a little problem quashing those doubts even though I’d only heard of half the artists on Dublab Presents: Freeways. I had stood with this album in my hand for a few minutes at the store, indecisively reading the track listing over and over. I didn’t really like the fact that it was an Emperor Norton release; while I have several records from the label, and liked them enough for driving and party purposes, I didn’t really feel the need to own any more retro-flavored electronica. I did, however, really like that the album was compiled by the fine people at Dublab.com, whose streaming broadcasts I’d been impressed with on several occasions because they contained an excellent mix of obscure, electronic music ranging from otherworldly IDM to the warm climates of Native Tongues hip-hop. In the end, the strength of the Dublab crew outweighed my fear of semi-vacant kitschtronica, and I purchased the album.


My decision to make the purchase was assisted by the fact that Freeways included previously unreleased tracks from recognizable names like Dntel, Yesterday’s New Quintet, Daedelus, and Divine Styler. Another thing that interested me about Freeways was that, upon reading the liner notes, it became quite apparent that the album consisted solely of artists living in the greater Los Angeles area. I wouldn’t exactly say that LA is underrepresented in the music world in general, but I was definitely curious to hear how the people of Dublab would interpret this into a statement about their little corner of the LA underground.


As it turns out, Dublab hits hard on the common perception of LA as a cultural melting-pot, but they throw the criterion of intelligent, forward thinking electronic music into the mix. Not a track on Freeways sounds rehashed or half-assed, even if a few of them fall short of excellence. Languis and Fer Chloca start things off nicely with the lovely “The Sky Below.” It is a track made more beautiful by its simplicity, seemingly custom built for daydreaming with its quiet repetitive beat, gentle guitar, and the occasional synthesized bleep or floating vocal. Daedelus, recent signee to the highly-esteemed Plug Research label, comes next with the wistful, stuttering “A Mashnote.” He blends keyboard typing and something that sounds like a piece of a video game score with a downtempo IDM-ish beat and his trademark strings section to create a surprisingly thoughtful and charming song.


Freeways has a long list of additional highlights: Dntel follows up his Plug Research labelmate with “If I Don’t Return,” a sparkling, introspective song residing somewhere between the worlds of P’taah and Mike Paradinas. “Soul Searchin’,” the submission from Yesterday’s New Quintet, finds hip-hop production maestro Madlib constructing a track based less on hip-hop than on pure jazz, and the drum-heavy result could easily pass as an authentic interlude from some long-forgotten blaxploitation flick. Damon Aaron delivers the slow-burning “Don’t Get Up Again,” sounding something like a clear-voiced soul singer interpreting traditional blues choruses over a sad, swelling series of beats. Nowhereman, aka DJ Nobody, contributes “Seathrough Dolphin Smile,” which perfectly emulates the hazy, warm atmosphere found on Soulmates, his superb 2000 full-length from Ubiquity Records. Skull Valley’s “Death Zone Reflection” features a distinctive dose of exotic middle-eastern flavor, making for a sultry downtempo track that Ninja Tune would be proud of.


The diversity found on Freeways occasionally works against itself, however. Not all of the tracks sound comfortable next to each other, and some of the tracks fall just a little short of their ambitious intent. Mia Doi Todd’s “Digital Version 2.1” has tons of potential due to the delivery of her husky chant/singing, and starts off quite interesting and powerful with a humming bassline and rapidly percussive drumbeat; but the backing music remains exactly the same six minutes into the track and only serves to deaden the otherwise potent vocals. Divine Styler, underground hip-hop’s favorite mystic mc shaman, is unsurprisingly experimental on “Shen”, but his rubbery 808 tones and subdued synth stabs never really get the chance to go anywhere in the course of only just over two minutes. John Tejada’s “I’ll See You In a Place With Lights,” with its jaunty beat and warm organ tones, is probably the funkiest and most dance-oriented track on Freeways. It is not a bad song by any means, but never quite gets as challenging as its peers on the rest of Freeways, ultimately sounding better suited for the intentionally “chilled-out” beats of an OmLounge or Back To Mine compilation.


These, however, are only minor problems in light of the album as a whole. Although the stylistic diversity present on Freeways doesn’t always allow for a continuous feel from one track to the next, it does serve as an excellent look into the places that some Los Angeles based musicians are taking hip-hop influenced music. Freeways’s mish-mash of sounds, in this context, does indeed prove to be reflective of the cultural diversity that Los Angeles is famous for, and it’s not surprising that the ever forward-thinking Dublab crew were the ones to bring it to us.


Dublab can further school you on the beauty of the beats with their 24 hours a day broadcast, featuring everyone from Mouse On Mars to Nightmares On Wax to Atmosphere, at www.dublab.com.