As a huge fan of Hybrid, I eagerly awaited this CD, and I was disappointed to say the least when the CD arrived and the casing was cracked, and crushed in the corner. A rare damaged good from Amazon though I have to say. Anyway, thankfully the CD played and I'm so glad it did. I assume this single is a poster for the full album, and if so, the next album should be amazing.

It's so great to listen to an original Hybrid track, without worrying about the terrible singer murdering the musical arrangement (with the exception of Julee Cruise who sounded amazing in Wide Angle). This has always been my only criticism of Hybrid; they produce amazing music only to ruin a beautifully produced track by getting a singer who can't sing their way out of a paper bag. But hopefully, this will be a thing of the past with new permanent singer Charlotte James (who sings on this track).

The Formula of Fear is amazing from start to finish, the singing and harmonies beautiful, the rhythm is storming and the track is full of texture and atmosphere with some clever twists and turns.

The remixes on the disc are standard fare to be honest, but I was only really interested in the new unmolested track.

With this track, Hybrid are now a perfect team!

Well worth £3.90!

I am a massive fan of Hybrid, and have been ever since 1999/2000 when I first heard their music, so readers of these comments may think that I am biased, but this review is a honest, unbiased opinion of what I think of the album.

It's a bit of a departure from the normal thread of Hybrid music, and I must be honest, this album was bit of an adjustment for me, having listened to Wide Angle, Morning Sci Fi, and I Choose Noise for the last few years. I was expecting upfront breakbeats, and you have to wait until around CD1 track 5 before there is any resemblance of a beat. So initially I was disappointed, but I listened to the first CD later on the same day, and I eased into the music a lot more. The quality of the atmosphere portrayed on the first CD is outstanding. I really hope that Hybrid integrate this soundscape feel into their next studio album as it's top notch, and the collaboration with Harry Gregson-Williams has been a smart move because the partnership works really well.

So the first CD is cracking, just don't expect any breakbeats. It's more like Chilled Out Europhia, but done extremely well.

The second CD is also very good, the mixes are done very fluidly, and none of the tracks become repetitive. The choice of remix tracks is very good, and on the whole, the CD sounds fresh. The quality of the tracks are on par with the classic techno and trance tracks from the late nineties (Cafe Del Mar, etc), and nothing like the Cascada-esque crud that pollutes the charts at the moment.

One last thing, the mastering of both CDs is fantastic. The clarity of the music is extremely crisp, and I really enjoy playing them in my car with the bass cranked up full. All-in-all, and excellent compilation and easily worth the money. Much better than the Hybrid Re:Mixed album that was an up-yours from Distinctive Records when Hybrid left them to join Hope.

Buy it!

Before I start my rant, I'm not complaining about this, just because I'm British, but because Eurovision is not a fair contest any more.

The British entry was a quality performance and great song; none of that epic bullshit sung by all the other entrants. It didn't deserve to finish at the bottom, on the merit of the song alone. What's the point of a contest where all the voters in Eastern Europe just vote for each other for political reasons? It's a song contest, not a bloody election.

Anyway, I don't see the point of the UK being in Eurovision any more; we should withdraw from it and let all the euro-politicians get on with their politics.

One of the boxes opens, and it's a '1p' box. Cue dancing, singing and hugging, and lots of geeing-up of the audience. I absolutely f*cking hate 'Deal or No Deal'! I quite like Noel Edmonds; he's a good presenter, but this programme is absolute bullshit. A proper waste of a hour's airtime. I can see the point of the game; you may or may not have the £250,000 box, but instead of f*cking about opening 15 different boxes, just f*cking open the one on your table and let me watch something a bit better on Channel 4 in the mid-afternoon. Put anything on in that time slot. I'd even watch a hour of Time Team for Christ's sake. You could fit that entire programme into one of those 60-second news slots.

The contestant says that she loves you, when you open that box, and it says '1p' on the blue label. Just remember, if she's got the £250,000 box, she wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire, and she'll probably spit on you as she passes in her brand-spanking new CLK. With AMG alloys. Just remember, love; you opened a box. You didn't paint the Cistine Chapel, perform open-heart surgery, build an XML-based, ASP.Net-powered website from scratch, or even give birth. You opened a box. You didn't even answer 15 questions. I have no respect for you, as you spit from your car.

The only reason I can possibly think of to watch the programme, is the groan when one of the plebs behind the row of boxes, opens up a £250,000 box. That gives me will to live. I long for the day when the contest picks up an STD from one of the people he/she kisses on the panel.

I use this site to rant about the things that really annoy me about life, and Deal or No Deal is right up there at Number 1 at the moment, closely folllowed by Barnsley Council, who spend £17m on the roads around Barnsley in 2007 (according to their literature). 'Doesn't sound too bad, mate' I hear you say, until you find out they spent £45m on Arts and Crafts! ARTS AND CRAFTS? I'm a graphic designer and appreciate art myself, but I would have rather them spent the £45m pounds on re-tarmacking the roads. Anyway that's a rant for another day. I hate Deal or No Deal!!!

I know what you're thinking; why don't you change the channel? I would if I could sum up the energy to reach for the remote control.

 GC

Well it's a couple of days later, but I am still nackered! Done a hell of a lot of driving over the weekend (around 500 miles). I drove from Edinburgh to Kennacraig, caught the ferry at Kennacraig and then toured the whole island over the weekend.

It was worth it though. Islay is very beautiful. There are lots of people on the island, but to travel down the roads, you wouldn't think so. It's great for motorbikes. You could travel 30 minutes down a road without seeing another car, and some of the views are spectacular. The main reason for going to Islay would be for the whisky distilleries, although you need to book most of them and quite irritatingly, a lot of the tour times clash. We managed to get to Laphroaig, Bruichladdich, and Caol Ila. My favourite had to be Caol Ila as it overlooks the island of Jura. There are some cracking views from Portenhaven

I guess that's the other reason you would go to Islay; the scenery. Some of it is nothing short of breath-taking, and the rest of it is, at least, beautiful. The Machir beach on the south-west of the island is completely unspoiled, except for the odd dog turd, lovingly left by the dog of a local. This white sandy beach is probably two or three miles long, and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. Best of all, it is generally completely deserted.

Downsides: Port Ellen seems a bit rough, although it probably is OK. We didn't stay there for long, but some of the streets seemed a bit imposing. There was also some fighting outside the local pubs in Bowmore. I suppose that's no different anywhere else in the world, but if you're living on a small island which has quite a high dependancy on tourism for survival, violence can be a bit offputting for the casual tourist. Some of the roads are complete dead-ends, but you don't find out until you've driven for a number of miles! Obviously the locals will know that these roads are dead-ends but I think it should be made more clear for tourists. If you're English, it's probably best to avoid some places when the Scottish national football is on telly!

Apart from those few points, Islay is great. It's a place you can really go to relax. You can park up pretty much anywhere outside the main towns and you'll hear nothing but silence. Traffic is a thing of the past. You're more likely to be held up by cows on the road than cars, although I did see one traffic jam constituting of around 15 cars! Wow!

The locals are amazingly friendly, and they really go out of the way to help you out. I was trying to find out whether or not a distillery tour was on, and the hotel manager called the distillery up and organised a time for us to go!

When you're out driving, most of the locals driving in the opposite direction will wave at you to say hello! Brilliant. I bet you don't get that in big-ass London.

I can thoroughly recommend the Bridgend Hotel as a great place to stay. The staff are extremely helpful, and the hotel is across the road from a petrol pump (there are no petrol 'stations' to speak of, on the island) and a convenience store. The rooms are really nice and to say I was staying in a single room, that's the biggest single bed I've seen! I'm 6' 4" tall and a shade under 20-stone (125 kilos or so) and I was absolutely comfortable.

One final thing, if you can manage it, ensure you go to Jura. It's amazingly beautiful, and the ferry is only five minutes from Port Askaig to Feolin. The ferry travels across every half hour during the week, and whilst you're waiting, you can have a meal in the friendly hotel/pub at the edge of the jetty.

Anyway, as you can tell, I'm more than impressed with Islay and I will consider going back there next year, when the distillery open days are available.

 GC