After three albums of deep melancholic and sentimental new-age Muzak, Desiderii Marginis issued a compilation of archive recordings, dark and rhythmic soundscapes it began with. Not a smasher, nonetheless Desiderii Marginis is worth delving into for a while.

The bleepy tones and percussive beats of the opening track really caught me off guard. Mere moments ago, I'd just plonked the disc into the player expecting the musical equivalent of a stark landscape filled with your typical despair and gloom. At first I suspected this might be the reason Desiderii Marginis had migrated from the Cold Meat label where he'd been pumping out great albums with a slow but steady frequency. This of course is what happens when you do not do your musical homework. After a quick inspection I realized that this was not a musical experiment into new realms but in fact a compilation of old material from the three early tapes (tapes that I wager will become even rarer as more people will listen to this cd). Granted, this is a mixed bag. It starts out a bit rough with some grating sounds and the unpolished vocal samples remind us that this was made in the early nineties, but there are some true dark gems hidden in the tracklist. The disc strikes an effective balance between sacral and pagan, and simple but effective use of repetitive samples add to the music and it results in some really good moments that I keep gravitating back to, though other tracks are of a more forgettable nature. Perhaps not essential, but Desiderii Marginis fans will want to hear it.