My curiosity piqued by the amazing "The Girl from Botany Bay", I researched Minilogue and found not quite an abundance of information, but at least enough to keep me occupied for awhile. I learned first that Minilogue is the alias of Sebastian Mullaert and Marcus Henriksson. These two Swedes are better known for their psytrance productions, released under the guise of Son Kite. Oh no! Not trance, right? I'll get to that in a moment.

The first stop for information about Minilogue is the exhaustive Discogs site, which lists a number of releases and remixes from the duo, from 2000's Fagel EP through 2006's "The Girl from Botany Bay" single. "Certain Things About Us (Part 2)" (MP3), from the eponymous EP released in September 2005 is built around a sample from Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place". Boomkat describes: "If you've been of the opinion that Radiohead's `Everything in its Right Place' is about as good as it gets, buy [`Certain Things'] without delay."

On "Certain Things About Us (Part 2)" Minilogue tease and frustrate, a burst of apocalyptic climaxes promised but not delivered. You wait, expecting to hear the voice, the one in your head heard so clear and familiar it's like your own: "Everything...Everything...". You wait in vain. Instead, a house diva's voice moans, diffused and warped into a the siren call of a mechanized demon. The track is a bluff, a threat not carried out. It's also brilliant. For a duo who probably know their way around the classic build and breakdown model of trance, Minilogue show remarkable restraint. Yes, there's the trance thing to deal with again.

Is saying you once loved trance music tantamount to admitting a past appreciation for all things Nickelback? You know, I really don't care if it is. I'll stand up right now on a chair, wave a glow stick in the air and proudly whisper "I used to love trance, dammit!" Paul Oakenfold, Sasha and Digweed, Paul Van Dyk, Dave Ralph - I listened to them all. My collection of Global Underground CDs stopped growing around Nick Warren's Budapest set, but I still pull them out every now and then to reminisce.

Somewhere along the way I grew out of enjoying trance, but the classics like Sasha's Expander EP, are still worthy of repetition. As for Son Kite, maybe I should set aside my apprehensions and give them a fair listen. Their site has a number of downloadable DJ mixes and a live show from Tokyo. Grouping them with ATB or other cheesed out trance acts is probably not fair without hearing them first.