You're reading the title correctly. Planetarium is a two disc set of the best electronica being made in Virginia. I suppose it stands to reason, especially in the twenty-first century and given the internet's acceleration of global culture, that any form of music could evolve almost anywhere. Still, the little I know of Virginia seems to be anathema to electronic music: surely the state that gave us Colonial Williamsburg could not also manufacture its own gabber?

However, the twenty songs on this two disc set were apparently culled from more than a hundred submissions. For all I know, there may be entire Virginia towns in which everyone spends their evenings tinkering with 303s. While I'm not ready to crown Virginia the new techno capitol of the world, they're certainly making some good music.

The first disc, unfortunately, suffers from a lack of energy caused by poorly-balanced sequencing that puts all the most exciting tracks on disc two. After Realtime's fairly striking "Snowball Effect", a sort of minimalist trance rut sets in (though Crux's disturbing "Awash" breaks free to some extent). This is eventually broken by SKTBX's ferocious drill'n'bass workout "That's Not Music", which segues neatly into Spinvoid's restful-yet-creepy "Pull Back". Enjoy the rest, and take a moment to turn the volume down a bit, because the fierce gabber action of Liondragon's "200.0 BPM" will push you to the breaking point with head-throbbing overmodulated bass beats. From here, the disc slides slowly into chillout territory. Less clustering by genre would have made this a more even listening experience.

Disc two fares better. It begins with "Easy Dutch", a fairly mainstream dancefloor workout by the East Coast Boogiemen. With its rollicking beat and sampled cries, this track could easily pack a dance floor, and its rhythm is complex enough to sustain interest for its eight-minute length. Tyke's "Funkster" jumps right in where "Easy Dutch" ends, raising the energy level with frenetic, cymbal-punctuated beats and deep, throbbing keyboards. Its melody, initially unveiled two minutes into the song, constantly changes, expands and moves in new directions. James Newton's "Unicorn" initially squanders that energy buildup with its slow, indolent chillout opening, but builds to a gorgeous, thundering climax of glittering keyboard tones and a pulsating, Chemical Brothers-styled hook. Later in the disc, Audio Rapture gives us old-school 303 action on "Green Decade", which sounds like something straight outta early nineties Belgium. ENE brings us "October Version", a dense amalgamation of slowed-down beats and drawling samples -- hard to dance to, but intriguing listening. The disc concludes with Pimp Daddy Nash -- arguably the best-known name on the compilation -- whose delicate mid-tempo, strangely Nettwerk-y piece "Walk Between The Raindrops" has been remixed by his better-known friend Q-Burns Abstract Message. It makes a nice ending.

Disc two is easily strong enough to erase the faults of disc one. Indeed, I wish that the Planetary folks had stuck a couple of disc two's plentiful show-stoppers onto disc one, making the compilation a more cohesive whole and un-clumping the less interesting material. As it stands, Planetarium is still a fine double-disc set -- and let's not forget that the scene it documents is probably unknown to most listeners, and as such will be a very pleasant surprise. Those who favor minimal sounds will undoubtedly enjoy disc one more than I did. For the forseeable future, Planetarium is staying close to my CD player -- but I expect disc two to log the majority of the playing time.