French label Burning Emptiness stand alone at the vanguard of anything and everything lo-fi, avant-garde, techno, or just plain and simple noise.

Here, they've assembled 23 tracks which range from one-chord ambient drone trance (French duo The Ultra Milkmaids) to one-and-a-half minute Casio speed gabba interludes (Darky) and Earache-influenced thrash metal (Tekken). With all of the acts coming from far and wide - the Japanese backward masking noise blizzard of Government Alpha sits side by side with Belgian satanic doomlords Agathocles - Noise Research Program volume 2 is anything but a rigorous trawl through the formulaic humdrum of everyday MTV-friendly alternative music.

Whatever your bag, there's guaranteed to be something here that will float your boat, but anyone who doesn't fall in love with The $hit's 'Mexican Wave Of Hate', which sounds like Pop Will Eat Itself being forced to sing for their penance after six days' solid grafting on a Wednesbury building site, clearly doesn't possess a heart. Likewise, Eva Hertz and KenII's 'Fuckbuddy' is the kind of robotic technopunk that would make even Peaches blush, and ML*'s _'Cut The Six'_ recalls the heady days when Curve's Toni Halliday was queen of the industrial scene. Other highlights include the LFO-style synths-by-gaslight pomp of *Scramble and the now familiar chainsaw-driven experimental urges of The Telescopes.

If you can't find anything here you must be tone deaf or simply emaciated in the world of Melua and Blunt. And best of all, Noise Research Program only retails for a fiver, making it cheaper than two pints of Stella in your local JD Wetherspoons. Now beat that for value!