The 3LUX series of videos was primarily the result of the techno/rave culture emerging all around the world in the late 1980s/early 1990s. In clubs, the constant beats and heavily mixed rhythms of the genre were often accompanied by frenzied video installations that would show loops of all sorts, from random computer-generated art to repeated film clips. It soon became a 'cult' phenomena to produce the aural and visual experience together in an artistic manner, creating a total club environment. Of course, many people interpreted this movement as a sort of modern psychedelic revival, in which the music and visions would be experienced as a "high," although drug culture did intervene on its own. Regardless of what you think of the whole scene, it inarguably inspired a generation of "basement" artists, struggling to create entertaining and effective video loops for the perfect tune, or vice-versa. Although a lot of artists added a great deal of legitimacy to these concepts, one of the first videos to actually treat this whole genre with respect were the 3LUX compilations, which took actual dancefloor/chill-out club playlists and placed them with visual collages, mostly made by uncredited artists working on PCs and video consoles. It was raw, homebrewed video installation which, honestly, makes it a bit more entertaining than the commonplace videos of this type nowadays (the series has continued as XMIX). This DVD includes the original 3 volumes of 3LUX, presented on one disc. While the first two are primarily upbeat/dance compilations, Volume 3 is more distinctly ambient in mode, harkening back to when most good nightclubs had "chill-out" rooms, where the atmosphere was geared towards meditative relaxation rather than dancefloor madness. Obviously, this disc has many ways in which it can be enjoyed. You can just watch, entranced by the experience; keep it running in the background as a sort of video-art piece, or just listen to the audio, which alone makes a good compilation of early 1990s electronic music. Now, most of the musicians on this disc are the kind of one-hit-wonder DJs and mixers that this movement tended to kick up, but that doesn't really effect the overall quality. There's some decent electronic music here. F.U.S.E. makes an appearance on 3LUX1, better known as Ritchie Hawtin (a.k.a. Plastikman), with one of my favorite of his songs, Substance Abuse. A richer tapestry is found on 3LUX3, including works by two of my favorite musical acts, Aphex Twin and The Orb. Listeners can also hear early works by Sven Vдth and The Arpeggiators. Obviously there's no story or dramatics here; it's just a variety of images set to the music, often in time to the beats, which is an impressive feat. In modern compilations like this, I've noticed a tendency for the artists to get hung up on computer graphics and over-stylize the whole affair. Here, though, the videos are made from many sources and have a unique quality to them; I feel more effort and passion from these works than I do with similar material that's newer. In an age where we see music videos virtually becoming as expensive as motion pictures, there's a simplicity here that seems much more powerful. It also sends home the message that this music is intended to be felt and experienced; something more than just passively listened to. Whether or not that will happen with all viewers is debatable, but it's worth a try. Here are the complete playlists for each volume (title/artist), as listed by Stud!o K7, the original creators and publishers of the VHS volumes. These may or may not be 100% accurate; the chapters are not listed by song and it's hard to separate them out. However, the song credits do seem to back this list up.