Prior to issuing the full-length Fearsome Jewel on Kompakt in 2003, New Zealand producer Andrew Thomas was responsible for a limited-edition release (100 copies) on Involve titled So You Wanna Be a (Death) Star. Thomas' first Kompakt venture was a significant improvement over his obscure, glitch-inflected debut, with most tracks falling somewhere between Ulf Lohmann's Because Before and Dettinger's Oasis. He fell into the Cologne label's "pop ambient" division with little trouble. ~ Andy Kellman