No matter how hard I try to throw subjectivity out the window upon first listening to a new CD, every time I pick up a so called 'electronic' title, I cringe. It's so difficult to be completely objective, when so much of this genre falls under the category of 'listen once, forget forever'. Yeah, most of it is boring, repetetive, monotonous -- sometimes downright impossible to listen to. But sometimes amidst the heap of forgetables, there's a diamond in the rough. "Spirit House" is just such a gem. Based in Hong Cong, Celestial ties together East and West by combining the ambient grooves of European and American Electronica, with samplings and musical contributions from traditional Asian sources ranging from China to Napal to Vietnam.The sound is at once familiar and strangely foreign -- an interesting and often hauntingly beautiful combination that kept me coming back again and again just for the sheer originality of it all.

The casual listener might compare Celestial's sound to that of the Pop - Electronica pioneer group, Enigma. There is no doubt that, at least on the surface, the two groups cross paths. Whereas Enigma has used samplings of Gregorian monks and Native North Americans, Celesital draws upon South Asian resources and even throws in a few English spoken-word passages to mix things up even further. While several tracks on "Spirit House" contain a liberal helping of the pioneering spirit of the groups that paved the way for them to be where they are today, it's on the flat-out instrumental tracks that Celesital really shines! From the rhythmic, traditional-sounding "Chang Ding" which features an entrancing Erhu (Chinese Violin) performance by Hsin Hiao Hung, to the gorgeous dreamscape painted by "Life's Greatest Tragedy" (my favorite track on "Spirit House"), this disc is about as rich instrumentally is it can be. If you're of a more popular music ilk, "I Feel Strange," with it's seductive rhythm and Sade-like vocals is darn near Top 40 material.

As far as World Music goes, "Spirit House" is 'worldly' enough to keep aficianados interested, but mainstream enough to be interesting to everybody else as well. It's not quite a crossover into mainstream Dance/Electronica, but it's a very good album and well worth a listen, whether you're into the World Beat, or just Beat in general.