*** Chicane

FAR FROM THE MADDENING CROWDS

(ffrr)

As moody and instrumental as Robert Miles's big Europop hit "Children," Chicane's Far from the Maddening Crowds features coolly delicate orchestral pop arrangements, acoustic-guitar interludes, the sounds of waves mussing a beach, and -- always -- the throbby, four-to-the-floor pump beat that drives dreamy Eurodisco. Chicane varies his sonic components hardly at all, so there's no point trying to distinguish one mix of "Offshore" and "Sunstroke" from another (the CD includes two of each), or figuring out where "Early" and "Already There" stop and "From Blue to Green," "Leaving Town," and "The Drive Home" begin. No, just savor the ease with which he recycles the always lighthearted, soft-melodic elements of his lush dance music, 72 minutes of sonic idealism in which quiet and softness are the theme as well as the form.

-- Michael Freedberg