Compilation Recommendations February 2015

Review: Waze & Oddysey's W&O Streetracks imprint pulls together the likes of Eliphino, Ejeca, Citizen and XXXY for its first (unmixed) compilation released this Winter, W&O Streettracks Vol 1. Having clocked up eight releases on Street Tracks, it's the ideal time to throw down a milestone and document the sound of the label in one package and W&O Street Tracks does so with panache. The result of Waze & Oddyssey's plunge into their address book is a 12 track compilation that neatly reflects modern house music. Ejeca, Citizen and W&O themselves sit alongside newcomers like Mediman and Sage Caswell while the emergent talents of New Jack City and Eliphino make for a nicely profiled piece of work

Review: Two years have lapsed since the last CD celebration of Hospital's highly regarded party brand, Hospitality. This time round, London Elektricity's label has decided to expand the collection, cramming in no less than 60 floor-friendly tracks across two high energy, soul flecked, party-friendly mixes. Rather impressively, Hospitality 2015 boasts no less than 22 previously unreleased exclusives, including tracks from fast-rising starlet Maduk, Nu:Tone and Russ Chimes. Arguably the best of these, though, comes from Nu:Logic, whose VIP version of "Everlasting Days" brilliantly re-casts the original as a Todd Edwards style garage smasher. With further dancefloor gold from Lynx (the brilliant "Rim Shock"), High Contrast, Icicle and Logistics, there's no shortage of highlights.

Review: Given the length of his career - 25 years and counting - it's a bit surprising it's taken this long for Defected to invite Dave 'Joey Negro' Lee into their House Master hall of fame. Happily, they've done a good job summarising his career to date, getting a good balance between both big hits ("American Dream", "Ride The Storn", "Everyday" etc) and lesser-known remixes (early tweaks of Reece Project, Simphonia, Extortion), as well as showcasing the disco side of Lee's output (superb reworks of Candido and Patrice Rushen, for starters). It's surprising how many of Lee's vintage productions and reworks have stood the test of time - something that can't be said for many of his contemporaries.

Review: Trojan Records' Tighten Up series of cut-price reggae compilations was a formative influence on Don Letts in the late '60s and early '70s. Because of this, he was a natural choice when Sanctuary was looking for someone to put together a two-disc trawl through the influential Jamaican label's bulging archives. The Mighty Trojan Sound ticks all the right boxes, containing must-have material from such roots and reggae heavyweights as The Heptones, Jonny Clarke, I-Roy, Horace Andy, Gregory Isaacs and Toots and the Maytals. Interestingly, the second disc is an exclusively instrumental affair, with superb dubs from the likes of King Tubby, Scientist and Lee 'Scratch' Perry.

Review: US crate-diggers Cultures of Soul are swiftly becoming masters of left-of-centre disco compilations, with their Caribbean and Indian disco retrospectives (Tropical Disco Hustle and Bombay Disco) being amongst the stand-out collections of 2014. Here they change tack again, offering a double-vinyl showcase of Brazilian disco, boogie and jazz-funk. While there are a few "must-haves" here (Marcos Valle's celebrated "Estrelar", for starters), the real joy of The Brazilian Boogie Connection comes from the less well-known material. Check out, for example, the horn-toting disco-funk breeziness of Banda Black Rio's "Expresso Madureira", Emilio Santiago's "O Amigo De Nova York" or Tarantulas' brilliant re-imagining of Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough".

Review: There are many ways to approach a FabricLive mix. Jimmy Edgar decided to focus largely on unreleased and forthcoming material from the Ultramajic label he founded with pal Arden back in 2013. In some ways, it's a smart move; although there's some fine deep house, Detroit techno and ghetto-house selections from other labels peppered throughout (including tracks from DJ Godfather, Patrice Scott and Terrence Dixon), it's the warehouse-friendly middle section - complete with Ultramajic exclusives from Crystal Bandito and Edgar himself (including a hook-up with DJ Rashad) - that really makes the mix. It's these inclusions - twisted, tough, wonky and rush inducing - that gives Edgar's mix a distinctive feel.

Review: Williamsburg-based Truth & Soul Records is fast becoming one of the most reliable sources of modern soul and revivalist deep funk. Should you be unfamiliar with their output - and you should be, given that they set up shop in 2003 - this fourth trawl through the label's bulging back catalogue should be an essential purchase. Highlights are naturally plentiful, from the Cuban and Caribbean influenced instrumental brilliance of Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band's "Pimp", and the stripped-back deep soul of Beau Williams' "I'll Be Home Soon", to the raw, Hammond-heavy 60s jazz-funk of The Fabulous 3's "Night Bird" and fuzzy analogue afro-funk of Zafari's "King Masuru".

Review: When it comes to putting together DJ-friendly collections of summery, feelgood house records, few can beat former Hed Kandi man Mark Doyle. This third instalment in his Fierce Angel series follows a similar blueprint, serving up two unmixed discs of mostly vocal house cuts that can variously be described beach friendly warm-up fare (see the contributions from Fish From Japan, Chopstick & JonJon, and Beth's sumptuous "Don't You Worry Child"), and smile-inducing peaktime gems (Mark Knight and Grafitti on Mars remixing Bat For Lashes, Fred Falke's pop-house remake of Florrie's "I Took A Little Something" and Freemasons' EDM smash "Tears"). There are few surprises, but plenty of playable, floor-friendly fare.