Back catalogue: Funky/Club House

Review: Aside from Coldcut's incredible 'Journeys By DJ' mix, we can think of few mix albums that have been quite as celebrated as Soulwax's 2002 outing as 2ManyDJs, 'As Heard on Radio Soulwax Part 2'. While of its time in terms of some of the track selections - it was the era of fuzzy electro-house and electroclash - the album's genius lies in its' breathlessly brilliant eclecticism and the no-holds-barred, party-starting insanity that marked out the Belgian duo's DJ sets at the time. Out of print for many years but now back in stores in limited quantities to mark its 20th birthday, the mix remains a peerless advert for creative DJing, with the Dewaele brothers giddily mashing together acapellas, tracks, grooves and song snippets in a breathlessly brilliant, endlessly entertaining way. If you missed it first time around, you need this edition in your life.

Review: The 2005 album 'The Upper Cuts' is a classic work of house music history that can still light up a dancefloor; a work of sadness and joy; darkness and light; profundity and release. If you want to know how French Producer Alan Braxe helped to create a new template for the French house sound in the early 2000s, right when French house needed it most; or how Braxe's gorgeously clean productions and evocative synth melody provided a bridge between the first wave of French house and the Ed Banger / Justice / Kitsune axis that followed; then your answer starts here.

'The Upper Cuts', rounds up several of Braxe's greatest hits, including the Bangalter collab 'Music Sounds Better With You' and - most prominently - his work with Fred Falke, a bass player Braxe met on military service. Braxe and Falke's union created some of the best house music records of the 2000s, with Falke's slinky, melodious and very funky bass lines fitting like a glove around Braxe's production know-how and ear for a melody. This newly reissued version adds seven bonus tracks including Braxe's iconic remix of Britney Spears' 'Anticipating' and two completely new tracks.

Review: Until he quit the music industry in the mid-1990s, Shep Pettibone was the most in-demand remixer on the planet - a position he'd held since the late 1970s. This four-disc compilation does a great job of showcasing some of his greatest remixes, all of which are presented in full-length form. There's naturally plenty of versions of big pop singles of the '80s - see the epic 'Mastermix' of Pet Shop Boys' 'West End Girls', as well as rubs of Duran Duran, New Order, Whitney Houston and Belinda Carlisle - as well as a sprint through his celebrated disco and boogie reworks (see disc four). In addition, you'll find versions of some lesser-celebrated gems from the freestyle-era, including heavyweight revisions of Sinammon, Alisha, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam and The Flirts.

Review: After launching the Dance Masters series with a much-needed trawl through the remixography of the great Shep Pettibone, Arthur Baker has now turned his attention to his own sprawling catalogue of productions and remixes. Stretched over four discs in order to present full-length, DJ-friendly mixes, the collection does a great job in showcasing Baker's immense achievements in the 1980s and 90s. Naturally, his most celebrated productions and remixes are present - see his versions of Fleetwood Mac's 'Big Love', which became Balearic anthems, Afrika Bambaata and Soulsonic Force's genuinely game-changing 'Planet Rock', Freez's 'I.O.U', Rockers Revenge's 'Walking on Sunshine' and New Order's 'Confusion' - alongside a swathe of forgotten, overlooked and harder to find revisions.

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: Since the early 90s, Ministry of Sound's yearly Annual compilations have done an excellent job in chronicling crossover dance hits, mainstream dancefloor killers, and popular underground workouts that make their way into the wider public consciousness. This year's edition (confusingly dated 2024, despite being released in late 2023) continues the successful franchise via two unmixed discs of radio-friendly dance favourites. It naturally ticks all of the usual boxes, contrasting breakout big room hits by underground heroes (Young Marco, Adelphi Music Factory, Ewan McVicar) and sizable tracks from established dance heavyweights (Chemical Brothers, Sub Focus and Dimensions, Rudimental, MK), with gigantic EDM works (Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding) and the odd out and out dance-pop hit (Kylie Minogue).

Review: The Now series is legendary for any one of us over a certain age. Back during our early childhood years, they were the first and last word of what was hot when it came to popular music of the day. Every few months, a new numbered collection would drop and give you access to all the hits you knew as well as some you didn't. In later years they branched out into specialist genres from funk to soul to dance. This bumper four CD collection brings together the very best 12"s of 1981 and despite the small remit, there is plenty to go at, as the easy-to-love tracklist shows.

Review: The Milk & Sugar label has been responsible for plenty of house's most fun and funky moments over the years. Now it looks back over another 12 months with its Milk & Sugar Winter sessions across two unmixed CDs that are perfect for those who like a big hook and singalong vocal with their beats. These 30 tunes are all remixes, edits or extended versions of radio friendly dance pumpers like Freuds' 'Why I'm Here', Michael Cleis & Toto La Momposina's 'La Mezcla' which becomes an Afro workout from AMEME and a new take on an acid classic from Josh Wink by Damian Lazarus.

Review: Fierce, fabulous and more than a little fancy, Box Of Sin takes an exhaustive look at 80s gay nightlife as the driver for the evolution of dance music. Spread over five CDs, we're taken on a sweat-slicked thrill ride through hi-nrg, disco, proto house and synth-pop taking in seminal classics and deep cuts alike. There are plenty of perennial favourites contained within, from The Pointer Sisters' 'Jump (For My Love)' and Soft Cell's 'Memorabilia' through to S'Express' massive chart dance banger 'Theme From S'Express', and you can be sure the compilers have taken care to source the real deal 12" mixes that bring out the best in a track. With plenty of lesser known surprises and a frankly head-spinning amount of knockout tracks, this is an essential document of the outsized impact queer club culture had on electronic music in the 80s and early 90s.