541 Belgium Schallplatten & CDs

Review: After 31 years, the Serious Beats compilation serious comes to an end. The very last edition, Serious Beats 100, arrives as a five LP set. The compilation series underlines the progression of commercial house music from a distinctly Belgian perspective, canonizing an incredible number of tracks that have been thoroughly publicly digested and surely will be for years to come. This edition sees appearances from Fatima Yamaha, Fake Blood, Avicii, Dele Sosimi and Parachute Youth.

Review: Studio Brussel present the second edition of 'The Greatest Switch', the euphoric Belgian trance compilation and one of few to chronicle the genre in its present incarnation. Sourcing contributions from artists as 'big' as Paul Kalkbrenner and 'small' as Zombie Nation, this is a stunning collection full of euphoric slap-bass trance, uplifting trance, and new beat (The Knife's inclusion in the mix is stellar).

Review: Studio Brussel present the fifth edition of 'The Greatest Switch', the euphoric Belgian pop dance compilation and one of few to chronicle all of said music in a context of influencing new beat and trance. This edition of the compilation zooms out a little bit more, recognising the effect of mega well-known tracks from across the pond. Kicking off with New Order's timeless track 'Blue Monday', this one's also got Donna Summer, Laurent Garnier, Roni Size, and Rudimental on there, establishing a dialogue between different forms of mainstream dance music we never even thought startable.

Review: 541 is in the middle of a big run of spacial double albums that they say are made up of "nothing but classix" and we're inclined to agree. This eighth volume of 12 Inch Lovers is another bumper collection of big dance sounds from the 90s to the present day by plenty of names you will likely know, from Erick Morillo to Michael Gray to Robin S to Bakermat. There is string-laced swing-house to start with, vocal anthems like 'Show Me Love' to finish with and main stage house bangers and feel-good festival favourites in between.