Ministry of Sound 'Classics'

Posted in MUSIC by Wake on Sep 09, 05:00AM

Ministry of Sound - Various
Classics
(Ministry of Sound/Universal)

Shed 14 parties. Construction worker vests. Dirty House Records. P.L.U.R. Whistles. “TUNE” signs. Glow sticks. Sleaze Balls. Every Picture Tells A Story. Renegade phat pants. These and about a million other aspects of early dance music culture have generally disappeared from the cultural landscape. Yet for many the memories live on; this is the thinking behind Classics, the newest compilation from Ministry of Sound of past dance anthems.

The idea of “classic tracks” in dance music is a fairly recent one; a relatively new genre, coupled with cuts that most heads consider disposable has led to a buy now-discard tomorrow mindset. That said, there’s plenty of guys and girls who went to underground raves and are approaching their forties; the market’s only getting bigger for a trip down memory lane.

Ministry of Sound have taken a scattergun approach to this release, bringing together three discs that encompass over 15 years of dancefloor cuts. From early ‘90s proto-house through to recent “classics” of two years ago, it seems no stone has been left unturned. Kicking off with Robyn S’ ‘Show Me Love’ (yes, the recent ‘Show Me Love’ single was a cover), the first disc concentrates on early club tracks. From De’Lacy’s soaring anthem ‘Hide Away’, through to the throw-away brilliance of ‘U Sure Do’ from Strike, piano-house is dug up from the attic and given a good airing.

Disc two focuses on the late ‘90s/early ‘00s, when dance hit the mainstream in a big way. However it’s not the greatest idea to crowbar soulful house music (‘The Bomb’ from Kenny Dope and Armand Van Helden’s ‘You Don’t Know Me’) into a trance set (Darude’s ‘Sandstorm’ or Delirium’s ‘Silence’). Classics they may be, but surely either genre deserves its own disc?

Disc three maintains the house into electro crossover of the past few years, going back as early as Basement Jaxx’s straight-house banger ‘Red Alert’ and as recent as Fedde Le Grand’s electro-house ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’. This is stretching the definition of “classic” a little far; yes, they may be anthems to those who danced the night away back in 2007, but surely these things take longer than a couple of years?

All up, it’s a good primer for newbies on some of the biggest dance cuts from the last 15 years. Certainly some slept-on tracks (Josh Wink’s ‘Higher State of Consciousness’ or ‘Intro’ from Alan Braxe and Fred Falke) deserve to be heard again. But the hotchpotch approach to track selection lessens the value of the compilation as a whole, making it more disposable than classic in the end.

Andrew James