Brixton's pride, mishmash dance/house/electronica duo Basement Jaxx have prolifically delivered killer tracks ever since "Samba Magic" was first cut to vinyl. Now, some years on, it's time for a comprehensive recap of the Jaxx' mindblowing A-sides. All fifteen singles are here, scrambled by the Jaxx into the optimum track order (who really cares about chronology?), and there isn't a dud among them. Selecting highlights is a futile task-just stick the disc on and let your senses be guided from the hypnotic "Red Alert" through the awesome "Where's Your Head At" and beyond "Do Your Thing"'s reinvention of dancehall swing. It's quite a trip. For those who have followed Basement Jaxx from Remedy through Rooty to Kish Kash, there's no doubt that the duo are consistent-weak album tracks are almost non-existent. Cull the lead tracks from that trinity of essential LPs and you have a 'best of' well worthy of its role, a constant high that is about as exhilarating as modern uptempo music gets. These are truly essential recordings. -Jonathan Davies.

After three albums that seemed to find Moby in some sort of creative stasis, Last Night sees the once-restless DJ/producer changing the record and returning to one of his first loves: the heaving dancefloors of his native New York. Soulful, uplifting piano rave is the order of the day here, and while some hallmarks of Play remain-Moby still has a fascination for long, tearful synth lines and sampled vocals, which he drops in here and there, seemingly to yield the maximum emotional response-Last Night still feels like a clean slate. "I Like to Move in Here" shimmies along on a languid house beat that doffs a cap to early hip-hop in the shape of a cameo from MC Grandmaster Caz, one of the writers of "Rapper's Delight", while "Everyday It's 1989" is the sort of overdriven, ecstatic piano house that Moby perfected on his 1995 classic Everything Is Wrong. There's more guest spots in the shape of British MC Aynzli, the Nigerian 419 Squad and Sylvia from dark NYC disco band Kudu, but the most impressive thing about Last Night is the peaks that Moby can reach when he's working alone: see the grand, emotive swell of "Sweet Apocalypse", cold synths and driving beats that, were it released by James Murphy, would be hailed as genius-and rightfully, too. -Louis Pattison.

The Best of Groove Armada charts the success of one of the UK's most popular dance acts. Featuring the biggest hits from their last three albums, this anthology of their time on the Jive label is packed with downbeat and upbeat anthems, and an array of music as heard in film, television and radio. The subdued intro and trombone melody of "Superstylin" opens the collection softly with the now legendary bassline kicking in for a perfect euphoric moment. Other upbeat anthems include the piano house of "If Everybody Looked the Same", the Fatboy Slim mix of Gramma Funk's "I See You Baby" (both of which have been used to sell cars) and the more recent disco hit, "Easy". However, although Tom Findlay and Andy Kato pack dance floors every weekend, it's their downbeat soul that receives most attention, partly due to the "chillout" explosion of 2000 that made "At the River" a classic of the genre. With their last album Lovebox, GA showed a more versatile, band-influenced side with songs like the Status Quo sampling "Purple Haze", the rocky "Madder" and fun-loving ska of "But I feel Good". The Best of Groove Armada is a great selection of songs showing the diversity and musical progression of the band, a perfect introduction for the un-initiated and a good collection for those already converted. -Georgina Collins.

Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond had their first massive smash hit as the Timelords ("Doctoring the House") and also scored hits as the Jams. So by the time they came up with tracks like "3AM Eternal" and the blaring-horn-a-thon that was "What Time Is Love?" (both from The White Room), they were already well versed in writing pop songs. This is a dance album of sorts, but it is very tongue-in-cheek and has a distinctly commercial edge. The pair were notorious jokers-the back cover shows them clutching sheep to their chests-and after managing to rule the charts they disbanded and turned their back on the industry completely. Their disdain for the music business comes through in their over-the-top futurism and relentless air horn blasting, both of which are an acquired taste and quite nauseating after a while. Aside from the singles mentioned above, White Room also contains the soulful "Make It Rain", the surprisingly subdued "Church of the KLF", some Scottish poetry on "Build a Fire" and unforgivably crass use of some King Tubby trumpet on the dire "No More Tears". It's hailed as a classic, but don't believe the hype. -Paul Sullivan.

Starting off with the irresistibly hummable "One More Time," Daft Punk's second album, Discovery, blows through a head-spinning array of styles and samples, creating a pop culture stew of funky loops and dance floor anthems, while displaying the characteristics of a million other artists. The keyboard noodlings of Jean Michel-Jarre are in there somewhere, along with the otherworldly imagery and giant hooks of 1970s rock icons like Boston or Electric Light Orchestra. There are dashes of 1999-era Prince and oodles of new wave/disco, from Gary Numan to The Bee Gees, all set off with efficient house beats. "Aerodynamic" eschews breakbeats for a guitar interlude that somehow ends up meshing in a crazy blend of stomping basslines and hyped-up harmonics. "Digital Love" starts off silly and gets sillier, but the monosyllabic lyrics serve to lull the senses enough for the song's summery groove to grab hold with authority. "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is the definitive salvo in the dance floor retro/vocoder battle that began in earnest with Cher's Believe, spinning a clever groove around an ever-escalating string of computerized seduction. Everywhere on the record, gigantic beats are dropped with pinpoint precision, giving songs momentum that transforms repetitive melodies into sudden revelations. The record's only mis-step, the aptly-named "Short Circuit" utilizes a keyboard riff that is nails-on-a-chalkboard awful, but it can't keep this from being one of the best records of 2001. -Matthew Cooke.

A singles band if ever there was one, the hits on Pop make the duo of Andy Bell and Vince Clarke of Erasure sound like the Rogers & Hammerstein of synth-pop disco. With the exception of The Circus and The Innocents albums, most of Erasure's full lengths house only a few brief moments of brilliance, the rest of the songs being limp and uninspired. But putting songs like "Blue Savannah" with its sweeping loveliness, the haunting "Ship of Fools", and the campy, raucous "Love to Hate You" all on the same disc shows that when Erasure is on, they shine like a thousand-carat tiara. The energetic and electronic disco is front and centre here with "Oh L'Amour" and the audience participation number "Stop!", but the beautifully crafted "Sometimes" shows the band's true potential. The irrepressible melody line is punctuated by an acoustic riff and a melancholy trumpet solo that actually has to do its best to keep up with Bell's warm lament. An indispensable collection. -Steve Gdula A singles band if ever there was one, the hits on Pop make the duo of Andy Bell and Vince Clarke of Erasure sound like the Rogers & Hammerstein of synth-pop disco. With the exception of The Circus and The Innocents albums, most of Erasure's full lengths house only a few brief moments of brilliance, the rest of the songs being limp and uninspired. But putting songs like "Blue Savannah" with its sweeping loveliness, the haunting "Ship of Fools," and the campy, raucous "Love to Hate You" all on the same disc shows that when Erasure is on, they shine like a thousand-carat tiara. The energetic and electronic disco is front and center here with "Oh L'Amour" and the audience participation number "Stop!," but the beautifully crafted "Sometimes" shows the band's true potential. [+]

After peddling fey indie-pop in the mid-Eighties, Bobby Gillespie's Primal Scream took a quantum, inspired leap with the Andy Weatherall and Terry Farley-produced Screamadelica, which melds the trippy, blissed-out ethos of acid rock with its more rhythm and sample oriented late Eighties counterpart, acid house. Screamadelica is a meeting of supposedly hostile genres, like American and Russian astronauts docking together in orbit-a musical marriage made in space. All of the elements on Screamadelica-piano, samples, gospel singers, dub-drenched rhythms-float about weightlessly amidst one another, as if beyond gravity's pull. And gliding above it all is Gillespie himself, at best on "Higher Than The Sun", vocals at once ecstatic and wistful, staring down at a world that's yet to catch up with where he's at. In time, Screamadelica would come to be regarded as one of the defining albums of its era. -David Stubbs.

The great iconoclast of techno returns with a smooth, sacred and exhilarating record. Play's concoction of breakbeat rhythms, ambient mixology and inspired blues and gospel samples cry out across musical genres and histories, imparting a time-tested wisdom to beat-driven ears. Moby's devout faith-in both God and his own musical whims-give this approach a sort of legitimacy that another, less sincere artist would never have. That sincerity reverberates through the beats and instrumental eclecticism like a pulse. The soulful refrains and proclamations in "Find My Baby" and "Natural Blues" somehow nestle between straight-up dance-floor rave-ups ("Bodyrock") and melt-in-your-mouth ambience ("Inside") with an effortless grace. Moby reaches across his turntables and finds something pure-almost organic. In fact, the album feels more natural than techno is ever supposed to feel, more spiritual than DJs are supposed to be able to muster and more alive than it has any right to be. Check out the spellbinding compilation Natural Blues to hear the original source material from blues and spiritual singers such as Etta James, Vera Hall and BB King. -Matthew Cooke.

Effectively the solo project of New York based DJ and producer Andy Butler, with the help of some interesting friends, Hercules and Love Affair is , unlikely though it sounds, the point where classic disco meets classical myth-the title apparently refers to the legendary hero's fondness for his own sex. Although co-produced by LCD Soundsystem's Tim Goldsworthy, Hercules and Love Affair is a flightier, more hedonistic proposition, filled with echoes of long gone clubs and ghosts of the pre-AIDS glory days of New York's gay scene. Yet it celebrates rather than mourns the past as a series of guest vocalists leave their mark, Antony Hegarty the most familiar. The terrific, irresistible single "Blind", reportedly some four years in gestation, stands out but the wistfully positive "Raise Me Up" isn't far behind, Hegarty's inimitably sad tones incongruously juxtaposed with a gleeful arrangement. Though even his voice has a hard battle with the lift from Frankie Knuckles's classic "Your Love" which underpins the opener "Time Will". The spaced out jazz of "This Is My Love", sung by Butler himself, the dizzily ecstatic house of "You Belong", the purest of flashbacks, and Kim Ann's vocal turn on the elegant "Athene" are other highlights on a remarkably assured and entertaining first effort. This year won't see a better example of danceable melancholy than Hercules and Love Affair. -Steve Jelbert.

Recorded in a bombproof subterranean studio in south London, the Chemical Brother's sixth studio album, We Are the Night brings us more of the duo's famed block rockin' psychedelia. Shot through with trademark acidic bleeps, sidereal synths and thrusting basslines, We Are the Night gets off to a strong yet stormless start with the level-headed title track, and solid but less-than-incendiary cuts like "All Rights Reversed," (which features new ravers The Klaxons) and "Do It Again. " Only on the irrefutable "Saturate" do the duo begin to reach their form: a building, twisting, highly infectious tune that blends baggy drums with washes of kaleidoscopic electronica. "Das Spiegel" takes on minimal house with endearing consequences, while former Pharcyde rapper Fatlip waxes lyrical on the decidedly fishy "Salmon Dance. " Things hot up again with "A Modern Midnight Conversation," and its thudding disco b line and "Battle Scars," with distinctive husky vocals provided by Willy Mason. "Harpoons" and "The Pills Won't Help You Now" end the trip on a suitably phantasmagoric note; though not much on We Are the Night approaches their glory years, it does reinforce their continued relevance in terms of twisted, danceable, electronic music. -Paul Sullivan.