The latest collection of house and electronic tunes from the Blacklabel series reminds me of a killer set at 3.30am at an all night dance party.

This is quality house and deep house music, spirited and thumping in its drive to inject excitement into its audience.  However, it is also a varied offering and is both light and dark in mood.

After an introduction that makes you feel like heading to a cool lounge bar, the middle part of Jay Shepheard's mix heads off on holiday to a monotonous beach-break with a somewhat repetitive jangle of songs (embryonic electronica is the only description I can think of), before you are suddenly metaphorically thrown onto the dance-floor with Wagon Cookin's "Start To Play".  Thereafter, the CD remains at a heady height. "Start to Play" is one of the best remixes I have heard for a long time, and its beat, the jazz as well as the voice recall Dimitri From Paris' "Night at the Playboy Mansion", and the male vocals inspires memories of your favorite house music club.  This is a song that appeals to the beautiful people, and is akin to John Cutler's "Its Yours", arguably one of the catchiest house/disco songs of this century.

The compilation includes a mixture of artists, and actually includes two tunes from Phreek Plus One (the catchy "Bikini" and "New York Dolls") as well as two songs from Jay Shepheard himself ("4nc" and the aptly chosen final track "Pipes'N'Sneakers", which is a groovy offering).  Motor City Drum Ensemble is also featured twice on the album.  Notwithstanding the stand-out moment on the collection, "Start to Play", other brilliant tracks include, TJ Kong & Nuno Dos Santos (feat. Robert Owens), "Merging", Alex Attias Pres. Mustang's "Finding Who We Are" and Shakrokh Sound Of K's, "Break it Down".

Compost Records is renowned for having a jazzy focus ordinarily, but on the latest Blacklabel album it appears they are taking a more diverse view on their label's offerings.  And that can only be good news for the fans.

7/10