Electroclash

I never understood why electroclash disappeared while so many of the ideas stuck around. The fashion mostly went away, but the attitude never really did. These tracks are full of icy synths, deadpan vocals, and enough swagger to convince you they don't care whether you like them or not. Apparently I do. If you're looking around the House for something a little stranger than the usual four on the floor, this Pick should do nicely. Twenty years later, it still sounds like the future showed up with a smirk.

Electroclash

01 Chicks On Speed - We Don't Play Guitars

02 Goldfrapp - Strict Machine

03 Pompous Elite - Citation Needed

04 Black Strobe - Me And Madonna

05 Fischerspooner - Emerge

06 Client - Rock and Roll Machine

07 Miss Kittin & The Hacker - Frank Sinatra

08 Princess Superstar featuring High & Mighty - Bad Babysitter

09 Ladytron - Seventeen

10 Mr Blackout Bean - Brewtal Awakening

11 Tiga - Pleasure From The Bass

12 Adult. - Hand To Phone

13 Tiga & Zyntherius - Sunglasses At Night

14 Golden Boy w-Miss Kittin - Rippin Kittin

15 Avenue D - Do I Look Like A Slut

16 Felix Da Housecat w-Miss Kittin - Silver Screen Shower Scene

17 Vitalic - La Rock 01

New Beat

New Beat crawled out of the late 80s at a tempo that dared you to dance to it anyway. There is always a sense with this music that the drop is coming, just not yet. Maybe later. The acid squelches and industrial edges in this pick lean into that tension, the kind that never fully resolves. It shares DNA with house, but the relationship is complicated in ways that are hard to explain without just playing the record. But here it is part of my house cleaning.

New Beat

01 Code 61 - Drop The Deal

02 Amnesia - Hysteria

03 Dirty Harry - D-Bop

04 Rhythm Device - Acid Rock

05 Explorers Of The Nile - We Are All Egyptians

06 L&O - Even Now

07 Acts Of Madmen - The Dream

08 Confetti's - Sound of C...

09 Taste of Sugar - Hmm Hmm

10 Tribe 22 - Aciiiiiiied (12' Version)

11 Lords Of Acid - I Sit On Acid

12 Tragic Error - Tanzen

13 Langsam - Straks (Two Years Behind)

14 A Split Second - Flesh (The Original Mix)

15 Erotic Dissidents - Move Your Ass & Feel the Beat

16 The Concrete Beat - I Want You!

Ambient House

I followed Brian Eno down the ambient rabbit hole back when Music For Airports came out, then kept following it through the EG and Obscure catalogs for years. When house producers started going that direction it felt like two things I already loved finding each other. When Ricki started talking about clouds I was done. That is probably why I ended up caring about this whole pick series and the rest of the house stuff at all.

Ambient House

01 The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds

02 Global Communication - 1431

03 Leftfield - Melt (Remastered)

04 The Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea  (Original 12' Version)

05 Aphex Twin - Xtal

06 808 State - Pacific State

07 Spacetime Continuum With Terence McKenna - Archaic Revival

08 Orbital - Belfast

09 Ultramarine - Hymn

Tech House

There is a school of thought that says you should be ready before you fire, and aim before that. I spent years not subscribing to it, which is how this whole house cleaning thing happened. You fire, you see where it lands, and that is how aim gets refined. This pick is in the same spirit. It went in the folder, it got pulled back out, some things got moved, and now it is what it is. The tech robot on the cover looks like he's figuring it out too.

Tech House

01 Oxia - Domino

02 Camelphat & Elderbrook - Cola (Club Mix)

03 Mark Knight & Funkagenda - Man With The Red Face (Original Club Mix)

04 DJ Polinate - Ready, Fire, Aim

05 Patrick Topping - Forget (Original Mix)

06 Fisher - Losing It

07 Shiba San - Okay (Original Mix)

08 Dubfire - Roadkill (Original Club Mix)

09 Green Velvet - Bigger Than Prince (Hot Since 82 Remix)

10 M.A.N.D.Y. Vs. Booka Shade - Body Language (Original Mix)

11 Azari & III - Hungry For The Power (Jamie Jones Ridge Street Remix)

Disco House

Some of this music I danced to when it was new and it hit just as hard then. There's a moment in every one of these tracks where the old disco source material punches through the production and reminds you why it never really went away. A pick that crosses decades and countries, some French, some not, all of it pointed at the same mirrorball. Somebody played Let's All Chant at a wedding in Belize once and I stood there thinking, is this disco? Is this House? Nobody knew. Nobody cared.

Disco House

01 Modjo - Chillin'

02 DJ Falcon - Honeymoon

03 Alan Braxe & Fred Falke - Intro

04 Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You (Extended Version)

05 Purple Disco Machine - Dished (Male Stripper Extended Mix)

06 The Supermen Lovers with Mani Hoffman - Starlight (Disco Edit)

07 Junior Jack - Thrill Me

08 Soldiers Of Twilight - Believe (Original Mix)

09 Armand Van Helden - My My My

10 Addy van der Zwan featuring The Michael Zager Band - Let's All Chant (Original Mix)

11 Together - So Much Love To Give

Crossover House

Somebody stitched this pick together in a lab and threw the switch. These tracks have house DNA running through them. You can hear it. But they got loose, crossed over, and ended up on mainstream radio and MTV before the purists could stop them. A good house DJ could drop any of these without losing the room, but none of them really belong in a tidy category bin. Too pop for the deep heads, too groove-driven to dismiss. The villagers didn't know what to make of it. The dancefloor doesn't care. And these knockers are subwoofers.

Crossover House

01 Quando Quango - Love Tempo (Remix)

02 Inner City - Big Fun (Remix)

03 Adamski - Killer (extended version)

04 Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam (extended Version)

05 Eric Prydz - Call On Me

06 Swedish House Mafia featuring Pharrell Williams - One (Your Name)

07 New Order - Blue Monday (Original 1983 12 Single Version)

08 MARRS - Pump Up the Volume (Original 1987 UK 12 Single Version)

09 Black Box - Ride On Time (extended version)

10 Everything But The Girl - Missing (Todd Terry Remix)

11 Felix - Don't You Want Me (12'' Version)

12 Daft Punk - One More Time

Fun House

Put this one together because novelty and fun records are a no-brainer for me. Why is it that don't-play lists for DJs almost always have the same songs as must-play lists? Just depends on the person. I like to think that I'm the fun guy making the picks in the house and that's why it's no surprise that I love the don't-play as much as, if not better than the do-play. This is kinda both. The pick is one that proves the point. More than any of the others, this requires people telling other people what's fun to use and what's crap. So tell me some of yours. I'll look out.

Fun House

01 Mr Lee - Pump Up London

02 Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand

03 Modjo - Lady (Hear Me Tonight)

04 Junior Jack - Stupidisco

05 Ron Carroll & Superfunk - Lucky Star

06 Sole Patrol - Step On It

07 Shakedown - At Night

08 Armand van Helden featuring Mita - Entra Mi Casa

09 Pat & Mick - Use It Up & Wear It Out (12'' Mix)

10 Room 5 - Make Luv 2005 (Milk & Sugar Club Mix)

11 S-Express - Theme from S-Express

12 Spiller - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)

13 Redfoo - Juicy Wiggle (Ralphi's Housed Dub)

14 Phats & Small - Turn Around

15 Cassius - Feeling For You

House Foundation

Like Legos, none of this really matches and somehow it still locks together. Different sounds, different cities, different ideas of what this was supposed to be, but it all fits anyway. That’s this house pick, before anyone bothered sorting it out or deciding what went where. The pick holds as long as you leave it alone. Start pulling it apart and suddenly it’s everywhere, all over the floor, and I'm the idiot stepping on it barefoot. Reminds me of a song idea… I’ll have to make that next...

House Foundation

01 JM Silk - Music Is The Key (Original 12' House Key Mix)

02 Derrick May - Nude Photo

03 The Nightwriters - Let The Music Use You

04 Ralphi Rosario - You Used To Hold Me (Original Kenny's 12 Mix)

05 Mr. Lee - Get Busy

06 Cultural Vibe - Ma Foom Bey (Love Chant Version)

07 Raze - Jack The Groove (Hit Mix)

08 Juan Atkins - Night Drive (Thru-Babylon)

09 Jamie Principle - Baby Wants To Ride

10 Sterling Void - It's Alright (Original 12 House Mix)

11 Rhythim Is Rhythim - Strings Of Life

12 Farley Jackmaster Funk - Jack'n The House

13 Cybotron - Clear

Crazy House

Is this crazy? Unlike Sheldon, my mom did not have me tested, but she probably should have. Turns out what I call a good time other people call crazy, and this house is full of it. The funny stuff, the rude stuff, the stuff that has no business being this danceable. Still part of the house cleaning, still my pick, still crazy after all these tracks. Luckily, I don't have Billy Joel standing outside my glass house right now.

Crazy House

01 Green Velvet - Flash (Original Mix)

02 Who Da Funk featuring Terra Deva - Sting Me Red (Clever) (Main Mix)

03 DJ Assault - Ass-N-Titties

04 A Homeboy, A Hippie & A Funki Dredd - Total Confusion (Heavenly Mix)

05 Armand Van Helden - Witch Doktor

06 The Outhere Brothers - Boom Boom Boom (UK Radio Edit)

07 20 Fingers featuring Gillette - Short Dick Man (Red Jerry Mix)

08 Pood Bhud Pflug - Duelling Techno

09 Screamin' Rachael - Fun With Bad Boys

10 Mr. Oizo - Flat Beat

11 Pat & Mick - Let's All Chant (Something For The Kids Mix)

12 The JAMs aka The Timelords - Doctorin' The Tardis

13 DJ Sneak - Fix My Sink (Original Club Mix)

14 Detroit Grand Pubahs - Sandwiches (Original 12 inch version)

Acid House

This is a redo of my acid house pick that I posted up here in 2023. Also part of my house cleaning efforts. You can see the old and the new at that link. So lots of overlap, but different order and I will have part 2 coming soon (for many of these). You can see that there is some new threads running through the covers. All different, but a connection. I took out a couple of songs that were good and actually got played at acid shows, but weren't really acid tracks. If it didn't have a prominent Roland 303, I got rid of it. Actually, I moved it to a better slot.

Acid House

01 808 State - Flow Coma (Afx Remix)

02 Bang The Party - Release Your Body (Mayday Mix)

03 Bam Bam - Where's Your Child

04 Baby Ford - Oochy Koochy

05 Phuture - Acid Trax

06 Code 3 - Code Of Acid

07 Abe Duque featuring Blake Baxter - Acid

08 Pierre's Pfantasy Club - Dream Girl (Wet Dream)

09 Wink - Higher State Of Consciousness

10 Charles B - Lack of Love

11 Armando - Land Of Confusion (Confusion Mix)

12 Psychic TV - Tune In (Turn On Thee Acid House)

13 Da Posse - In The Heat Of The Night (Acid Mix)

14 Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid

Core House

I've been doing some spring house cleaning and now we're getting to the epicenter of the house movement. This kind of movement isn't an earthquake. Nope. And the movement is not one of poo. None of these are shitty. All of them are THE shit. Consider this pick the one that flushes out the best of the genre. No worms, just ear worms. Good to the core. 

Core House

01 ESP - It's You (Vocal)

02 Moloko - Sing It Back (Boris Dlugosch Remix)

03 Todd Terry Project - Weekend

04 Ron Hardy - Sensation (Original Mix)

05 Raze - Break For Love

06 Jesse Saunders - On & On (Original 12 vocal mix)

07 Armand Van Helden - You Don't Know Me

08 Daft Punk - Around The World

09 Frankie Knuckles - Move Your Body

10 The Nightcrawlers - Push The Feeling On (Mk Dub Revisited)

11 Ten City - Devotion (Extended Version)

Deep House

Around here, my senior boxers run the place, but I have the last say about when the subwoofers hit, even though they can't nap during that time (and they want to.) Ok, my wife has the last say, I just think I do. But when she's not around... The house here goes deep, soulful, chord-heavy, late-night stuff that never gets frantic and hits that bass just right. Heard that Larry was also called Mr. Fingers, I wonder why. You get both either way. Good pick from the spring house cleaning if the room needs to breathe without shutting down.

Deep House

01 Larry Heard - Missing You

02 Kerri Chandler - Bar A Thym

03 Chez Damier - Can You Feel It (M.K. Dub)

04 Dennis Ferrer - Hey Hey (Df's Attention Vocal Mix)

05 Masters At Work Feat. India - To Be In Love (Original Maw Mix)

06 Storm Queen - Look Right Through (Mk Remix)

07 Blaze - Lovelee Dae (Original)

08 Steffi - Sadness (Vinyl Version)

09 Kings Of Tomorrow - Finally (Original Extended Mix)

10 Mr. Fingers - Mystery Of Love

11 Axel Boman - Purple Drank (Original Mix)

Piano House

I took piano lessons as a kid. Let's just say I topped out at doe a deer and called it a career. Good thing somebody else kept going, because this house is built on keys, uplifting, hands-in-the-air stuff with just enough gospel in the DNA to make you feel something you weren't expecting. Good pick from the spring house cleaning if you need the room to move without thinking too hard about it. And I certainly am not. All I can think of is a big piano dropping on someone's head like a house in a Roadrunner cartoon.

Piano House

01 Black Box - Everybody Everybody (Ultimix 35)

02 Ultra Nate - Free (Mood II Swing Live Mix)

03 Aly-Us - Follow Me (Club Mix)

04 Hardrive - Deep Inside (Original)

05 Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)

06 Robin S - Show Me Love (Extended version)

07 Degrees Of Motion featuring Biti - Shine On (Original 12')

08 Alison Limerick - Where Love Lives (Come On In)(Classic Mix)

09 Ten City - That's The Way Love Is

10 CeCe Peniston - Finally (12' Choice Mix)

11 Inner City - Good Life

12 Joe Smooth - Promised Land

Classic Jack

I have been doing my House cleaning and dividing up all my tracks I previously had all under a house series and putting into more precise categories. This pick I call Classic Jack and I am not sure that is a good and proper category, but that's what I am calling it. It is classic Chicago House and it leans towards the Jack sound. Really, jacking was more of a specific dance style rather than music and this pick does have classic styles that ended up becoming Deep and the Acid direction it ended up going towards later. But this is the historical or classic start of it, So hopefully the title works for you as it did for me. Either way, they're all great tracks!

Classic Jack

01 DJ Pierre - Box Energy (Original 12' Club Mix)

02 Phuture - Acid Trax

03 Mr Fingers - Washing Machine

04 Farley Jackmaster Funk - Love Can't Turn Around

05 Cajmere - Percolator

06 The Todd Terry Project - Bango (To The Batmobile)

07 LNR - Work It To The Bone

08 Jaxine - Jack Me Free (Less Summer Mix)

09 Fingers Inc. - Can You Feel It

10 KC Flightt - Voices (Out Of Reach Wonka Remix)

11 Frankie Knuckles - Your Love

12 Marshall Jefferson - Move Your Body (The House Music Anthem)

13 Royal House - Can You Party

14 Steve Silk Hurley - Jack Your Body

15 Chip E - Time To Jack (Original 12' House Mix)

16 Adonis - No Way Back (Vocal)

Techno

For the last several days I've been cleaning up some old House picks and putting tracks where they actually belong. I'm trying to make a pick of songs that are one CD's length and have what I consider the most category of the category. Instead of mixing it all in to one big category that doesn't match at all. Today the category is Techno. You tell me if I did good. At least notice that the covers are all different, but related. 

Techno

01 Joey Beltram - Energy Flash

02 Ben Klock - Subzero

03 Underground Resistance - The Final Frontier

04 The Surgeon - La Real

05 Plastikman - Spastik

06 Laurent Garnier - Crispy Bacon (Original mix)

07 Regis - Blood Witness

08 Robert Hood - Minus

09 Model 500 - No Ufo's (Remix)

10 Jeff Mills - The Bells

11 Dave Clarke - Red 2

12 Marcel Dettmann - Corebox

13 X-101 - Sonic Destroyer

14 DVS1 - Black Russian

Rave

I was cleaning an older House pick because I realized I had crossed over into other territories (I keep wanting to say Terror-tories, but that's wrong) So I broke off to make a couple of other picks that were a little more true to their categories. Hopefully I got it less wrong this time with this Rave journey. I went a few in the day and I am not sure I remember much except for crazy old school lights and "feelings" of bass (and many body parts), but I'm pretty sure many of these tracks were played. I think. Can't be too sure. They do sound familiar.

Rave

01 Congress - 40 Miles Vocal Mix

02 2 Bad Mice - Bombscare

03 Urban Hype - Trip To Trumpton

04 The Klf - What Time Is Love (Original)

05 Awesome 3 - Don't Go

06 DJ Seduction - Hardcore Heaven

07 Hyper On Experience - Lords Of The Null-Lines (Foul Play Remix)

08 N-Joi - Anthem

09 Liquid - Sweet Harmony

10 Shamen - Ebeneezer Goode

11 Altern-8 - Activ-8 (Come With Me)

12 Baby D - Let Me Be Your Fantasy

13 Acen - Trip II The Moon (The Darkside)

14 Bizarre Inc. - Playing With Knives (Quadrant Mix)

15 The Prodigy - Everybody In The Place (Fairground Mix)

16 Shut Up And Dance - £10 To Get In

17 SL2 - On a Ragga Tip

18 Nookie - Shining In Da Darkness

Big Beat

I am re-arranging some things. I am definitely not getting rid of things around the House. My wife keeps dropping hints. Watching Hoarders. Telling me vinyl is hoarding, but so far I have not gotten the message. I still have thousands of LP's and CD's (even some 8-tracks and laser discs) and I can't even think of getting rid of any. They're neatly stored in temperature controlled room, even though I end up playing mostly mp3's like these. This is my attempt at making a brilliant Big Beat pick and I hope you like it. Technically there is at least one Breakbeat song which is related but close enough for me.

Big Beat

01 Groove Armada featuring Gram'ma Funk - I See You Baby (Fatboy Slim Remix)

02 The Crystal Method - Busy Child

03 Bentley Rhythm Ace - Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out

04 Apollo 440 - Stop The Rock

05 The Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats

06 Fatboy Slim - The Rockafeller Skank

07 Coldcut - Stop This Crazy Thing (Funkymix)

08 Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At

09 Freestylers - Push Up

10 Beastie Boys - Intergalactic

11 Moby - Go (Woodtick Mix)

12 Low Fidelity Allstars - Battleflag

13 The Wiseguys featuring Greg Nice - Start the Commotion

14 Propellerheads - Spybreak!

15 The Prodigy - Firestarter

House Pick 4

I last posted a volume of this House series a few years ago. I like the songs on each pick, but I wasn't (and still am not) happy with how they all turned out. I am definitely thinking of redoing the entire series. But if I do, I wanted to get this one at least posted so you could follow along with my thinking. So here is my fourth volume (it should have a hotel on the cover, but this is what I had back then and I am not fixing it.) and then I will clean house. I also have an Acid House volume, but I might redo that one as well. Not sure about it. Any way here's the last of this series before it gets redone.

House Pick 4

45 Fingers Inc. - Mysteries Of Love

46 Frankie Knuckles - Your Love

47 Jamie Principle - Baby Wants To Ride

48 ESP - It's You (Vocal)

49 Pat & Mick - Let's All Chant (Something For The Kids Mix)

50 Fast Eddie - Acid Thunder

51 Quando Quango - Love Tempo (Remix)

52 Phuture - Acid Trax

53 D.Mob - We Call It Acieed

54 Inner City - Good Life (Magic Juan Remix)

55 The JAMs aka The Timelords - Doctorin' The Tardis

56 Bizarre Inc. - Playing With Knives (Quadrant Mix)

57 Ron Hardy - Sensation (Original Mix)

58 DJ Pierre - Box Energy (Original 12' Club Mix)

59 Armand van Helden featuring Mita - Entra Mi Casa

fen

It's just a pick that's one off. That's supposed to be funny, but I will be the only one who gets it. Silly me, making stupid puns and jokes that only I will laugh at. Either way this mixtape of dance music. Call it House or EDM or Disco it is highly danceable. Couple of remixes, a couple of covers and some classics. All just over 120 bpm and less than 130 bpm. You could probably just put this on some evening and people would dance.

fen

01 Bob Musella - Baby Hot Stuff

02 Diplo featuring Sidepiece - On My Mind (Purple Disco Machine Remix)

03 House of Prayers - Disco Stepper (Original Mix)

04 Phats & Small - Turn Around (Hey What's Wrong With You) (Les Bisous Remix)

05 Alan Braxe & Fred Falke - Intro

06 Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You (Extended Version)

07 Justice - Waters Of Nazareth

08 Hardrive - Deep Inside (Original)

09 Underground Resistance - Timeline

10 Cybotron - Clear

11 Koen Groeneveld & Addy Van Der Zwan - We Go Back

12 Second Phase - Mentasm

13 Paperclip People - Throw

14 Plastikman - Spastik

15 Addy van der Zwan featuring The Michael Zager Band - Let's All Chant (Original Mix)

House Pick 3

Yet another pick in this Connection. House music. And we are at volume three. We will have several more coming, but I will take a break from the House music for awhile. You probably noticed that the cover has the little green house on it from the game you know. Nothing to do with the music on this compilation series, but I do have a mind that goes around in circles (probably at 120 bpm or so). If you have any comments about other great House songs, make sure you leave them as I have several more volumes to put into this format, might as well include some of your favorites if I don't already have them coming. Editing this now, in 2026 and I am redoing this whole series. I am cleaning house. Most of the same songs, but some different versions and divided up differently.

House Pick 3

29 KLF - What Time Is Love

30 Mr Fingers - Washing Machine

31 Alison Limerick - Where Love Lives

32 Orbital - Chime

33 Marshall Jefferson - Move Your Body (The House Music Anthem)

34 Screamin' Rachael - Fun With Bad Boys

35 Inner City - Good Life

36 Farley Jackmaster Funk - Love Can't Turn Around

37 Todd Terry Project - Weekend

38 Ellen Allien - The Sun Can't Compare (Long Version)

39 808 State - Pacific State

40 The House Master Boyz & The Rude Boy Of House - House Nation

41 Hardrive - Deep Inside (Original)

42 Model 500 - No Ufo's [Remix]

43 Rhythim Is Rhythim - Strings Of Life

44 Soulsearcher - Can't Get Enough (Vocal Club Mix)