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Respected crate digger and owner of the ‘Safe Trip’ label, Young Marco, compiled some of the most unique Italo-House records which emerged in the late 1980s into a highly collectable double LP. Diverting away from the more industrial and darker side of house and techno that was establishing itself within the UK and central Europe, the natively Italian feel is notorious for its bubbly and euphoric piano leads. This album saw Young Marco magnificently craft an eclectic mix of definitive anthems and rarer treasures from within the Mediterranean house scene. This maginificent compilation comes in two volumes - dont forget part two aswell!

‘Outro Tempo’ reflects the modern cultural shift and landscape of Brazil. The sounds that make up this compilation are bursting with minimalist and jazz-leaning elements of electronic production that have been traditionally avoided. This LP by John Gomez is an essential collection of records that resemble the modern identity of Brazilian arts and culture. A must for any fans of Latin gems!

DJ Harvey’s rare disco filled ‘The Sound Of Mercury Rising’ compilation certainly got a lot of people excited in 2017... and rightly so! We held a very special in-store session with Harvey to celebrate the launch of the compilation in the shop and limited edition silkscreen copies were up for grabs. It was one hell of an evening!

The legendary Prescription Records defined the 1990s deep house sound. Now captured in this monumental 6LP anthology boxset! Holds numerous classics that have been out of press for years + previously unreleased tracks. Chez Damier and Ron Trent started the label in 1993, released some two-dozen singles in a four-year span, many of which attained legendary status on the underground scene.

Copenhagen’s Music For Dreams comes with yet another strong release - a double album of personal favourites compiled by Jan Schulte. During the present resurgence of tribal influences in underground dance music, his recordings under the alias Wolf Müller and Bufiman have stood out as the most interesting, funky and mindblowing within this niche. With the compilation Tropical Drums Of Deutschland" for Music For Dreams, Jan Schulte re-traces this path to its origins. With the inclusion of two exclusive edits he also engages and re-examines these tracks and incorporates his own musical expression into the mix.

An amazing compilation highlighting a previously unheard legacy of a country that has been torn apart by war. In 1988, on the eve of a two decade civil war, Somalia's authoritarian ruler Siad Barre launched punishing air strikes on the north of the country, known today as Somaliland, in response to agitations for independence. The bombing leveled the entire city. Barre targeted Radio Hargeisa to prevent any kind of central communication system that could organize a resistance. With the attack imminent, a few brave radio operators and dedicated vanguards of Somali culture knew the archives, containing over half a century of Somali music had to be preserved. Thousands upon thousands of cassette tapes and master reels were quickly removed from the soon-to-be targeted buildings. They were dispersed to neighboring countries like Djibouti and Ethiopia, and buried deep under the ground to withstand even the most powerful airstrikes. These audio artifacts were excavated and recalled from their foreign shelters only very recently. This compilation seeks to revive the rightful image, history, and identity of the Somali people, detached from war, violence, piracy, and the specter of a persistent threat. These 15 tracks should serve as a necessary starting point.

Sneaking in at the last delivery week of the year is this amazing collection of Disco Music released in the 80s (1980-84) on the Nigerian label Duomo Music Ltd and reissued here for the first time. The late 70s, the thrust of mainstream music had changed from the indigenous highlife to a more international funky disco sound. Keyboards and drum machines were the key components of the new sound. It was in this effervescent climate that Duomo Sounds Ltd was established by Mr Humphrey Aniakor, a business man with no prior investment in the industry. It was simply the in-thing for a young monied businessman. The name suggested European sophistication, modernity and a little abstraction. D U O M O Sounds, the kids loved it.

From synth-laden Zambian reggae and sumptuous orchestral Afro-soul, to humid Trinidadian boogie and horizontal Italian jazz-funk, Jeremy Spellacey offered us a whirlwind trip through the most kaleidoscopic and exotic parts of his epic record collection on this compilation! As you’d expect from a man who has traveled the world hunting down records, the majority of the 15 tracks will be unknown to all but a handful of similarly minded crate diggers. In fact, some are so obscure that you’ll struggle to find any mention of them at all online. This could be your only chance to own the boogie-era reggae-disco brilliance of Le Banda De Martin’s “Mi Dueno” and the tear-jerking Afro-soul shuffle of Kosmik 3’s “I’m Gonna Pack” (here featured in exclusive Jeremy Spellacey re-edit form).

When Perlon started releasing their “SuPERLONgevity” compilation series in 1999, it was not evident that the name, which had initially been chosen just for pun, would become a self-fulfilling prophecy some twenty years later. Die-hard Perlon fans are sure to agree!

Optimo’s JD Twitch & Fergus Clark provided us with this awesome ambient 2xLP compilation of Fourth World music. This compilation was on heavy rotation during our opening hours this year!

Spanning 41 tracks, 'Tribal Rites' is a musical autobiography of sorts from one of dance music's most dedicated historians, Bill Brewster. Available in two parts on vinyl, the compilation takes us on a personal journey through Bill's 36 year long involvement in the music industry. Split into three sections, the compilation begins in the post-punk period, and through tracks such as explores the influence of dub on bands of the time such as Orang Utan, General Strike and The Raincoats. The second section takes us into that mish-mash of sounds and styles best described as 'Balearic' where the likes of Bobby Gentry and Final Edition can happily co-exist and a country and western cover of Hall & Oates 'I Can't Go For That' seems like the most obvious thing in the world. The final section then concentrates exclusively on house music, though again showcasing just what a broad church House is, able to accommodate both the spiritual yearnings of Mother Tongue's 'Message of Love' and the precision tooled productions of Basic Channel's Maurizio.

FABRICLIVE 94 is Midland’s ode to the many facets of club culture, in part sequenced in Corsica Studios and taking in the many fragments of the industry that he has called home for half his life. His idea was to do a club mix – but one that represented a night out and the emotions you experience within it. The mix flows straight in as if you have walked in to club during someone's set – there’s no defined start or end point. There are times when you feel disorientated and overwhelmed and then the moments of total clarity and euphoria. The sound ebbs and flows but is checked by tracks like Roman Flugel’s ‘Warm and Dewey’, LFO's ‘Ultra Schall’ and the Daphni track ‘Vulture’ which bring the listener back to a point of acquaintance. The sequencing concludes at the end of the night when goodbye to friends are said and you’re sitting in the sun waiting for the tube with the remnants of the night echoing around in your head like fragmented memories.

In keeping with previous Selectors compilations, Joy Orbison's contribution to the series is not a mix CD, but a collection of hand-picked tracks from his own archives. Touching on everything from shuffling garage and loopy techno to booming jungle and a number of distinctly British hybrids, it's a diverse collection to be sure

For the fourth instalment in Tresor's 'Kern' mix series, DJ Stingray (Urban Tribe/Drexciya) presents a stunning mix CD and extended vinyl of techno and electro. Wading through a specialised cross-section of Detroit's own dance-floor contagions, the mix can be summed up in just one word: hectic.

'Five Years Of Loving Notes' truly showed off Antinote's artists and ethos, with label veterans, such as Tolouse Low Trax, and newcomers featuring equally. This 14 tracker is definitely worth checking out!

Take the most legendary funk band of all time and give some of Detroit’s most infamous living producers free reign to interpret and remix the tracks as they wish. This release was destined for great things from the very get go!

Young Marco had some big boots to fill, following on from MCDE's epic 1st edition of Dekmantel's 'Selectors' series... but he sure lived up to the challenge! This compilation is absolutely packed with jams from start to finish.

We've included only one box set here - but this is a huge project with two box sets or a quadruple Cd to choose from. In May 1976 a record was released that would have an unforeseen and lasting impact on the music industry “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure was an early release on the New York independent label Salsoul Records and the first twelve inch out there - the exotic format was previously only available to DJs as promotional items or bought under the counter at certain record stores. Not only that though, the extended version was created by Walter Gibbons, a DJ at New York’s Galaxy 21 who’d built his reputation making exclusive versions of tracks to play in his sets. In 1976 it was unheard of for a DJ to set foot in a recording studio, being seen as little more than living jukeboxes by the serious music industry. Recording studios were strictly the domain of recording artists and producers so Walter found himself in a unique position, gaining access to a world no DJ had been granted before. Or so we thought... The Men In The Glass Booth tells the full story. Featuring ground breaking re-edits and remixes by some of the Disco era's most influential DJs including Walter Gibbons, Bobby DJ Guttadaro, Tom Savarese, Jellybean Benitez, Tee Scott and John Luongo,le CD to choose from. A lavish package from BBE that deserves its place in the Compilations of the year.

The 12 tracks selected for Pantsula! come from a very unique, very different time and place. They represent the birth of electronic dance music in South Africa, through the songs of one particular independent label from the time: Music Team. The sound represents the culmination of the bubblegum era, when South Africa’s disco artists outgrew their American influences and forged an increasingly electronic and ‘local’ pop sound.

18 years on from the release of the very first ‘Disco Spectrum’ LP, Joey Negro and Sean P revisit the project, selecting the finest cuts from this much-loved album series. Three volumes of Disco Spectrum were released on BBE between 1999 and 2002, heralding a disco revival that, almost two decades later, just keeps gaining momentum.