The Chemical Brothers We Are The Night

The act with the first arena-sized sound in the electronica movement, the Chemical Brothers united such varying influences as Public Enemy, Cabaret Voltaire, and My Bloody Valentine to create a dance-rock-rap fusion which rivaled the best old-school DJs on their own terms – keeping a crowd of people on the floor by working through any number of groove-oriented styles featuring unmissable samples, from familiar guitar riffs to vocal tags to various sound effects. And when the duo (Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons) decided to supplement their DJ careers by turning their bedrooms into recording studios, they pioneered a style of music (later termed big beat) remarkable for its lack of energy loss from the dancefloor to the radio. Chemical Brothers albums were less collections of songs and more hour-long journeys, chock-full of deep bomb-studded beats, percussive breakdowns, and effects borrowed from a host of sources. All in all, the duo proved one of the few exceptions to the rule that intelligent dance music could never be bombastic or truly satisfying to the seasoned rock fan; it's hardly surprising that they were one of the few dance acts to enjoy simultaneous success in the British/American mainstream and in critical quarters.

A compilation boasting 101 songs and proclaiming them all as ''classics'' is always leaving itself open to ridicule, and it's human nature to be sceptical, but I have to say that this bumper five CD box from EMI in 2009 really is fantastic set. What's rare for a compilation offering so many tracks is just how very few of them are filler. In fact, I don't think that there are any, their all 'indie'' more or less, and the majority of them were big hits.

A big collection of the best dance hits of the 90th, the most soulful and pleasant to the ear. DJ Bobo, Backstreet Boys, Cher, Robbie Williams, Tarkan, Janet Jackson, Falco, Modern Talking, Ace Of Base and more…