Best of 2009 (Get the Party Started)

1. 

   1. v/a: Strange Breaks & Mr. Thing II: More Rock, Funk, Soul, Jazz & Soundtrack Breaks for Modern Living

   This set’s idea of “old school” takes the “old” part seriously. The “strange” part is really more “obscure”; the average person may recognize a few song titles, but rarely the art...read more

2. 

   2. Chromeo: DJ Kicks

   Chromeo’s volume in this series is so unhip in its selections that it’s perversely hip – in other words, it’s everything you’d expect from the synth duo: brightly colorful, energetically ...read more

3. 

   3. Horse Meat Disco: s/t

   Strut blew our minds with their Disco Not Disco and Disco Italia series; now the label delivers a stunner from a London collective known as Horse Meat Disco, who’ve taken lots of obscure and ...read more

4. 

   4. v/a: ZE 30: ZE Records Story 1979-2009

   Anyone unfamiliar with the awesome weirdness of ZE can safely start here. Timeless tracks – “Contort Yourself” in James White & the Blacks’ disco (album) version, Was (Not Was)’s “T...read more

5. 

   5. v/a: Daptone Gold

   This has popular album tracks, offering a good introduction to Brooklyn’s finest soul label, but it’s the outtakes and 45-only releases that are the real treat: Sharon Jones’s 45 “I’m Not...read more

6. 

   6. Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen: Inspiration Information 4

   A customer who walked in in the middle of the track “Path to Wisdom” from this album asked if it was Fela Kuti. No, but Allen was Fela’s drummer, and certainly at times this CD is closer to t...read more

7. 

   7. v/a: Can You Dig It? The Music and Politics of Black Action Films 1968-75

   Musically this is well up to the high standards Soul Jazz has long maintained in its compilations, albeit including more mainstream material than usual (I suppose blaxploitation soundtracks are nat...read more

8. 

   8. LCD Soundsystem: 45:33 Remixes

   A foolproof collection of remixes from LCD Soundsystem’s superb 45:33 LP from a few years back delivers on all counts. Featuring the likes of Brooklyn’s Runaway and Prins Thomas, the al...read more

9. 

   9. Breakestra: Dusk Till Dawn

   This Los Angeles group started out as a “hip-hop orchestra,” a funk band dedicated to the kinds of grooves that get sampled by hip-hoppers. Here the band’s hip-hop origins resurface on “...read more

10. 

    10. Edan: Echo Party

    Not exactly hot on the heels of Edan’s last mixtape, 2004’s Sound of the Funky Drummer, the new Echo Party is nevertheless a half-hour time machine back to that mid-’00s period when r...read more

Tags: compilation , dance , disco , dj , electronica , funk , hip-hop , jazz , mixtape , party , soul , soundtrack