Search results: Get Ready!

Review: Since the early 90s, Ministry of Sound's yearly Annual compilations have done an excellent job in chronicling crossover dance hits, mainstream dancefloor killers, and popular underground workouts that make their way into the wider public consciousness. This year's edition (confusingly dated 2024, despite being released in late 2023) continues the successful franchise via two unmixed discs of radio-friendly dance favourites. It naturally ticks all of the usual boxes, contrasting breakout big room hits by underground heroes (Young Marco, Adelphi Music Factory, Ewan McVicar) and sizable tracks from established dance heavyweights (Chemical Brothers, Sub Focus and Dimensions, Rudimental, MK), with gigantic EDM works (Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding) and the odd out and out dance-pop hit (Kylie Minogue).

Review: Earlier this year, Defected offshoot Glitterbox Recordings delivered its first documentary, Where Love Lives, a loving tribute to the power of "dancefloor expression and liberation" which was filmed over 18 months in Paris, Ibiza, New York and London. This expansive three-disc set showcases cuts from the film's soundtrack, with Defected boss Simon Dunmore and Glitterbox A&R chief Seamus Haji acting as curators. The 52-track set is little less than a whirlwind tour of revivalist disco, nu-disco and modern boogie, with reworks of classic cuts sitting side by side with celebrated contemporary cuts and future classics - all rippling with a mixture of squelchy basslines, electrofunk synths, sweeping disco orchestration, crunchy cowbells, fluid piano solos and heady, life-affirming vocals. If you dig disco, you'll definitely dig this.

Review: Two years on from the release of her acclaimed mixtape-style full length debut, What We Draw, Kathy Yaeji Lee returns to XL Recordings with her debut studio album With a Hammer. Conceived (lyrically at least) as an examination of the singer-songwriter-producer's relationship with anger, the album sees Lee expand on her house/hyper-pop-influenced trademark sound via nods to trip-hop, rock, drum & bass and more, with the addition of - for the first time in her career - live instrumentation. Of course, amongst the musical tweaks and collaborations (Lorraine James, Nourished By Time, K Wata and Enganet all feature), there are still plenty of nods to her pop-leaning productions of old, not least bi-lingual vocals (she often sings in Korean as well as English) and a sense of sonic style that has always been one of the aural hallmarks of Lee's work.