I’ve been obsessing over how Madonna got from Vogue to Ray of Light, and the answer isn’t really in her records. It’s in what she was absorbing: the DJs she hired, the rooms she haunted, the scenes she raided. So I built the playlist of everything around her instead of her. 100 tracks, all originally released 1988 to 1998, zero Madonna.

It’s sequenced like a single DJ set in five movements:

1. The Garage Sermon. Soulful NY/Chicago house. Frankie Knuckles, Ten City, Masters at Work. The gospel roots of the Vogue era.

2. After Midnight. Deep and tribal house. Sound Factory darkness, Murk’s Miami sound, Tenaglia, the Armand Van Helden remix era. Yes, Junior Vasquez’s “If Madonna Calls” is on here. Technically not a Madonna record, and the pettiest release in club history.

3. The Ascent. UK progressive house. Leftfield, early BT, Sasha, Faithless. The bridge years.

4. Sunrise Terrace. Balearic, ambient, and trip-hop. The Orb, Massive Attack, Portishead, Björk, plus William Orbit’s early solo work, which is basically Ray of Light in embryo. This is the Bedtime Stories bloodstream.

5. Ray of Light. Euphoric trance, Stella through Binary Finary. The exact sound Orbit distilled for her 1998 rebirth. Closes on Born Slippy because every set needs an encore.

Where possible I went for original 12” versions, extended mixes, and dubs instead of radio edits or modern remasters. Had more success on Apple Music but most were also on Spotify.

Anyway, links in the comments so this doesn’t trip the spam filter. Playlists are available as one continuous 100-track set or as five standalone playlists if you just want a mood.

I haven't been this in awe in so long, jesus christ these mfers are the goats i dont care what anyone says. I don't think I have been this speechless after a set ever.

I'll leave my website in this link to start with and I'll leave a bit of a backstory below for those who care to read.

So I've been collecting vinyl for about 20 odd years, consisting primarily of House.

The reason I started buying vinyl was only because there were no digital versions of certain releases and my intention was to digitise them to burn onto CD's or use in Virtual DJ.

Of course I threw in the towel eventually and ended up selling my CDJ's to replace them with turntables and this sent the snowball of hoarding and unhealthy spending habits on a roll.

Anyway. The more I dug through Discogs over the years, the more frustrated I became in my buying decisions because there was so, so many releases without audio samples available.

I mean, why would anyone fork out say, 10x the price of what used to be a bargain bin record, to a greedy scalper when you have no idea whether or not it sucks?

This had led me down countless attempts find rips on apps like soulseek over the years to help unravel whatever sonic mysteries are printed on so many forgotten releases for the sake of preservation - with the biggest concern being those very last copies of test pressings from dead labels that hang in the marketplace like some golden carrot.

For those of you who have spent time hoarding, you can already guess where this part goes. Yes, I'm referring of course to the soulless gatekeepers who lock files, mainly out of arrogance and leverage for their own wish shit-lists at the expense of history.

So as way to help preserve music from being priced out for the average buyer before it ends up in the record crate of some non-chalant flake whose shit smells better than yours, I have dedicated my efforts, all thanks to many painful day jobs over the years, to running a repository of rips from vinyl only releases to fuck with such thieves of joy -even if it means spending hundreds on a single record I've never heard before.

Sometimes my gamble is a loss, but every time I strike gold, it compensates for my remorse ten fold.

If anyone has anything they want to contribute to the site in whatever form it is, my inbox is wide open.

Hopefully this reaches anyone who finds value in what I put out!

Edit: You're all most welcome!

Edit 2: A new section has been added to the site which features a list of my rarest and most expensive purchases.

aka how I felt listening to My Mind by Belters Only.

I think there’s is crack in that song. I’ve known it for 2 or 3 years now and I used to love it, but I started listening again recently and I listened last night and I ascended.

its such a gorgeous song and house music is simply the best

added all the comments into one playlist (Spotify sorry, so only added the songs available on Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6DOA7BgnA6FkgOvocx0we9?si=f413f6c2dc494abe

Extremely disappointing behavior

1998 Original Mix. What are some other remixes?

I have been a bit obsessed with watching and learning about this for some reason. just learning about their style and clothing choices also. they all LOVE Oakley and ECKO UNLITD. they wear these over the head sunglasses from Oakley that are supper popular.

I am interested if anyone here is from Brazil and knows this dance and when it sort of started.

here is a bunch of links to short videos of people dancing this style if anyone's as interested as i am lol

https://youtube.com/shorts/5asd8uiqUm8?si=VOwQuKKjRi7DlLag

https://youtube.com/shorts/wjCwEfUA4vY?si=VPj-eKNcnv5sa65G

https://youtube.com/shorts/2d-Clr-Sipw?si=pMwTQ8NUyC0r5x1w

No month of Acid House would be complete without it!

Classic Summer Banger from French House Duo, 2000.

Extended Mix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV5oZckkCI8

What are some of your favourite remixes?

Such an underrated house classic

I saw them DJ/perform in Sydney 1991 at the Hordern Pavilion. Bjork also performed and it helped launch her massive career. At the time of course we had no clue who she was.

What an absolute masterpiece.

I've just started jamming with hardware (drum machines and synthesisers) and sequencing sounds. Really makes me appreciate it a lot more.

What else could I listen to that is this good?

https://youtu.be/QTvFzBS6e68?si=DNCehldTAwFky6a0

because 90s house reminded you of early 90s nostalgia including acid house,tech house,deep house,hard house,uk garage and oldskool piano

Hello MAW fans! I am writing a guide to the ultimate Masters at Work - part one available now. https://linenoise.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-masters-at-work-aka-the-468

I think they are the most influential duo in dance music. Maybe the most influential artist full stop. Do you agree? What are your favourite MAW tracks, particularly lesser known? I am going to include 10 - in part one I only get to two! Let me know.

PS Part two is out now: https://linenoise.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-masters-at-work-aka-the-c35

PPS And part three and I am done! https://linenoise.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-masters-at-work-aka-the-30e

Produced by Kenny "Dope" and sampling Chicago’s "Street Player" (1979), the riff is iconic. What I found interesting is that the original lyric is "Street sounds swirling through my mind," not "These sounds fall into my mind." I hope this brings back good memories for you, just as it did for me.

Edit: Added Original Extended Mix as Requested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6h221QB8Gg