My housemate got to this one before I did and he reckoned that some bits of it were so good that he had to switch it off, because it reminded him of when he went on all night benders and those days are well behind him. In the next breath, he informed me that there were some “shithouse bits” too. Intrigued by his considered opinions, I chucked this baby on to find out for myself what it was like.

Mixed by DJ Deep, City to City Vol 2 kicks off with intent, all pumping beats and repetitive female tootling that sets the “all night bender” feel said housemate described. Containing many rarities and tracks exclusive to the compilation, it revisits the influences that contributed to the development of the electronic dance sound, descending sonically from the realms of Robert Moog (the cool dude who launched the first synthesiser in 1967) and Roland’s first pre-set drum machines made available in the early 70s. Track two I found extraordinarily irritating – it features a muppet-voiced guy warbling about how he can’t make up his mind about what drink to order or whether to party or not. “Maybe I should drink a Budweiser… Or a Heineken… or a Guinness – I really can’t decide what to do,” he muses against solid beats. Just order a gin and tonic, dude, and shut the hell up!

Apart from that minor fiasco, there’s plenty of smooth house tunes on here, enough to satisfy the most discerning of palates. A lot of it is indeed moog-tastic, such as Mr Fingers’ Distant Planet, and a lot of standard fare to boot. So Let it Be House is one of those deeply cool anthem sort of tunes you could imagine deeply cool house DJs playing in homage to each other in deeply cool house clubs in Detroit. Fantasy, by Pleasure Control, is on the other hand a deeply dirty tune, all sleazy riffs and pleadings to “come with me” and “we’re almost there”. Crikey! Made me come over all flustered, it did. Another standout track is Bring U Up from Romanthony, a so-bad-in-places-it’s-cool disco-tipped number that demands to be danced to.

I reckon this is all right, not bad, not bad. But I’m hoping that bits of it were tongue in cheek otherwise I’d be a little concerned by the cheesy sirens and lyrics that pop up their head every now and again…