The first I heard of this CD it was described to me as “minimal disco”, and while this is not entirely accurate I can’t blame my friend for trying to pigeonhole the sound of this remarkable mix collection in that fashion.

I think the disco part emerges not from a selection of tracks from that genre (here Cymande’s For Baby Oh is probably the closest to you’ll find to “real” disco) but from a soulful, funky vibe that screams against the stark, mechanistic and usually lifeless tropes of modern minimal house. Even when it is minimal pioneer Richie Hawtin on the remix (his obscure version of 90s French dance pioneers La Funk Mob now outed as the source of a recent Âme banger) the result is anything but the cold, proggified laptop music his label M_nus has championed lately.

Partners on one of Germany’s best house imprints Innervisions, compilers Henrik Schwarz, Âme and Dixon have created a warm, atmospheric and tantalising melange of sounds from across half a decade of music. That shouldn’t be surprising: despite the runaway success of Rej, these artists have refused to be slaves to fashion as minimal has taken over the techno and house scenes. Rather, they’ve forged a sound that manages to retain an organic element when computerisation is all the rage. So when they “do minimal” it’s not what you’d expect or what you’re used to.

Starting with the jazzified electronica of Steve Reich and Pat Metheny, they are not scared to move rapidly between disparate genres while never loosening thematic or stylistic threads that transcend those categories. It’s seemingly all here: analogue house, downtempo balearica, clattering post-punk percussion, Detroit-y melodic deepness, German electronica, a smattering of acid, the obligatory John Carpenter soundtrack excerpt (interestingly from Escape From New York this time) and dissonant, stripped, dubby techno.

While there are dancefloor moments here, the intent is not to get you up and dancing. Even when Robert Hood’s seminal Minus brings us to some sort of rhythmic crescendo, the effect is restrained, toying with cognitions and affects rather than slaying them with bombast or obvious frissons. Here’s a mix that’s all brilliant tunes and all brilliant programming, yet the interplay of the two creates something distinctly more. Seriously great stuff.

The full release comes with a second, unmixed disc, which includes quite a few alternate tracks.