What is with the dance scene’s Miami fixation? The one thing I could gather (through watching Burn Notice) is that it’s full of babes and is generally a big party. 24/7. Oh, ok… Now I get it. Not to mention they host the annual Winter Music Conference, which sees some of dance music’s biggest names descend on the city. Big name label Azuli brings us their latest Miami compilation of vocal house, minimal, electro and progressive tunes. Two CDs of what, I suspect, you’d hear out on a night in Miami.

Disc one features the likes of Vandalism, Alex Kenji and Joris K, with remixes from James Talk, Mowgli and ATFC, just to name a few. I’ll call this disc the more thumping house one of the two. This disc is beginning of the night, kicking off with Vandalism’s dancefloor groover and classy sounding ‘Hablando’. Over the course of the mix some killer tunes drop, D.O.N.S’ rerub of Indo’s ‘R U Sleeping’ helps take us through with some thick kicks and a plucky electro bassline, coupled with some echoed female vocals. Whilst little big man and Deadmau5 friend, Chris Lake, features later in the disc with his usual vocalled electro jumper.

Disc two puts the breaks on a little bit, delivering a much more minimal side to the club scene. Kicking things off with the bells, whistles and trademark synths of Deadmau5’s ‘Slip’, it quickly moved through lush and atmospheric tracks, with Funkagenda coupled with Exacta working some wicked energy on the redux of their track ‘Mad Money’. Dean Coleman’s vocal mix of Steven Lee & Gaby Dershin’s ‘Me, You & Space’ takes home the trophy for the strongest track on the whole compilation. This one drops some anthemic female vocals, and it’s packed with a dark sounding and energetic vibe. When we get to the build and the tracks drops, coupled with a great little electro lead, it’s a satisfying listen.

Overall the compilation feels like it lacks consistency. Disc one’s thumping progressive nature gets stale and never really freshens up, although disc two keeps the atmospherics well rounded and even surpasses some of the energy on the first mix. It’s fair to say that Azuli know how to pick and choose their tracklistings, but they have a hit (disc two) and a miss (disc one) this time around.