The absence of any DJ names on the front cover of this release reflects the power of the Pacha brand. People will buy this, regardless of whether it is mixed by Danny Tenaglia or a couple of monkeys. It is actually mixed by three separate DJs, but you don’t find out until you look inside the cover.

Disc one sees Richard Grey pursuing a straight up, peak time house vibe, with lots of familiar faces and sounds keeping things ever so safe and inoffensive. The ubiquitous When Love Takes Over is first out of the gate, but in the form of a bizarre electro mix that strips the original of all its camp quality. Several rapid fire body blows then come in the form of re-works, re-makes or just bad cover versions of One More Time, Needin’ U, I Luv U Baby and Shake It. For a second there, I thought I’d accidentally taken a trip with Marty McFly. I’m all for celebrating dance music’s past glories, but a mix claiming to represent 2009 should have its feet planted firmly in 2009. Reflekt’s Need to Feel Loved is a bit of a gem, rolling along on some trance-like textures, but then the mix descends into some very pedestrian electro, only to be rescued with the Freemasons and Sophie Ellis-Bextor collaboration Heartbreak, but again, the mix on here is something of a lesser entity compared to the original.

Pacha resident and Australia’s very own Sarah Main ploughs an edgier, tech-house field on the second disc, and this is by far the best of the three in terms of consistency and flow (although with Main at the helm, you wouldn’t expect anything less). Cuts from Basement Jaxx, Fatboy Slim, Sander Kleinenberg and Ladyhawke infuse the mix with a searing quality. The pulsing, shimmering disco of What U Need from Priors is just delicious, while The Shapeshifters turn in a funky little house mix of Empire of the Sun’s We Are the People. Main’s own The Sound Around is a definite highlight, a surging slice of twisted electro that lifts the mix to another level. Proceedings draw to a close with the uplifting synth washes of I Don’t Know Why from the missing-in-action Moony.

The third disc is mixed by JP Candela, a quick glance at the track-listing showing an eclectic fusion of sounds, with tracks from Faithless and 4 Strings nestling alongside Pitbull, Sebastian Ingrosso and Pryda, although this eclecticism is all filtered through the lens of electro. So we get some electro-rap, which segues into some electro house, which segues into some electro-trance, which segues… so you get the idea. The glowing, 80s-inspired textures of Ethan’s In My Heart prove somewhat irresistible, but the clumsy re-work of Paul van Dyk’s For An Angel is pure sacrilege. If you read my Sensation review, you’ll know I have a soft spot for Gui Boratto’s No Turning Back, and so it’s great to see it as the closing track on here, but then disappointing to hear it edited down to only two minutes.

There are some nice moments spread over the three discs, and this release is certainly worth checking out if the Pacha ethic of big, friendly, mainstream house gets you excited. It’s tempting to say that Sarah Main’s disc is worth the price of admission alone, but for most listeners, one out of three probably doesn’t represent the best strike rate. Maybe next time, the crew behind this could get Main to mix the whole package.