Hot on the heels of the excellent triple-bill MYNC, Harry Choo Choo Romero and Jose Nunez release from a few weeks back, Cr2 Records this time drop an anonymously-mixed three-disc package to coincide with the dance industry’s upcoming Miami Winter Music Conference, this year celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Following in the footsteps of David Piccioni’s Azuli label, this represents Cr2’s third Miami-related compilation, and it pursues the same big-room, anthem-like vocal house of the Azuli releases. While the approach is unabashedly commercial, there’s an undercurrent of credibility that prevents it from tipping over into the blandness of some of the more mainstream mixes around.

Disc one is entitled Day, with lots of vocal-driven tracks, while the second disc is labelled – wait for it – Night, which explores more beat-driven territory. Some of the uplifting house highlights on the first disc include Asle’s summer anthem Why People Dance, the awesome Music Brings You Back from Vision Factory & Nina Hall, which rides along on layers of uplifting synths, piano stabs, and heavenly vocals, and the widescreen progressive house of Tobita from Jeremy Lecarour’s alter ego Norman Doray.

Taking its cues from Lil Louis’ classic French Kiss, Mitomi Tokoto’s epic That Ibiza Track seemingly incorporates the sound of a woman experiencing the best orgasm ever. The problem is, the whole thing is so over-the-top that you can’t help but laugh, with the intended eroticism somewhat lacking. Equally ridiculous is Chuckie & LMFAO’s irritating electro workout Let the Bass Kick in Miami Bitch. Fortunately, they’re the only weak moments in the mix. MYNC team up with Romero and Nunez for Boogers, a chugging slice of tribal-infused, chant-like deep house that takes us over to the dark side, while the mix slips into ultra sublime territory when Michelle Weeks lends her delicious vocals to Last Rhythm’s surging Forever.

The party continues over on disc two with a nice selection of beats and grooves. Paul Harris samples the Eurythmics on I Want You and turns in a fairly respectable electro-house track, and Paolo Mojo’s Alininha is a funky slice of percussive house that kicks off a sequence of groove-based tracks, which reaches a peak with the infectious tribal tones of Hauswerks’ Afrobeat. The tropical flavours of Asle’s Cirque de Bebe shine some light into the mix, although the closing trio of tracks from Paul Darey, Anil Chawla and Jewel Kid aren’t anything special, and provide a somewhat lacklustre and uneventful end to this disc, their beats and bleeps failing to excite.

The third disc is entitled Classics, which is a little misleading. They should really have added “…from the Cr2 label” to that. I’m not entirely convinced that the label has racked up enough big releases to warrant a disc of classics, and even if some of the tracks were popular, that doesn’t automatically grant them ‘classic’ status.

Still, there’s enough here to keep you entertained, with the pounding disco house of Andy Chatterley’s Access the Future, the twisted tribal darkness of Murk’s Some Lovin’, the euphoric vibes of Eric Prydz’s Woz Not Woz and the driving grooves of Hook N Sling’s remix of Cadence’s Lazy Love all creating some magical moments. Saying that, out of the three discs, it’s the least consistent, and doesn’t really flow as a good mix should, which shows that you can’t string together a few ‘classic’ tracks and expect the end result to sound good.

So, as far as straight-up house compilations go, this is one worth considering. With an abundance of big tunes, loads of shimmering melodies and several delicious vocal cuts, the first disc works best for me. The other two, in contrast, are a little more erratic in quality. Azuli seem to do this kind of thing with a bit more consistency, but there’s plenty on here to ensure you’ll be back for more.

Cr2 Live & Direct Miami 2010 is out now on Cr2 Records through Stomp.