Roger Sanchez has always featured on my dance music radar, ever since the day I first heard Another Chance. Anyone that can take a sample of soft rock legends Toto, and turn it into an outstanding dance track gets my respect. I’ve got every one of the Release Yourself mixes, but the last few have seen Sanchez go distinctly off the boil. The first few still get regular plays, but the later ones languish in the “why did I bother buying this?” section of my CD collection, alongside the third Daft Punk album. Having also witnessed a few lacklustre sets from Sanchez in recent years, it seemed his glory days were long gone.

Fortunately, the music on offer here makes the cover shot (almost) forgivable. Sanchez delves into various corners of the house universe, picking out some of the finest tracks of the moment to come up with two glorious mixes. The S-Man has laid down something special with this. Both discs are a pleasure to listen to, reflecting Sanchez’s ability to stir emotion, warmth, power, vibrancy and melody into one big delicious dance music soup.

As always, the discs are split into Pre-Party and Party, the former delicately luring you in and laying the foundations for the higher intensity of the latter. There are some sublime deep house moments early on in the Pre-Party mix, with Todd Terry providing his exquisitely sparse Running Faster, which flows into the dark and seductive textures of Desy, Katerina & Heikki L’s kooky vocal cut Dreamland. The layered synths and fractured piano lines of Manoo & Francois A’s Souvenir infuse warmth and feeling into the mix, and then Sanchez gradually increases the pace with some more rhythmic, tribal-esque tech-house tracks from Oscar P, Sabb and The Cube Boys.

The epic builds and vocals in Ralph Laurentius & Kal El’s Her Name Is represent a slight increase in fervour, although Sanchez doesn’t let things get out of hand, pulling the mix back with Compuphonic’s percussive electro workout Analog Sparkles. Lush melodies and vocals then come back into play with DJ Joe K’s Free the Night, introducing the restrained euphoria that characterises the closing section, which is enhanced with the sleazy, widescreen techno landscape created by the fantastic Splinter from Jamie Matrix. The fusing of Fehrplay’s surging, synth-driven Meow with an a cappella from Sanchez’s own Lost brings the mix to a close in a gorgeously epic fashion, and represents a stroke of sheer genius from Sanchez.

As you’d expect, the Party disc kicks off pretty much instantly, with Tim Berg’s Bromance getting a thorough big-room, peak-time overhaul courtesy of Avicii, while the sultry female vocals of Dion Mavath’s Wait So Long lend the mix a soulful intensity. The glitchy electro and annoying vocal refrains of both Bobby Burns & Afrojack’s Ghettoblaster and Mixin Marc & Lex Da Funk’s Rule the Generation strip the mix of its initial momentum, and see Sanchez drop the ball for a few minutes. Fortunately, the appearance of DJ Disciple’s brazenly commercial vocal house track World Wide Party re-ignites the mix, as does Sanchez’s own 2Gether, which manages to incorporate a vocal sample from The B-52s’ Love Shack without sounding ridiculous and annoying.

The latter half of the second mix explores slightly darker territory, with a sound infused with some delicious tribal vibes. Afrojack puts in another appearance, this time with Esther, which is remixed into a pounding beast of a track, while Suzanne Palmer turns in a dramatic interpretation of the Pete Heller classic Big Love that reflects Sanchez’s love of a great anthem. Things then get all percussive and Brazilian-carnival-sounding with Gianluca Motta’s Hands Up, and a couple of epic, uplifting, beat-heavy vocal cuts from Danny Dove and Dim Chris round the mix off with a vibe of peak-time madness and euphoria.

After missing the mark with the past few installments, Sanchez is back on track and has redeemed himself with this superb collection, which ebbs and flows with all the sophistication and brilliance you’d expect from a DJ of Sanchez’s stature. If you’re a lover of quality house music, then make an effort to get hold of this. You’ll certainly be giving it repeated spins, especially the first disc. Just don’t look at the cover too often, as it might damage your eyes with its searing ridiculousness.

Release Yourself 09 is out now on Stealth Records.