Glasgow’s Soma Records (often cheekily styled as Soma Quality Recordings) is one of the most respected and prolific underground dance music labels in the world, and this year marks their 20th anniversary. The imprint lives up to its formal moniker, always bringing quality with a distinctive brand of highly-evolved techno, electronic funk and house. Many sought-after releases over the years have issued from the likes of Funk D’Void, Maas, Percy X, Russ Gabriel, Silicone Soul and label co-founders Slam among many others. Soma also has the distinction of having unleashed Daft Punk on the world.

The unromantically titled Soma Compilation 2011 is not, alas, a 20th-anniversary retrospective. (Apparently the reminiscing will take place starting later this year; see this thread in the forums.) What we have here is a workmanlike collection of recent stuff, giving us a survey of the current state of the label. As such, it’s alright. Like many other ‘housecleaning’ comps it’s got some killer and a good deal of filler. It’s unlikely to change anyone’s life or win hearts over to the cause of underground dance music – but it’s agreeable enough and chosen with flawless good taste.

Soma’s way of doing things hasn’t changed much since the early days. Each track features impeccable production – these Glaswegians have a remarkably consistent knack for selecting music from a variety of producers that fits into their venerated house sound. That sound is generally up-tempo, spare (without being ‘minimal’), as dark as Scotland in winter, and acid-infused. It’s a mature sound, but frequently funky, often manifesting a melodic Detroit influence – and of course, deeply indebted to the old school. Long-time Soma contributor Funk D’Void epitomises this format, and he unspools two playfully freaky cuts here – Veins and A Wasp in a Wig – with help from co-producer Sian.

You could categorise this music with the drum sounds alone. Take any track on Soma Compilation 2011 and you’ll hear a clinic in drum programming. These producers know it’s not enough to simply have driving percussion and a couple of breakdowns with snare-rolls, as with so much of the muddled, weak, preset stuff that calls itself ‘progressive’. This is where all the digging in the crates comes in: as with the classics, here it’s all about funky dynamics, with unpredictable kick-drum-drops rubbing against the bassline, mids that incorporate faint Latin or tribal percussion, shifting patterns of layered crystalline high-hats played like an instrument unto themselves.

It’s a sound meant to move bodies in subtle ways. Even dark, repetitive techno tracks like Gary Beck’s Enough Talk and Harvey McKay’s After Hours are percussively complex and funked-up. The outstanding Sunday Morning in the Church of Bass by Let’s Go Outside, one of the best tracks on the comp, incorporates housey handclaps and cowbells, achieving an unusual new-old-school feel.

There aren’t enough highlights like that one. If I have a complaint about Soma it’s that sometimes its house style is too tasteful – as classy and reserved as the proverbial glass of Merlot. Some of these cuts simply don’t have enough spark, enough j’nai se quoi. Slam’s remix of The Black Dog’s CCTV Nation illustrates this quandary. It starts out with nice, hard, smart percussion and has a promising build-up with some vaguely Detroit-ish strings. But then nothing else happens: it doesn’t go anywhere else. Build-up tracks are necessary for any DJ mix, but at what point is that a diss?

I hate to say it but sometimes the allegiance to the Detroit sound is too by-the-numbers. The tracks all sound like something Octave One or Jeff Mills would do, but at the same time… they kind of don’t. They don’t take enough chances. There needs to be something weird, soulful, aggro, melodic, low-fi, uncalled-for or otherwise unexpected happening in the mix to make them memorable.

On a practical level, this is an album made up of tracks programmed for big systems in dark clubs – it won’t shine as a long player at home. Savvy DJs will comb through this stuff, deconstructing the filler into floor-fillers for smoking late-night underground sessions, and the best of these tunes will come into their own. Punters curious about the straight dope on Soma should hold out for those upcoming retrospectives.

Soma Compilation 2011 is out now on Soma through Elan.