CDVS: Carl Cox Vs. Alex Neri and Omid 16B

Interestingly, the Big Five record companies rarely showcase their biggest hits and best tracks on label-specific compilations, except for the Top 40-dominated Now That's What I Call Music, Totally Hits, etc., collections--which draw from all of the Big Five's imprints. Indie labels are different. A successful indie can boast a degree of consumer loyalty--like Sub Pop, Matador or Kill Rock Stars--because those imprints are decently reliable tastemakers. This is the same for indie/college rock as it is for dance music. Techno-oriented labels like Bedrock, Hooj Tunes and Good Looking Organisation specialize in a certain approach or subgenre, and chances are that however its newest release sounds, it won't fall far from the style tree that helped said imprints rise in prominence.

Two recent electronic music labels released aural summations of recent output, presented and shaped by internationally renowned DJs: U.K. techno titan Carl Cox's label, Intec, put forth Pure Intec, as Washington, D.C., progressive house duo Deep Dish offered the fourth mix compilation of its label Yoshitoshi (and sister division Sinichi) with In House We Trust 4.

Carl Cox, a 20-year vet, knows how to present and build a set, and Pure Intec is programmed appropriately. It's a seamless journey, disc two picking up where disc one leaves off, and hurtling down the playlist with such rhythmic vigor that no song seems to overstay its welcome. There's a curious variety among the 20 tracks here, from the tribal house of Valentino Kanzyani's "House Soul" to the buoyant tech funk of Tomaz and Filterheadz's popular "Sunshine. We can credit that to the "greatest hits" nature of the comp, which features five years' worth of label highlights.

In House We Trust 4 also draws freely from the back catalog, but it hardly embodies the spectrum of electronic music like Pure Intec. Each disc is programmed and mixed by a different jock--Italian producer/DJ Alex Neri (half of Planet Funk) taking the first and U.K. prog up-and-comer Omid 16B designing the second--but each one suffers a little bit from tunnel vision. The biggest criminal in this department is Omid 16B, who only seems to liven the prog house party up--perhaps a poor choice of words given the dark and dank feel of disc two--after the halfway mark.

Progressive heads may cherish In House, but Cox's more inclusive Pure is the real ticket here.--Mike Prevatt