Replay: Sasha & Digweed, Renaissance: The Mix Collection

Most mix CDs tend to be a reflection of the DJs who program them, or the record label that's trying to appeal to the fair-weather clubber with a tracklist full of cash-cow dance floor anthems. Rarely do they represent a particular party or club. This is especially the case in America, where megaclub events come and go and don't usually capture the loyalty of clubbers so much they warrant an aural souvenir.

In England, it's a whole other story. Weekly nightclub events have become marketing brands--see Ministry of Sound, Gatecrasher and Cream--that have spun off magazines, clothing lines and, yes, their own mix discs. Albumwise, those megaclubs owe a big debt to Renaissance, the enduring Sheffield institution which spawned the first ever gold-selling mix compilation in the U.K.: Renaissance: The Mix Collection, helmed by worldwide DJ faves Sasha and John Digweed in 1994.

What's so great about the reissued, three-disc Renaissance is the music reflects what the club--and more specifically, Sasha, its resident DJ, and then-recruit John Digweed--was championing at the time. Rather than rehashing the charts or what was already playing at the raves, Renaissance's dominant musical style was the burgeoning progressive house subgenre, which was more ambient than techno and less overtly melodic than pop remixes. In a way, it's a time capsule for the end of Britain's post-acid house golden age. Standard-bearers such as Leftfield (three remixes of "Song For Life," all tracklisted in a row), Fluke ("Slid") and Moby ("Go") have inclusions from their earlier days here.

Given the evolution of electronic music in the past 10 years, the collection undoubtedly sounds dated. And when it's played in its entirety, it sounds less like a unified set than three separate ones. Still, there's a lot of context, history and, most importantly, worthwhile music to consider with Renaissance.--Mike Prevatt