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Around the World
Daft Punk • Homework album version (1997)
The bass takes little detours while the voice stays on the title phrase. Follow the low part instead of the vocal and you can hear exactly when a new layer changes the way the whole track moves. The long album version lets that effect build at its own pace.
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Show Me Love
Robin S. • StoneBridge Club Mix
The organ stabs leave openings that Robin S. fills with a much longer vocal line. The contrast comes through especially clearly in the full club mix, where the keyboard gets time to establish its own rhythm first.
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Groove Is in the Heart
Deee-Lite • World Clique version (1990)
Start with the wiry bass figure, sampled from Herbie Hancock’s “Bring Down the Birds.” The backing keeps dancing underneath the handclaps, little blasts of brass and Lady Miss Kier’s sung lines. There’s always some detail asking for your attention without crowding out that bass.
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Born Slippy .NUXX
Underworld • Original .NUXX version (1995)
Start with the ringing chords before the kick comes in. Karl Hyde sounds like he’s thinking out loud over them, even as the drums settle into a much harder pulse. This is the .NUXX track from the original single, a different recording from the A-side simply called “Born Slippy.”
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Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) (radio mix)
Crystal Waters • 1991 radio mix
The organ figure twists around the beat while Crystal Waters keeps bringing the melody back to a short, lilting phrase. What makes it worth revisiting is how the organ and voice can each feel like the lead. Try following one through a whole chorus, then the other.
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Inner City Life (original version)
Goldie • Original single version (1994)
Diane Charlemagne stretches her phrases across drums that are in constant motion. Follow the ends of her lines and notice how quickly the percussion changes underneath a note she’s still holding. Put this on when you want the velocity of drum & bass and a voice that has time to be heard.
More about Inner City Life (original version)7
Out of Space
The Prodigy • Experience version (1992)
Max Romeo’s vocal sample gives you a foothold while the drums and synths rush by. The phrase comes from “Chase the Devil.” Listen to how the sampled reggae vocal keeps its easy lilt even when the music around it has switched into a gallop.
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Windowlicker
Aphex Twin • Single version (1999)
The opening beat has a lazy swing. Then the little clipped voices and percussion start crowding around it. Follow the spaces between the kicks as the track gets noisier and you can still hear the movement that holds it together.
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Energy Flash
Joey Beltram • Original Mix (1990)
There’s a low, cycling figure under the drums that makes the record feel as though it’s bearing down on you. The whisper feels like part of that pulse when it arrives. Try it when you want to hear how a sparse arrangement can still build tension.
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Block Rockin' Beats
The Chemical Brothers • Dig Your Own Hole version (1997)
The opening bass line is clear enough to carry the track almost by itself. Give the drums a moment to catch up, then see how often you find yourself returning to that low figure as sounds streak across it. It’s a good entry point if you like your dance records to hit like a band.
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Praise You
Fatboy Slim • You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby album version (1998)
The piano comes in with the slightly uneven feel of a room you’ve walked into. The beat eventually gives it a much steadier footing. Listen for how much of the finished track stays anchored to that loose, human-sounding entrance.
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Music Sounds Better With You (12'' Club mix)
Stardust • Original 12-inch mix (1998)
That guitar loop, lifted from Chaka Khan’s “Fate,” keeps pulling the ear back to the same spot. The bass and filters do enough to make it feel as though the light has changed each time around. The long version is where you can hear how little the track needs to move.
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Sing It Back (Boris Musical mix)
Moloko • Boris Dlugosch Musical Mix (1999 single)
Listen to the offbeat guitar around Róisín Murphy’s vocal. It leaves space for the ends of her phrases, which helps the long club mix stay light on its feet. The album original has a different rhythm and mood, so look for Dlugosch’s name.
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Professional Widow (Armand's Star Trunk Funkin' mix)
Tori Amos • Armand’s Star Trunk Funkin’ Mix (1996)
The clipped voice keeps returning in short bursts over a bass line that moves in the gaps. Follow the bass through one of those vocal repeats and you can hear the remix making a new groove out of a few words. Look for Armand van Helden’s mix if you’re starting from the album track.
More about Professional Widow (Armand's Star Trunk Funkin' mix)15
Push the Feeling On (The dub of Doom)
Nightcrawlers • MK’s Dub of Doom
The main hook sounds like a voice cut up and played as a little instrument. It’s worth listening to the way the scraps of syllables land just off the beat. This is the MK dub, where those fragments do more work than the full vocal on the original single.
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Renegade Snares (Foul Play Remix)
Omni Trio • Foul Play Remix (1993)
The melody comes forward just as the breakbeats start switching direction. Pick one snare hit and try to hear where the next one lands. The chords make a useful reference point when the drums stop behaving as you expect.
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Red Alert
Basement Jaxx • Remedy album version (1999)
The bass keeps bouncing while the rhythm and voices keep changing around it. The best moment to hear that is when the chorus opens up and the bottom of the record feels just as nimble as it did in the verse. It’s a lively alternative to the steadier loops on this list.
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Brown Paper Bag
Roni Size & Reprazent • New Forms album version (1997)
Put your ear on the plucked bass line first. It leaves a lot of air around each note, which lets you hear the busy drums as a second conversation. The groove can feel fast or unhurried depending on which part you follow.
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Open Up
Leftfield featuring John Lydon • Leftism album version (1995)
Lydon’s short lines arrive like another percussion part. The longer you listen, the more the little spaces he leaves matter, since the beat keeps its shape beneath him. The album version gives the drums enough time to set the terms before that voice starts cutting across them.
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Sandstorm
Darude • Original single’s Radio Edit (1999 Finnish release)
The sharp synth figure is easy to remember. Try listening to the stretch when the full beat drops away and leaves that figure exposed. When the beat comes back, the same small pattern feels much bigger without having to change its shape.
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Percolator
Cajmere • Original Mix (1992)
A little bubbling sound keeps making the track turn over, even with hardly anything around it. The repeated vocal comes and goes, but the bubbling part gives the rhythm its sense of humor. This is house built from the way a sound behaves as much as the notes it plays.
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Finally (7″ mix without rap)
CeCe Peniston • 7-inch Mix Without Rap (1991)
Peniston gives the verses a steady lift before she opens up on the chorus. The keyboard and drums keep ticking through that change, so the big lift comes as much from where she puts her words as from the backing.
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Everybody Everybody
Black Box • Dreamland album version (1990)
Martha Wash bears down on the title phrase while the bright piano hits around her keep bouncing. Listen for the piano immediately after one of her longer notes and you can hear the backing give her the next line to push against.
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Missing (Todd Terry club mix)
Everything But the Girl • Todd Terry Club Mix
The kick gives Tracey Thorn’s restrained vocal a dependable pulse to lean on. Her delivery is still quiet enough to draw you toward the words, even when the remix has built up around it. Try this if you like dance tracks that give the singer room to sound uncertain.
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