Masters at Work 10th Anniversary Part 2 1996-2000 [Box set, Import]

I use the word "dance" because MAW cross every boundary - house, funk, disco, latin, hip-hop, soul, jazz - and most of the tracks on this album include all of the above.

In a day and age where we are constantly subjected to "UK garage" - rotten, soulless pap - it is heartwarming to know that MAW are still doing it after 10 years. The USA may produce the worst rock music in the world (Bon Jovi etc) but with MAW flying the Stars 'n' Stripes they are light years ahead of us in terms of dance. It is criminal that they have never really achieved commercial success in this country - as this collection will show - although maybe that is the best way. I don't think I could take seeing four boy racers in a souped-up Xr2 with a boombastic stereo, blasting out "To Be In Love". Maybe it's best kept for the people who know what it's about. Put it this way - MAW are The Beatles whilst DJ Luck and MC Neat are Keith Harris and Orville.

Here's to the next 10 years of Masters at Work - the finest dance act in the world. If you don't buy this you really are missing out on something very, very important indeed.

If you love the "Sweet-House" you must have this collection. It's a "PRECIOUS" work. This box is a treasure that I keep in my heart and my ears too. Solid gold. Sober gold and silver finishes for a collection of gems with the stamp of two heavyweights of New York's house scene: Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez and 'Little' Louie Vega, i.e. Masters At Work. Two lusciously presented box sets, which each contain jewels for the enjoyment of modern music lovers. In this exhaustive tenth anniversary recompilation a large part of their work is brought together, both their own compositions and their remixes 'to order'. The first box features their work under the alias Nuyorican Soul, one of the outstanding examples of the fusion of jazz, Latin sounds and House, with classics such as 'The Nervous Track'. With regard to their work as remixers, the list of artists favoured with the MAW touch has no end. Highlights include their reworks for Daft Punk, Chic, Roni Size Reprazent, Karen Ramirez, Ultra Nate, Jerald Daemyon, Tony Touch, Mel B. and many more... Real House, Latin Style, Jazz and other delights. The amazing track "Dancing in Outer space - Atmosfear" it's a great remix and the beautiful "Runaway - Nuyorican Soul feat. India" and "MAW Expensive - Masters At Work" is incredible the most excellent track. This collection (Part One & Part Two) contains the essential house music that makes you relax and dance. Masters At Work are "SOLID GOLD".

The Masters also deserve to be compared with Larry Levan, the most influential dance music practitioner of the eighties. Vega's four-and-a-half year residency at the Sound Factory Bar provided the dance music underground with a crucial lifeline given that the Shelter was about to close and Body & Soul had yet to open. And in terms of remixing and production, MAW's efforts in the nineties have surpassed those of Levan in the eighties. Like Levan, they have survived the cutthroat climate of the studio for a long ten years. Like Levan, they have moved from the world of remixing to the universe of production. And like Levan, they have revolutionized the way people listen to music, introducing a series of sounds that have become so entrenched in the dance psyche that it's hard to remember that night-world didn't always sound like this.

Most importantly, 'Little Louie 'Vega and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez have maintained an elaborate and unswerving eclecticism at the heart of their work. As with Levan, this hybridity has nothing in common with the superficial skimming of multicultural tourists, whose level of engagement begins and ends with the casual flick of a download button. No, MAW's diversity is grounded in a set of serious musical roots, and it has evolved in conjunction with the kaleidoscopic populations of New York's night network. The Loft, The Gallery, The Paradise Garage, The Shelter, The Sound Factory Bar, Body & Soul and Dance Ritual lie at the heart of this practice, and, more than any other remixing and production team, Masters at Work have provided this creative cultural community with a relentlessly varied soundtrack. Kenny and Louie have demonstrated that we can still dance together, even if today's increasingly factional market demands otherwise, and the wonderful music on this compilation embodies that vision. The first ten years have been 'extra'MAW'dinary', and we look forward to the next ten with huge anticipation.