Various - Henry Street Grooves

Subtitled 'Classic Deep, Funky & Jazzy House From New York City', this rather excellent comp will be a trip down memory lane if you're one of the older heads like me, or is an essential history lesson if you're a young 'un/newcomer.

For those that don't know, Henry Street Music was a mid-late 90s house label outta Brooklyn. Big on disco cut-ups but taking in a variety of flavas in their time, in much the same way Strictly did but without the horrible 'licensing Vengaboys' bit at the end, they hit biggest with Bucketheads' The Bomb but as well as that chart-busting, Chicago-sampling classic, they put out a hella lot more, er, deep, funky and jazzy house to boot. Come check my vinyl shelves if ya don't believe! The list of artists who released on the label is like a Who's Who of 90s US house: Armand Van Helden, DJ Sneak, DJ Duke, 95 North, Mike Delgado, Davidson Ospina, Scotti Deep, Todd Terry, Mateo & Matos, That Kid Chris, E-Smoove… ah, happy days! Sigh.

BBE put out a Henry Street comp called The Story So Far: 1993-1999, back when the label was still going, so it seems only fitting they're behind this retrospective collection comprised mostly, as far as I can tell without spending ages A-B'ing tracklists, of cuts that haven't featured on any of the previous Henry Street albums. Some of them coming from some of those big-hitters I just mentioned, but many of them more obscure nuggets.

So, like I said: a trip down memory lane for some, an education for others… and pretty unmissable whichever one of those applies to you. This was how we did it, as Montell Jordan once sang, sort of.

Out: Now (but again, only since last week)

About: If you want to find out more about Henry Street, you can start with their Discogs entry. BBE, meanwhile, can be found online here.