Dance Classics

During the last two decades of the 20th Century, dance music started to metamorphosize and mutate into a many-faced, club-thumpin' überentity . . . and all of these tracks lie at the core of that incredible, fractal-like transformation. It's time to plug into the sounds that grooved a planet, from New Order's seminal slab of crisp electronica, "Blue Monday" (the biggest selling 12" single of all time, first released more than a quarter of a century ago), to "Pump Up the Volume" by MARRS (a rare stand-alone release on the influential 4AD label, 1987), and from Primal Scream's rock-heavy "Loaded," to Moby's superb blend of sampled field recordings and ambient techno, "Natural Blues." May your clouds be little, fluffy and Orb-like . . . in Next Steps.

And still the dance classics come — every one as crisp as the moment it was first eased from its pristine sleeve. The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" (1990), a stunning blend of spoken word samples by Rickie Lee Jones and Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western harmonica, has retained its mellow magic over the years; Leftfield's "Release the Pressure" (1992) remains a masterful mix of tempos, switching up from mellow chill to meaty, full-on, dub-decorated house; and DJ Shadow's "Midnight in a Perfect World" from 1996's Entroducing . . . draws on a slew of samples including Marlena Shaw's "California Soul" and "Summer Breeze" by the Isley Brothers to stand proud as a plundered gem. Futuristic London meets tribal Papua New Guinea, in Deep Cuts.

No overview of classic dance would be complete without a blast of Euro trance, and DJ/production team Sash! duly obliges here with the ever-addictive "Encore Une Fois." The Future Sound of London's "Papua New Guinea" — with its rolling bass, buzz-saw lasers and Lisa Gerrard vocal samples — is no less vital now that it was when first released way back in 1991, Daft Punk's "Da Funk" from 1997 debut album Homework still grips your bones like you're plugged directly into the French duo's synths, and with "Free" Ultra Naté confirms that she captured some of that liberating pre-millennial club euphoria in a bottle . . . so uncork it here, and enjoy for the next thousand years.

The inspiration for this Essentials list of untouchable dance classics came easy . . . quite simply, we wanted to condense the last 30 years of great beat-making into an all-star playlist and create for you the ultimate dance floor experience. By downloading this set, you're activating a time-travelling superstar DJ who can slip in and out of the greatest ever club nights at will, choosing only the highest of sonic highs for your everlasting enjoyment. Now's the time to give yourself over to party-propelling genius of Fatboy Slim, the Chemical Brothers and Underworld; the Balearic seductions of ATB and the Beloved; and the 21st Century trailblazing of Dizzee Rascal, Hot Chip and a revitalized Dannii Minogue (vs. Jason Nevins). Here we go!