VA - Burn It Up, The Rise Of British Dance Music 1986-1991 [2025] (4 x CDs)

BRITISH DANCE

VA - Burn It Up, The Rise Of British Dance Music 1986-1991 [2025] (4 x CDs)

Burn It Up captures a moment when British dance culture stopped borrowing and started inventing. Between 1986 and 1991, the UK’s club landscape shifted from scattered underground scenes to a fully formed national identity, driven by independent labels, pirate radio, and a generation of producers who treated cheap gear as a creative advantage rather than a limitation. This set traces that evolution with a curator’s eye, pulling from 12‑inch singles, small‑run white labels, and early CD‑era crossovers that documented the country’s restless energy.

The compilation opens in the mid‑80s, when electro, rare groove, and imported Chicago house were still fringe concerns. Tracks from labels like Rhythm King, Jack Trax, and Warrior Dance show how quickly British producers absorbed those influences and pushed them into new shapes—harder drum programming, rougher sampling, and a distinctly UK sense of urgency. By 1988, the acid sound had taken hold, and the compilation highlights key releases that bridged warehouse culture with the charts, often pressed in modest quantities before demand exploded. Many of these sides first circulated through specialist shops and pirate stations, making their survival on Discogs today a testament to collectors who kept the lineage intact.

As the set moves into 1989–1991, the sound fractures into breakbeat, bleep, and early rave—genres that didn’t exist a few years earlier but now feel foundational. Sheffield’s Warp imprint, North London’s Shut Up And Dance, and Manchester’s Eastern Bloc orbit all appear in validated form, each representing a different regional pulse. What ties the era together is the sense of invention: producers working with Akai samplers, Roland boxes, and battered four‑tracks, creating music that felt communal, physical, and defiantly local. Burn It Up documents that rise with respect for the formats, the labels, and the scenes that shaped a generation. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Coldcut feat. Floormaster Squeeze - Beats + Pieces (Mo Bass Remix) 6:01

02 Mel & Kim - System (House Mix) 3:49

03 Midnight Sunrise With Nellie "Mixmaster" Rush feat. Jackie Rawe - On The House (Chicago Mix) 8:17

04 John Rocca - I Want it to Be Real (Farley's Hot House Piano Mix) 5:49

05 Rick & Lisa - When You Gonna (Home Boy Mix) 5:51

06 Krush - House Arrest (The Beat is The Law) 6:36

07 T-Coy - Cariño 5:16

08 Cookie Crew - Females (Get on Up) (Pile Up) 4:31

09 Judge Dread - Jerk Your Body (Edit) 3:36

10 Simon Harris - Bass (How Low Can You Go) (Bomb The House Mix) 4:50

11 M.E.S.H. - Meet Every Situation Head On 5:26

12 Beatmasters feat. The Cookie Crew - Rok Da House 3:27

13 Us - Born in The North 5:11

CD2

01 Bomb The Bass - Beat Dis (Extended Dis) 5:59

02 KLF - What Time is Love? (Pure Trance 1) 7:08

03 Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid 4:58

04 S-Express - Theme From S-Express 6:03

05 Coldcut feat. Yazz & The Plastic Population - Doctorin' The House 3:48

06 Baby Ford - Oochy Koochy (F.U. Baby Yeh Yeh) 7:47

07 D-Mob feat. Gary Haisman - We Call it Acieed (The Radio Edit) 3:17

08 Wee Papa Girl Rappers feat. Two Men and A Drum Machine - Heat it Up (Acid House Mix) 8:11

09 Beatmasters feat. P.P. Arnold - Burn it Up (7" Version) 3:22

10 Moody Boys - Acid Rappin 5:16

11 Samantha Fox - Love House (The Black Pyramid Mix) 6:44

12 Paul Rutherford - Get Real (Happy House Mix) 7:28

CD3

01 Electribe 101 - Talking With Myself 7:01

02 Anne Clark - Our Darkness (Remix) 6:31

03 2 Men, A Drum Machine & A Trumpet - Tired of Getting Pushed Around (The Mayhem Rhythm Mix) 6:37

04 Julian Jonah - Jealousy and Lies 6:14

05 Chapter and The Verse - All This and Heaven Too (Club Mix) 5:50

06 Shades of Rhythm - Just Feel It 6:47

07 S-Express - Special & Golden (Parts I and II) 8:09

08 Monie Love - Grandpa's Party (Love II Love Remix) 5:50

09 Double Trouble & Rebel MC - Street Tuff (Longsy D'Mix) 5:18

10 Richie Rich - Salsa House 7:02

11 Beloved - The Sun Rising 4:59

12 Dina Carroll - Me Sienta Sola (We Are One) (Funky Z-Bar Mix) 5:45

CD4

01 808 State - Pacific-202 5:44

02 Adamski - N-R-G 6:25

03 Nightmares on Wax - Let it Roll 3:12

04 NAD - Distant Drums 4:42

05 Orbital - Chime (Edit) 3:16

06 Professor Supercool - If You Love Somebody (12" Mix) 6:36

07 N-Joi - Techno Gangsters 3:44

08 Pop Will Eat Itself - Touched By The Hand of Cicciolina (The Renegade Soundwave Mix (Smoothneck)) 5:55

09 Ubik - Techno Prisoners 4:33

10 Cabaret Voltaire - Easy Life 6:17

11 Cure - Lullaby (Extended Remix) 7:45

12 Urban Hype - Teknologi (R.J. Flip Mix) 6:16

13 Circuit - Shelter Me (Helter Skelter Mix) 5:51

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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