Moodymann - I Can't Kick This Feelin When It Hits (1996)

LFO - Gez Varley and Mark Bell - were among the UK's true club music innovators. At the birth of Warp Records was this heavy track, 'LFO' itself, and it still sounds fresh 23-odd years later. Varley and Bell met while studying at Leeds and passed this, their first and best tune, to Nightmares On Wax to test in the clubs. This led to their signing and wider success, with 'LFO' pounding its way into the Top 20. The 'low frequency oscillation' of LFO is quite literally spelt out on a 1980s Speak N Spell, while its bleep motifs are shrouded in a post-industrial fug, like the moment the mushroom cloud rises over Sheffield in BBC cold war drama Threads. Those piano notes could be Vangelis, the deep bass rumble could be from Detroit, but those blips and bleeps are unmistakeably the sound of a working class music scene breaking free in the North West. The 'Leeds Warehouse Mix' is the definitive realisation of this acidic anthem, and when that bass rumbles it still hits you right in the thorax. Nick Hutchings

Moodymann - I Can't Kick This Feelin When It Hits (1996)

Rhythm science incarnate, from the era of jungle when seething dread still coexisted side by side with open-hearted, E-lated excitement. Foul Play juggle shattered breakbeats with all the virtuosic skill of a master circus performer, yet there still remains the tantalising sensation - as those runaway snare hits threaten to tear right through the fabric holding them in place - that the jagged, multi-directional forces they generate will pull the track apart in the process. By itself, that tension would be enough to power the thing - those multilayered, windmilling drums shed their excess energy in cresting arcs through the mix - but then when it abruptly drops out to reveal that original 'Renegade Snares' piano motif it's enough to make you near lightheaded with excitement. A canonical choice, sure, but this is still one of those few tunes that makes me wish I'd been old enough to experience it on a dancefloor at the time. Rory Gibb

This is a tricky pick, because the original's lyrics are pretty homophobic and generally dubious - a problem that's been a big issue for a lot of dance music producers sampling dancehall while unaware of what the content is actually projecting - but there's a dub version on Horsepower Productions' glorious Tempa album In Fine Style which skins the bullshit and is the one to check. Surely one of the first dubstep tracks, this is cut from an area of music that I just can't enough of and dig for constantly - at that point just after UK garage but before the birth of grime when strange new sounds were being dredged up in London. There's an increasing drive towards a darker edge and the claustrophobia from dub and, yes, dancehall, that would come to possess dubstep and elements of grime - all the while still retaining that amazing two-step rhythmic swing. Matthew Kent

This is probably my favourite thing Actress has touched, which is frankly amazing because I always groan when I see Panda Bear guest featuring on an electronic producer's album (still can't listen to that one on Black Noise, still don't like that Zomby track). Note, though, that it has to be the extended cut, where all the beauty of a polyrhythm, the hypnotism of those musical spirals, and that undulating bassline slowly swathe you. I feel sorry for the poor buggers who initially bought the 7" (a paltry 4 and half minutes long in comparison) when this extended 12" version was released a month later. Matthew Kent

Ever wondered where that playful riff from your favourite house tune came from? Or maybe that vocal that you heard at a rave and can't get out of your head ever since? We've got you. After a recent look at samples used in early '90s hip hop tracks, we've dived into the samples of house music, coming across some fine funk, soul, disco and blues, from Gladys Knight to Chic. Kerri Chandler, Larry Heard, Jayda G, Maya Jane Coles, Octo Octa, Midland and more feature in this list, with a bunch of banging tunes built around classic tracks from way back when. Listen to them below. 041b061a72