Essential Mix
A veteran of the British dance-music scene, DJ Pete Tong proves with his first major-label mix release in the U.S. that experience means everything when it comes to calibrating the mood of the dance floor. Using a genuine dance lover's sense of pace and mood, Tong has constructed a mix that brings to mind Buenos Aires at 3 a.m., New York City at 3:30, or maybe just your own favorite living room dance space. Because quite simply, the likes ofTrisco,Way Out West(a project of DJNick Warren's), andBlazewill not allow you to sit still.It seems churlish to pick out peaks in a veritable mountain range of late-night classics, but perhaps only Tong could find the superb David  Morales remix ofPhotek's "Mine to Give."Sister Bliss, featuring John Martyn's "Deliver Me" (Mix One-12" Mix), offers altitude, raw sex, and dirty dance-floor moves, while the freeway-burning "Futureshock" by Sparc happily pushes physical and mental accelerators to their limits. WithEssential, Pete Tong has created a steamy, sensual, disco-fused house mix that doesn't deny the vitality of trance.--Steffan Chirazi