various artists - Future House: Best Of House Music Vol. 4

I wanted to get in a mid-week post ahead of Halloween, which means a really half-assed post is in order, and this title fits the bill to a T. I picked this up a few years ago for a buck, solely on the presence of a Leftfield track and that it was released on Profile. I kinda dug the cover, too; the green-on-purple just really grabs my attention. How could I turn it down?

Someone more involved in this scene in the mid-90s and less involved in their junior year of high school can speak to whether this is an example of truth in advertising. Is this, indeed, the best of house music from 1992-1993? Shit, I barely knew what Maximum Rock 'n Roll or Fugazi were back then, so I am far from qualified to determine what's good. I like it; it's got a good beat, and you can dance to it. Dick Clark gives this a 69.

Discogs

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various artists - Rap The Beat

THIS was a good-ass $2 find.

Not that I don't already own multiple copies of every song herein, whether on the original record, another comp, a mixtape, a MP3. But this immediately took Mrs. Ape and I back to our pre-teen year, hiding recordings we shouldn't own under our beds, in the drop ceiling, amongst the Playboy mags and Bic lighters. We both owned this on cassette, purchased at a Sam Goody or Coconuts.

I didn't get this in 1988 when Profile originally released it. I think I probably snagged it in the summer of '91, around the same time I bought "Apocalypse '91" during a trip with my grandparents to Quebec City and got it immediately impounded (there's no other way to describe it), souring a two-week car trip throughout Eastern Canada and the Northeast. But this one lived on in my off-brand Walkman. I can still spit bars on "I Ain't No Joke", rap along with the Beasties on "Fight For Your Right", bump along with beats in "Rebel Without A Pause" and "Pump Up The Volume" that sounded massive my to my 14-year-old ears.

I'm pretty stoked to load this up and listen to it at work over the next few days.

Discogs

Click here to download.