20 Years of Henry Street Music: The Definitive Collection

Physical copies of Henry Street Music: The Definitive Collection were rather compact, perhaps a bit unassuming considering the set's scope, but its outer shell holds five discs, or well over 50 cuts from one of house music's most prominent labels. Henry Street, founded in 1994 by Johnny "D" De Mairo, experienced its greatest crossover success with the Chicago-sampling "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind)," a Top Five U.K. pop hit (number 49 U.S.) credited to Kenny Dope's Bucketheads alias. For the most part, however, it was predominantly an underground imprint, typified by other sample-laced productions from the likes of JohNick (aka De Mairo and Nicholas Palermo, Jr.), Todd Terry, DJ Sneak, Armand Van Helden, and Mateo & Matos, as well as Little Louie Vega, Kenny Dope's Masters at Work partner. Henry Street started reissuing some of their most significant releases on 12" in 2014, but this is a handy and generous package for ravenous listeners and DJs who don't use vinyl. The energizing effect of much of what's here is everlasting.