Kompakt distributes DFA presenting Supersoul. If that isn't confusing, try listening to both CDs in one sitting. If it's clear that the two monoliths of 21st century dance music are heads and wallets behind this, it's initially unclear why. Berlin's Supersoul like it groggy, meandering, and plasticky. Much of it sounds homemade, even improvised. Listen to "Lost", the first track, and picture the label's overlord and this compilation's main contributor, the perfectly yet implausibly named Xaver Naudascher (probably bespectacled, probably jaundiced), hunched over his work space thick with greasy globules of pure synth, sampled kick drum thudding through the crumbling plaster walls, twiddling knobs on a rack unit that he built himself from a disused space shuttle and 9v battery. The kids aren't going to dig it, that's for sure. Kraut-step? Not likely.

From the same sonic laboratory, however, come stone-cold dancefloor classics. "Moon Unit pt. 2", worth the purchase alone, layers metallic synths above a thudding motorik groove that breaks down into the heaviest of electro bangers. "Motor City", intensely dark shuddering techno on a melodic knife-edge, would rattle even Berghain's cage. The slow-burning threat in "Afterlife", the old-school electro buoyancy of "Strophoria", and the twists and turns above a heavily-gated, almost leaden beat in "Flexy", all conspire to devastate warehouses.

Elsewhere, where feet aren't moved, personality and history shine through. As the PR states, every artist featured on the compilation has drawn inspiration from the roots of dance music in different ways. Crude 808, creamy Italo licks, detroit menace--it's all there, and it all resonates with the crackle and hum of nostalgia. "Resist" is jacking house lifted to revolutionary fervour with an incendiary vocal. Skatebard's "Marimba" sounds like something Aphex Twin might have tossed into the recycle bin about 20 years ago (that is, of course, the highest of compliments). "Riot on Planet 10" and "Pagans" spin into the neon cosmos on the wings of a pair of some rather overenthusiastic disco arpeggios. Walter Brown's contributions sound like they were recorded in 1985. And the rest of Naudascher's "moon unit" quartet covers all bases at great length and in great depth. The tendency to go a little too far, to go on a little too long, and of course to wallow in generic self-indulgence is almost celebrated here, but always knowingly, and with a retrospective restraint.

Considering the spectrum of influences and ideas, it's remarkable how coherent and ultimately listenable the record is - after a few listens. The shared love of analogue, kitchen-sink production is evident throughout, and the label's uniquely progressive vision brings together tunes that would otherwise be worlds and years apart. Kompakt and DFA, as if it could be doubted, plainly know what's going on.

Read an interview with Yannis Philippakis from Foals here.