Last Friday I stumbled into a set that completely reset my headspace — one of those nights where a single track snaps everything back into focus. Hearing Armand Van Helden’s I Want Your Soul land mid-set reminded me why that record still hits so hard. It pulled me right back toward the kind of house I’ve been meaning to revisit, and it pushed me to build a fresh sequence around that same energy — then dig into exactly why these particular records still move a room the way they do.
The Story Behind Every Track
1. Daniel Steinberg – Surrender opens things gently. It’s a 2024 cut on the Berlin label Arms & Legs, and it’s a newer record — but it’s already been road-tested hard, showing up in sets from CASSIMM, Sam Divine’s Defected Radio Show, and Black Legend. It’s the kind of track that earns its spot through DJ trust rather than chart history: clean, minimal-tinged house built purely to move a room without shouting for attention.
2. Groove Armada & Kathy Brown – Free Jam brings the vocal warmth in immediately. Groove Armada — one of UK dance music’s most enduring names — teamed with soul-house vocalist Kathy Brown on this 2024 release for Defected’s DFTD imprint, mixed by the duo’s own Tom Findlay and Andy Cato. It’s a reminder that the “soulful diva house” sound never really left; it just keeps finding new production partners.
3. Mark Knight & Armand Van Helden – Release Me is where the energy starts climbing. Two Grammy-nominated house veterans joined forces on Armada Subjekt in 2023, and the standout move is the vocal: they built the track around Andrea Martin’s voice — the same session singer whose 1990s vocal takes shaped house records people still argue about today (she also sang the original demo of “Show Me Love,” more on that below). It’s a direct thread connecting a 2023 record back to house music’s vocal-house lineage.
4. Armand Van Helden – I Want Your Soul is the track that sparked this whole mix. Released in 2007 off his album Ghettoblaster, it loops a vocal sample from Siedah Garrett’s 1985 freestyle single “Do You Want It Right Now” — chopped, filtered, and turned into one of the most instantly recognizable hooks in 2000s club music. It hit #1 on the UK Dance Chart (staying there for 28 weeks) and went platinum in the UK. Nearly two decades later, it’s still getting official reworks — a Mau P remix and an AVH rework both landed in the last couple of years — proof the groove hasn’t aged a day.
5. Sebb Junior – Colors (Extended Mix) keeps the groove deep. Sebb Junior has built a reputation as one of house music’s most prolific sample-flippers, turning disco and soul breaks into jackin’, filtered house cuts that DJs lean on constantly for that mid-set pocket — exactly the role it plays here.
6. Peter Brown – Say It Again keeps the tempo rolling with a vocal-forward, club-ready groove — the kind of track built specifically to bridge two bigger moments in a set without losing the room.
7. Antoine Clamaran & Agua Sin Gas – I Wanna Give You brings in a veteran hand: Clamaran is a French house mainstay who’s been producing club records since the 1990s, and this one carries that same big-room, filter-house DNA that’s defined French house’s exports for decades.
8. Bob Sinclar & A-Trak – Deep Inside Of Me is a genuine cross-generation team-up. Paris house icon Bob Sinclar (production dating back to the late ’90s) linked with Grammy-nominated Canadian A-Trak (of Duck Sauce) for their Defected debut — produced between Sinclar’s Paris studio and A-Trak’s LA home. It samples “At Midnight” by Theophilus Coakley, giving the track a disco backbone under thoroughly modern production.
9. Junior Jack – See You Dancin’ (Original Mix) comes from Vito Lucente, the Italian-born, Belgium-based producer behind some of the most enduring funky house records of the early 2000s. His tracks built their reputation on filtered disco loops and jacked-up bass — this one’s a prime example of that signature bounce.
10. Sebb Junior – He’s So Good is Sebb Junior’s second appearance in the set, doubling down on that same sample-heavy, soulful house pocket that ties the whole middle stretch together.
11. The Ones – Flawless is a genuine 2000s house landmark. This NYC vocal trio first released it in 1999, then re-released it in 2001 through Groovilicious — where it hit #7 on the UK Singles Chart and was crowned Australia’s most popular club track of the year. It samples Gary’s Gang’s 1978 disco cut “Keep On Dancin'” and Tom Tom Club’s “Wordy Rappinghood,” and its legacy runs deep enough that George Michael sampled it right back in 2004 for his own single, “Flawless (Go to the City).”
12. Wayne Soul Avengerz, Odyssey Inc., Joa (UK) – We Got A Love Thang (Extended Mix) leans into extended-mix territory — the kind of deeper, groove-first arrangement built for DJs who want more room to work the transition rather than a radio-length hook.
13. Robin S – Show Me Love (Extended Mix) might be the single most important record in this entire set. The original 1990 version was a commercial nonstarter — but in 1992, Swedish producer StoneBridge stripped it down to just the vocal and kick drum, added a bassline built from a Korg M1 organ preset, and created what became one of house music’s defining basslines. The 1993 remix hit #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the US Dance Club chart, went gold, and is widely credited with helping push house music into the mainstream — Rolling Stone and Billboard have both since named it one of the greatest dance songs ever recorded.
14. FRASER – Chicago ’93 (Radio Mix) wears its influences in the title — a modern homage to the sound of early-’90s Chicago house, built for DJs who want to nod to that lineage without playing an actual 30-year-old record.
15. Kid Massive – Can You Feel It comes from Danish producer Benjamin Pederson, known for driving, big-room house productions. This one leans on funky pads and a slamming bassline, with a vocal breakdown that’s built specifically to hold a crowd’s attention through the record’s back half.
16. Louie Vega & Honey Dijon – Feel So Right (Tedd Patterson Club Remix) pairs serious house royalty: Louie Vega co-founded Masters at Work, one of the most influential production duos in house history, while Honey Dijon has become one of the genre’s most respected contemporary voices, bridging Chicago house roots with global club culture. The Tedd Patterson remix gives it that deep, soulful club-mix treatment built for peak-time floors.
17. Junior Jack & 2DB – My Feeling is Junior Jack’s other major appearance — a 1999/2001-era funky house anthem that became one of the most enduring club records of its era, built on that same filtered, jacked-up groove that made his name.
18. Mochakk feat. Joni – Da Fonk closes the set. Brazilian producer Pedro Maia (Mochakk) released this on Nervous Records in 2022, right as he was breaking out with a sold-out North American tour — Mochakk himself called it “one of the best house tunes I’ve made to date.” Joni’s velvety vocal over that unwavering bassline is exactly why it’s become one of his signature records, and why it’s the perfect note to end the night on.
🎧 Gear on this set: Pioneer DDJ-FLX10 DJ deck · Harmony HCDDJ1000LT case (modded) · Harmony HCTABLE48 table · Sony MDR-7506 headphones · Pioneer DJ VM-50 monitors · KRK S10.4 subwoofer · Logitech Brio 4K camera · DImotliyor overhead mount.