That Juan MacLean is just a bundle of contradictions. Here he’s created one of the year’s best mix CDs—and not just a proper party mix, which it certainly is, but even what you might call an “important” mix, a timely lesson in the enduring spirit of house music—and how does he choose to describe the process of putting it together? As an “existential tailspin.” “In the six months I knew I was going to do this mix, I spent most of the time agonizing over the relevance of doing a DJ mix in 2010,” says MacLean. “So much about DJ-ing has changed in the last 10 years. It seems that anyone at home can make their own mix, whether they’re a proper DJ or not. Which begs the question, why bother putting them out at this point?” “So at the end of the day I just came back to where I had started, which was basically wanting to do something that was representative of where I’m coming from in producing my own music, and also focusing on the current house music scene.” A love-letter to house music penned by one of the music’s most sincere (and well-schooled) admirers, it’s a sweet, sweaty, wide-ranging set that wraps you up in chugging grooves. At a time of proliferating podcasts and fly-by-night mixtapes, it’s a welcome change of pace: a mix that makes its case the oldfashioned way, one perfect blend at a time.