I thought that it was surely a sign of the apocalypse that my reviews have begun to appear on Pitchfork, but now, here I am, feeling genuine fear. Straining my ears to listen for the seven horsemen because I find myself liking a house music compilation.

It's the gimmicky, cocaine-driven, gold- chain- wearin' image of house that has driven we, the music snobs, from the genre, not to mention the innumerable compilations with titles like Dance Party USA and House Of Dance. House is the orphan cousin of techno, though many might argue that house spurned the electronica movement (as it is so uphemistically called nowadays), which would instead make it its drunk stepfather. In any case, if you've been in any dance-club environment in the past five years, you'll surely recognize a few of the tracks from Deconstruction Presents. With almost every track, I can recall a gauzily intoxicated flashback of tight hotpants and sweat-stained armpits. From Harmonix's "Landslide", with it's mutated U2 riff to Black Box's "Everybody Everybody", these are club staples that transcend the remixes of "What's Up" or the bubble-gum dancepop of "Saturday Night". They're largely repetitive, punch-drunk beat-loops under the sexy-sweet vocals of an African princess. Sure, it's lowbrow techno, but Deconstruction has brought together a series of tracks that can both be an entertaining listen and the disc you take along to parties. Expect each track to set down a hook and beat it to death, but grab ya by yer gold chains nonetheless.

-James P. Wisdom