Dave Clarke/Various

Dave Clarke is a living legacy of DJ royalty that rose to the foreground of the ’90s electronic boom, and who has since gained massive respect and admiration (not to mention a whole Swiss account of dollar bills) for his slightly eccentric and hard-hitting dance floor control. On the CD release front, however, he has always kept a particularly (and comparatively) low profile, with only a handful of mix discs and two albums (the classic 1996 debut Archive One and the somewhat scattershot 2003 follow-up Devil’s Advocate). His first volume of World Service, released in 2001, was a career-defining double-shot of mixes (one techno, one electro) that was at the forefront of electroclash’s short-lived rise to prominence. This second volume succeeds in rehashing that same double-disc idea, only without the strong sense of purpose or relevance that accompanied its successor. Clarke is definitely past his prime in the ways of decks skills (there’s a little too much flash and not enough subtlety in his mixing these days) but hasn’t lost an ounce of taste, as the tracks he picks are certainly cream of the crop choices. And dig the crazy infrared design on the music sides of the discs, man! They’re as much a party-starter as the music printed on them.