Album Review: Various - Balance 024: Danny Howells

For fans of Melbourne's Balance Music label, scoring Danny Howells to preside over the latest instalment of its flagship release series, Balance 024 is a real coup. The English DJ doesn't disappoint either, drawing on all of his extensive skill to produce a compilation that, although it might not set a dancefloor alight, will keep cool heads swaying and limbs throbbing into the early morning.

Selecting the final 30 tracks that form the double album from a shortlist of somewhere over 500, it's clear Howells is one of the most dedicated DJs on the scene, even if his name doesn't adorn the tops of billboards like some of his contemporaries (think John Digweed, Jamie xx or his predecessor in the Balance Presents series, Guy J).

Howells draws only from relatively contemporary music, as opposed to throwing back decades as he did on his 2006 Azuli release, Choice: A Collection of Classics. With Howells' deft hand, the melting of one track to the next is seamless, sensual and goddamn seductive. There's no club banger, no stand-out moment, just a constant, insistent flow of inimitable dance music.

Which is why Danny Howells is regarded as a living legend and what makes the Balance Presents series the dance music institution it is today.