Among the myriad double-disc themed mixes that Ministry of Sound released annually over the years,
Ministry of Sound: House Sessions is standard fare. It's a well-packaged collection of popular house music circa 2003, with an emphasis on tracks that were popular in the United Kingdom, in particular the Ministry of Sound club in England. There aren't any surprises, and the mixing of each disc -- by Grant Smillie and
Tim McGee, respectively -- is fairly seamless if unremarkable in itself. There's a wealth of popular tracks here (big names including
Groove Armada,
Sandy Rivera,
Crazy Penis,
Junior Jack, and
Derrick Carter), though many are very anchored to their era, making this somewhat of a flash in the pan collection. But that's the case with any of these Ministry of Sound collections -- they're intended to capture a snapshot of a brief moment in dance music history, and nothing more than that. If indeed you were out getting your groove on somewhere late at night in the U.K. during 2003, you might take special interest in this collection, especially if house is your dance music of choice. This might be a perfect aural souvenir for you of that time and place. Or if you happened to miss out on the moment and wish you could have been there, here's your memento. It's not as enthralling as a long, sweaty summer night at Ministry of Sound in 2003, but it's about as close as you're going to get.