he first Masters at Work single I knowingly heard was 1993’s “Gonna Get Back to You,” credited to MAW & Co with Xaviera Gold. I found it on some cut-rate dance compilation borrowed from a friend, and was knocked out like I’d been hit in the gut while playing dodgeball. Immediately, I started scarfing up virtually anything I could find by Masters at Work, mostly in the form of hard-to-find 12” singles, but occasionally they’d do a major-label remix, and I’d grab that, too.

Over time, I learned more of the history of the musical variants that, as a stew, helped to foster and create the sound of “Little” Louie Vega and Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez: Chicago house, Detroit techno (those two admittedly the building blocks, along with disco, for most dance music of the past two decades), early freestyle (what Spin, in a 1987 cover story which had a photo inside of Vega spinning at an NYC club, termed “Latin hip-hop”), and the lush, string-drenched Philly soul of the ‘70s. It’s the first two of those genres (if one can call them that, and I think one can) that Kenny and Louie—the Jimmy “Jam” Harris and Terry Lewis of house, really—pay tribute to on their new 2-CD mix set The Kings of House.

British label BBE launched the series of two-disc The Kings of compilations/mixes earlier this year, commissioning The Kings of Disco from Dimitri from Paris and Joey Negro, The Kings of Funk from RZA and Keb Darge, and The Kings of Hip Hop from DJ Premier and Mr. Thing (the last two of which were reviewed by Stylus’ Cameron Macdonald here). The latest entry in the series is The Kings of House, and this is one history lesson you’ll be happy to study. House heaven doesn’t come much sweeter, for instance, than tracks 13 and 14 on Kenny Dope’s disc, as he mixes ESP’s 1988 “It’s You” with the monumental Chicago track “I Gotta Hold On You,” by Maurice Joshua. And not only is “Gotta Hold” by Joshua, but it’s from 1992—when most Chicago house, let alone anything Joshua was doing, was utterly killing—and not only that, but it’s voiced by Chicago goddess Chantay Savage, and not only that, but it’s here as remixed by Steve “Silk” Hurley. As Ms. Savage says, “Stop playin’ all these games, I know why you’re here.” Damn!

Later on the same disc, Gonzalez drops back-to-back Derrick May bombs, Rhythim Is Rhythim’s “It Is What It Is” followed by the genius “Strings of Life.” See, “House Is A Feeling” isn’t just a great name for a great blog, it’s also a stone truth. If “Strings of Life” doesn’t move you somehow, then you just don’t get it (and might well be dead inside, but I digress. It’s all about the love right now—that’s an integral element of house, too). I’m not going to judge you for that, it just, well, is what it is. Like with the closing track on said disc, Teulé’s 1990 “Drink On Me” (half of Teulé is Kerri Chandler, in case you’re interested). This isn’t a groundbreaking cut by any means, and its lyrics are pretty damned simple— “So come here and have a little drink on me,” the chorus (in part) goes—but it feels right. That piano, the in-place rapping/singing, most of all the feeling. That’s what it is.

Gonzalez mixes some classic jack and acid tracks into his disc, too, like Hercules’ “7 Ways to Jack” and Tyree’s “Acid Crash.” Louie Vega gives it up good ‘n’ plenty for the Chicago label, Trax, on his disc, peppering the proceedings with such classics as Robert Owens’ “Bring Down the Walls” and “You Used to Hold Me” by Ralphi Rosario featuring (funny how these things work) Xaviera Gold, which gets mixed straight into another Trax gem, Joe Smooth’s “Promised Land.” He works in a couple of tracks with his own fingerprints on ‘em, as well (opening disc two with his own Mr. V-featuring “V Gets Jazzy,” a rework of KC Flightt’s “Let’s Get Jazzy”—which Kenny Dope uses on his disc, and dropping MAW’s “Our Mute Horn” later in the set). Ultimately, though, the individual tracks found here aren’t of the utmost importance. It’s about the vibe, about the love, about the respek’. That’s all here in profound evidence; it’s likely that no one worships at the altar of house music as truly, madly, deeply as Kenny Dope and Louie Vega, and on The Kings of House, it shows. Even if you know every song found here, you don’t know them in this context, which means that no matter what, any lover of house needs this in his/her collection. Sho’ nuff/ya dig?