Midnight Calling - Naked Funk feat. Valerie Etienne - 1992
Suite for Beaver, part 1 - People Under the Stairs - 2002
Remember when iTunes had no gapless playback? That's why I haven't really thought about the stacks of continuous mix CDs, which were my first introduction to "electronic" music...
Both of these tracks made appearances on Mark Farina's "Mushroom Jazz" mixes ("Midnight Calling" on the first installment, the PUTS track on the fourth). The first compilation was really fresh, a great mix of hip hop, acid jazz, downtempo. Not too much of anything, and staying away from a standard 4/4 house rhythm gives these some variety along with a groove you can move to, without being too "dancey".
People Under the Stairs are worthy of their own (an L.A. duo who signed with San Francisco-based OM Records around 1998), but the party vibe in this song goes well with the dance vibe on the mix as a whole.
