Winter Blast I ventured out into the horrible weather a few Saturdays nights ago to dance to the musical stylings of DJ Junior Vasquez at the inaugural of Nitro, the new monthly party at Circuit Nightclub. The crowd was large, way cute, and energetic; the performance by Cyon Flare was short and sweet and on point; and Junior delivered one of the best performances he's ever had in Chicago. It was a really fun night - complete with hot go-go dancers and periodic nitrogen blasts to cool the dance floor - and a great start to the Nitro party. With Hydrate already providing high-quality weekly dance experiences with headline DJs, one can only hope that Nitro (superstar DJ Peter Rauhofer is on tap for the March edition) will be successful in order to provide additional options for those of us who take our dance music seriously Lots of Cox! One of the world's biggest dance music icons and voted #1 Techno DJ in the 2006 DJ Magazine poll, Carl Cox manages to do what very few can: deliver hard pounding techno beats with an abundance of warmth and soul to the dance floors under his control. He now takes aim for your ears and eyes in the privacy of your home with latest effort, GLOBAL (Kock Records / The Twisted Group). This double CD continuous mix has 28 house and techno tracks and uniquely showcases his versatility within a wide range of music that falls under the umbrella of dance music. GLOBAL also has a third disc: a bonus DVD featuring interviews and footage from the Carl Cox & Friends shows in France and Holland as well as his Ibiza residency. Three discs of Cox: what more could you ever want! Winter Party Redux By all accounts The Task Force once again presented a very successful Winter Party earlier this month down in South Florida, complete with sports competitions, cultural events, a variety of entertainment options, and of course the main event party on South Beach under the sun with DJs Brett Henrichsen and Tony Moran. You can now recapture some of the musical flavorings of the weekend with WINTER PARTY 2007, the latest offering from Masterbeat. It's a fun upbeat CD expertly mixed by Henrichsen and features songs such as "Free My Love" by Suzanne Palmer, "U Spin Me" by Inaya Day, "For Your Love" by Offer Nissim, and "Alright" by Red Carpet. This is another top-notch Masterbeat release worth adding to your collection. Once You Go Black When my promo copy of BARGROOVES BLACK (Seamless Recordings) arrived in the mail I was absolutely giddy. I so loved last year's Citrus installment of the Bargrooves CD series and had been waiting patiently to hear their next offering. Well, my patience has been rewarded with this 2-CD mixed compilation of really interesting and infectious deep tech house music mixed by Ben Sowton (CD1) and Martin Brodin (CD2). The mixes have deep electro basslines, lush synths, and tough tribal beats that are perfectly blended together with a tocu of acid. Featured tracks include "Bar-A-Thym" by Kerri Chandler, "He Is" by Copyright, "Fluid" by G-Club. Whereas the Citrus installment of Bargrooves represented the light airiness of early evening and fruity cocktails, BLACK is all about late-night naughty pursuits when the drinks - and certain body parts - are stiffer.