When someone such as Laurent Garnier, who is known for making people dance, releases a “personal” album such as the Cloud Making Machine by Laurent Garnier (Mute), listeners should pay attention. Exploring other musical avenues, Garnier remains faithful to the electro beats, but doesn’t limit himself to 120 bpm or higher. On “9:01-9:06,” for instance, he seems to be encouraging dancers to improvise in the same way he is, swerving in and out of traditional dance rhythms. Garnier exhibits a world music awareness on the atmospheric “Huis Clos,” but you’re wondering if there’s anything to dance to here. “First Reaction (V2),” has a hip-hop vibe that is easy to move to, but it’s not until track seven, the aptly titled house hoedown “Controlling The House, Pt. 2,” that the diehard dance-heads will actually get to express themselves. “(I Wanna Be) Waiting For My Plane” is a Velvet Underground-influenced dance rock excursion that soars above Garnier’s cloud making machinery and “Jeux D’Enfants” has a childlike exuberance.

Legendary remixer The Scumfrog knows on which side his bread is buttered and doesn’t stray at all from the explosive dance beats that make him such an in-demand producer and artist on his latest album Simmer (Effin). With an ear to the streets, The Scumfrog sets the disc off right with “Set It Off,” a track that combines dance rhythms and rock energy. “Come On” conjures Mick Jagger and the Stones in their short-lived disco heyday and the title track manages to both simmer and sizzle at the same time. “Domino” is the kind of dance track that is capable of setting off a chain reaction on the dance floor and the new wavy “Bacon,” featuring guest vocals by Lucy Woodward, is good enough to eat (and I’m a vegetarian). “F Karma,” with its gospel vocal eruption, may be the closest thing to a religious experience you will have in a club and “One Thing” is an utterly irresistible and demanding dance blast.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before the purveyors of remix culture turned their attention to vintage soul. Sure, there have been earlier examples of this, such as Diana Ross’s Diana Extended/The Remixes, on which Frankie Knuckles and Maurice Joshua, to name a couple, reinvented retro numbers such as “Someday We’ll Be Together” and “I’m Coming Out.” But with Mayfield: Remixed – The Curtis Mayfield Collection (Rhino), one of the true sacred cows of ‘70s soul, the late Curtis Mayfield has been given the remix treatment. The aforementioned house music legend Maurice Joshua is one such remixer and his Nu Soul Mix of “(Don’t Worry) If There’s A Hell Below We’re All Going To Go,” from Mayfield’s 1970 solo debut, is transformed into a truly underground track. “Move On Up,” from the same 1970 disc, becomes the dance anthem it was always intended to be through Eric Kupper’s Vocal Mix. “Superfly,” “Freddie’s Dead” and “Pusherman,” three of Mayfield’s best known and beloved tracks, all from the groundbreaking 1972 soundtrack to Superfly, are also updated with beats to burn by Little Louie Vega, Blaze and Mixmastermike, respectively. Mayfield’s legendary spiritual side is also pumped up through Eddie Baez’s Laid Back Mix of “We Got To Have Peace” and StoneBridge’s slamming Club Remix of The Impressions’ “People Get Ready.”

Making its domestic debut with Kicking The National Habit (Sunday Best), U.K. duo Grand National also has a retro feel pulsing through its songs. It doesn’t stretch as far back as, say, the early-to-mid 1970s, but it does have echoes of the Police, a band that was definitely an influence for at least one half of Grand National. In fact, there are moments where the vocals on a song such as “Playing In The Distance” distinctly recalls Sting. Like other organic dance bands, however, Grand National infuses its music with a humanity that electro-only groups tend to come up short on or disregard altogether. Unabashed dance-floor workouts include funk-driven “Drinking To Moving On,” the brassy, ska-touched “Boner,” the slinky beat of “Peanut Dreams,” the vintage Latin disco of “Cherry Tree,” the new wave disco of “North Sound Off” and the aforementioned “Playing In The Distance.”