Twenty-five cuts with only one name repeated in the credits, and a spread running from the 66 BPM of 'Fuego En La Pista' to the 140 of 'Il Dan (Interplay 529)': rarely does a tracklist describe the nature of its label this accurately. Nothing But doesn't operate as an auteur imprint, and that's worth knowing before you judge this thirteenth volume by the wrong yardstick. According to LabelWorx's own documentation, it is one of the distributor's in-house compilation brands — alongside LW Recordings and HOT-Q — built from material by the labels it distributes that opt into the service; tracks are picked at least 90 days after their original release to stretch out their commercial life. This isn't an A&R's vision: it's a census of what flows through the independent distribution pipeline.
What the census says
And it says plenty. That club-facing dance-pop now speaks several languages: Italian on Ryan Raya's 'Essenza' and on 'Figli Delle Stelle', arriving in a Stefano Mattara remix; Spanish on Alex Suarez Dj's techengue cut 'Capaz No Funcionamos' and on 'Persiana Americana', a three-way credit for DJ Xquizit, Azathoth and MexiHouse. That the short format rules: Hector Fonseca's 'Body' wraps up its business in 2:02 and almost the whole album lives under the five-minute mark, while Toni Querol's 'Take Me Back' (7:37) and Curtis Jay's 'Kusama' (7:07) stand as relics of classic club-length development. Lukulum is the only act to appear twice, with the instrumental of 'Let's Talk About Sex' and the stadium chant 'Olé Olé Hey Hey!'.
The bulk sits between 121 and 135 BPM, commercial house and radio-ready dance territory, with the two 140 peaks as outliers. Nothing But's identity is precisely that it imposes none: it works as a mirror of the market, and what this volume reflects is a dance-pop landscape that is fragmented, multilingual and getting shorter. As an X-ray of the dancefloor's middle ground, it's more eloquent than plenty of compilations with a signature curator.
Sources: LabelWorx · LW Compilations
