Trinere & Friends Greatest Hits

It's 1983 all over again. This retrospective includes music from the formative era of Miami booty bass music, a time when the music still resembled disco performed by robots, there was no such thing as car audio software, and artists like Trinere, Debbie Deb, and uber-producer/DJ Tony "Freestyle" Butler kept the roller skaters jamming. Every song on this collection sounds like the backing track to an episode of Miami Vice. Though it's Trinere's name on the front, the real gems of this collection are Butler's "It's Automatic," "Jam the Box," and "Fix It in the Mix" — early, synthesizer-based dance singles that influenced countless artists and helped shape such later dance movements as Miami bass, Detroit techno, and jungle. As for the songs actually attributed to Trinere, their inclusion here proves that you can issue a greatest-hits record even if you don't have any material that qualifies. Her songs tread the line between disco and what followed, which severely dates tracks like "I'll Be All You Ever Need and "Can't Get Enough." Butler protégée Debbie Deb fares better. "When I Hear Music," included here, was a bona fide hit, and its infectious electro beat saves it from the faux-disco scrap heap. While Trinere & Friends Greatest Hits is notable for its inclusion of Butler's early work, both as an artist and producer, the collection ultimately becomes a bore due to too much weak fare in between the classics. It's fun to remember the '80s, but not when you have to hear all the bad songs. A compilation focusing more closely on the foundations of modern hip-hop, dance, and electro, like Rhino's Street Jams series, would be a better bet.