**** Various Artists

THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT

(Moonshine)

If you like hard house, this compilation is a must-have. It opens with Todd Terry's big, booming remix of Sabrina Johnston's gospel shout "Reach Higher," an extended power play in which it's hard to tell which is tougher: the bright, raw strength of the diva or the bottom stomp rhythm of the DJ. Hard house doesn't get any better than this (Terry proves his sense of rhythmic joy is the equal of Junior Vasquez's), but it does get cuter, as Joi Cardwell's delicate "You Got To Pray," Karen Pollard's "Reach Out to Me," and Thelma Houston's vibrant "I Need Somebody Tonight" make clear. All house music needs to feel the spirit of deep gospel: Kerri Chandler & Michael Watford's "Kerri's Theme," Althea McQueen's "U Gotta Get Up," and Soulful Behavior's "Get To Groove" epitomize it. Male-sung in that liquid low baritone that made early house sound so strange, these songs and others in this uncompromising set will make your soul sweat and your body go bump.

-- Michael Freedberg