Armand was House music's best kept secret until his remix of Tori Amos' Professional Widow cracked his career wide open way back in 1996. Since then he's straddled the twin worlds of producer and artist without ever being truly at home in either. His last real album, 2005's Nympho, didn't do either of his personas any good, lacking memorable tunes or razor-sharp production.

So where is Van Helden at in 2007? Wisely, he's realised that he's at his best when mainlining late '70s dance and rock music, as shown to perfection on his 2004 mix album New York: A Mix Odyssey. NYC Beat is the first single taken from new album Ghettoblaster, and it rocks.

This is true machine music; an incessant beat mated with a filtered sleaze of a bass line, fellated with a monotone vocal hook that sounds like The Human League . In a good way. Not a sentence that I'm ever likely to repeat, so go buy it - but remember to wash your hands afterwards.

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end of year feature musicOMH's 50 Best Albums Of 2009 From the nearly 700 albums we reviewed this year, which did our writers love the most? Introduction 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 20-11 | 10-4 | 1-3