If house music was a soap opera, Armand Van Helden would be one of the screenwriters. He’d also be the man behind some of the truly classic episodes.

For the last decade and more, Van Helden has been churning out dance tracks whose abundance is matched only by their consistent quality – whether it’s an underground slice of Latino house cut for the New York dance floors or a remix for the likes of Janet Jackson that blows up worldwide.

Getting Armand Van Helden through the doors of 66 was the kind of coup that even Bolivia in the seventies would be hard pressed to match. It’s not even like he was spinning in Jakarta – 66 got him off the back of a short Australian tour, offering him a break in Bali before heading back to Stateside.

What with his latest release, New York: A Mix Odyssey, Van Helden has emerged from a brief hiatus to blast himself firmly back into the lime light. You only have to check out the track ‘blah blah’ to see why: populism, the underground and downright dance floor stompery combine to irresistible effect. He dropped it last Wednesday around 3.30 in the am with fairly incendiary results. The guy’s not a big smiler, but boy, can he raise one in the crowd.