Numuzik Inc.

Numuzik were most arguably the most influencial independant label when it came to Eurodance, Euro House and Italodance music during its 10 years of services in Canada (and most likely North America too, as the Eurodance scene was almost non-existant in the US). The label alone released dozens of best-selling compilations, spawned a handful of Eurodance-oriented acts and artists, and is pretty much responsible for bringing the European Dance sound into Canadian territory.

The best series to look after is definitely the "D.J. Line" series. Spawning 30 compilations, it covers most of the glorious era of Eurodance, starting in 1992 with late Italian House music produced by Pierre Feroldi (DJ Pierre, Ruffcut, Magic Marmalade, Synthesis) and a handful of tracks from the Italian Style label roster, all during the first six instalments of the series (all tracks are in their full-length, extended versions), then kicks up with Eurodance as we know it from volume 7 onwards.

Unfortunately, as with most genre-oriented series, it starts fading in quality at some point, with the release of the volume 14, when tracks were found to be heavily edited or shortened (either featuring radio versions or shortened extended versions), thus killing the main purpose of the series which was to service DJs with club music material (though there was still the 12" records line for that purpose). The inclusion of more House music and filler tracks didn't help the cause, and contributed to slowly kill the series, which was already fated to die due to the popularity of Eurodance fading by the beginning of 1995.

The D.J. Line series is still a valuable series to own, a history of an ephemeral but still fondly remembered genre of Electronic Dance music through its complete lifespan (1992-1997). Also check the "D.J. Club Mix" and the "Dance Machine" series, which are the DJ-mixed equivalents of the D.J. Line series (good if you care more about the music and not so much about owning unmixed versions).