One thing that the fourth volume in Profile's Best of House Music series can hardly be called is a carbon copy of its predecessor. While Vol. 3 was full of melodic deep house songs that emphasized vocal personality, Vol. 4: Future House is largely instrumental and is all about the track, the producer and the beat -- in fact, most of the material doesn't have an actual song structure. So in order to understand why the volumes are as different as they are, one has to understand developments in dance music between Vol. 3's release in 1990 and Vol. 4's release in 1993. It was in 1990 that house reached the pop mainstream in a major way thanks to Madonna's "Vogue," but mainstream acceptance isn't something that DJs in raves and underground dance clubs aspire to -- and such DJs favored the left-of-center trance and tribal styles over the type of melodic house that had a lot of pop or disco appeal. Indeed, tunes like Leftfield's "Not Forgotten," Acorn Arts' "Silence" and Herbal Infusion's "The Hunter" were recorded for hardcore club hounds and pay no attention to dance-pop's mainstream. The recordings on this CD aren't as abrasive as techno, although most of them don't cater to pop tastes either. True, Hyper Go Go's "High" contains some Chic-like vocals -- and vocal personality is a big part of Liberty City's "Some Lovin'" -- but for the most part, Vol. 4 has very little in common with Vol. 3. Despite its limitations, it's an interesting addition to the series. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide