Including footage from Miami, Ibiza, the Berlin Love Parade and elsewhere, Ministry of Sound's The Annual 2003 is an excellent round-up of some of the year's best moments in dance (although it's a year in advance of its title), to the point that you can almost forgive the brand's association with "corporate clubbing", extending as it does from headphones to hoodies. The music comes from 2 Heads, M001, Julie McKnight, Distant Soundz, Hi-Gate and several others. The notorious Ministry mixes are often derided, but this one holds up pretty well. One of the best features on the DVD is the optional visual presentation of the 72-minute main feature--you can choose to watch either the reportage footage or a bloopy graphic mix. The latter isn't the best--check out The Shamen DVD Collection (seriously) for that--but it's a great value-adding concept.

On the DVD: The Annual 2003 has special features that are not only very good but are really as central to the enjoyment of the package as the main bit. They include interviews with Fergie, Paul van Dyk, Danny Howells and Freq Nasty and a trailer for the mixing-for-fun BPM console game. As well as the alternative visual streams there are stereo or 5.1 surround sound options and subtitles in five languages, all of which is commendably unskimpy. --Roger Thomas