8 Formative Mix CDs
Over the past 9 months I’ve been working on something that encapsulates many dimensions of what this mad music life means to me. It’s a project about the human relationships I’ve forged through years of DJing, about a particular kind of music that people associate with me and my label, and about that version of me from 18 years ago who listened to Ricardo Villalobos mixing Vainqueur into Maurice Fulton for the first time and had his tiny little mind blown wide open.
The mix CD has been having a bit of a renaissance of late and I’m happy to add my own take. Actually, to put it more strongly than that, I can think of no other format that would act as so forceful a statement of myself as a DJ and label owner. This thing I’ve been working on is me, plain and simple.
More details will follow shortly, but first here’s a look back at some of those formative mix CDs that still inspire me today, on the 10th, 30th, 50th listen.
Ricardo Villalobos – In The Mix: Taka Taka (Cocoon, 2003)
Patience, craftiness, delicacy, slapstick, pace, muscle, slinkiness, bravado, unruliness, gravitas, elegance, ambiguity, temporary ecstasy, bittersweet resignation. In my fantasy a DJ set can capture all these and more, and that’s why Taka Taka sets the bar.
Globus Mix Vol. 4: The Button Down Mind Of Daniel Bell (Tresor, 2000)
One of the best to ever to do it as a producer and a DJ, and here he shows off both aspects of his work. The couple of times I’ve played in Globus I’ve tried to conjure just a slice of the magic of this mix, the joyful exuberance of its percussion, the bittersweet bridge section, the soft landing. I never listened to the sequel because this one is so good, but some say it’s even better..?
Magda – She’s A Dancing Machine (M_nus, 2006)
and…
Richie Hawtin – Closer To The Edit (M_nus, 2001)
I came into clubbing through mnml techno and saw Magda and Richie Hawtin play at the M_nus 10th birthday celebration in Fabric in 2008. They both played Virgo’s ‘My Space’ that night, which was probably the first time I’d heard Chicago house. Closer To The Edit is obviously the urtext for the cut-up mix, but it was She’s A Dancing A Machine that first introduced me to The Persuader, so thanks to Magda for that.
Alexander Robotnick: The Disco-Tech Of… (Yellow Productions, 2004)
Possibly the first mix CD I ever bought, around the time I was getting into the Cybernetic Broadcasting System’s Italo Top 100s. It’s not exactly a stellar mix, but selection wise it feels very of a piece with a lot of what I play today. For example, I now see that this mix included ‘Underpass’ by John Foxx, a musician I’ve recently been rediscovering.
Cassy – Panorama Bar 01 (Ostgut Ton, 2006)
My first visit to Berlin was in April 2008, and it was only after that that I went back to this inaugural Pbar mix CD, in which Cassy skips through 24 tracks like it’s a walk in the park. This was my first introduction to Norm Talley and DJ Abstract. The taste level is off the scale. (Marcel Dettman’s Berghain 02 was also a landmark for me.)
Efdemin – Carry On, Pretend We’re Not In The Room (Curle, 2008)
A mix that shows you the power of a vocal, a beatless mix, or a moment of suspension before plunging back into the groove. And the kind of journey you can go on in just 75 minutes between a high camp opener and a poignant closer — albeit one overlaid with a clip from Gossip Girl.
DJ Kicks: Erlend Øye (Studio !K7, 2004)
The first DJ mix CD I really sunk into properly, as an 18 year old making the jump from dance punk to nu disco to Kompakt. Opening with a classic closer (‘So Weit Wie Noch Nie’) is already a statement and a half, and Erlend playing his own radio announcer/karaoke singer throughout, with a nudge and a wink, is another. But listen to the final stretch from ‘Dexter’ (his own nod to Taka Taka?) through Minizza and into Morgan Geist’s ‘Lullaby’ and you’ll hear nothing but the most serious sweetness.
Nice selection. From that 2000s era, 2ManyDJs was a big one for me, and Robert Hood's The Grey Area. Earlier than that -- in the era of cassette tapes copied off the radio -- the FSOL Essential Mix 1994, a hand-me-down from my brother.
thanks Liam! strangely I never gave 2ManyDJs a look in, something I should probably correct as I know they were so influential. The Grey Area is indeed a masterpiece.
90s mixtapes is a whole other domain — but one that for me has played a slightly different role, more one of research and nostalgia later on in my 20s than of initial discovery and formation back when I was first entering this world.
this comment did just make me remember Weatherall's Blood Sugar mixes — not an example of this classic format, but also formative in their own way.
That's a great list -- been ages since I've listened to any of those, really need to go back to the Villalobos, Dan Bell, and Efdemin mixes in particular.
thank you Philip. I don't know if it's a 20-year cycle thing, but right now they sound as relevant and clever as ever.