Tuesday, May 3, 2011

2 great mixes from the turn of the century

First of all, one from Mr Dave Angel, who I've had the pleasure of seeing live a couple of times and is a damn fine DJ. From 1998, we have him in fine form over 2 cds. What I like most about Dave is that he plays his records fast, changing a groovy house tune into a pumping bit of tech funk [It's always been my opinion that a DJ's record box is full of tunes to be worked together - the DJ is their boss, not the other way around. All this nonsense about respecting the purity of the author's intent and playing a track at or near the original tempo and only blending in with other tunes a little bit at the start and end is a load of crap. Play the bits you want to play, save the bits that don't work now for another time. Play the fucking record at whatever the speed you want to work the dancefloor (within reason of course - don't want to go all chipmunk gabba). And, obviously, if you get too smart and fuck with your tracks too much and get your dancefloor pissed off you should rightly expect to cop a very public glassing, kicking, beating, or similar].

But I digress.

"39 Flavours Of Tech Funk" is just that - 39 tracks of different structure and feel, but combined to form a singular energy; he doesn't play too deep or too banging. It's party music to dance your arse off to.
Each CD has a different personality (I prefer the second mix). Of all the flavours of tech funk you can imagine, the only types missing here are those of the TB303 acid variety. It's one of the few techno mixes I can think of that is pretty much acid free. Not that it makes the release any weaker.

Discogs

Dave Angel: 39 Flavours Of Tech Funk (1998)

CD 1 _ 256kbps MP3 ...mediafire
CD 2 _ 256kbps MP3 ...mediafire







Next up, something from the very well dressed Mr Justin Robertson. Have only heard him DJ once, and he wasn't very impressive (but in his defence he had just come off a 22 hour flight and was jet lagged as all fuck). I was never really that into any of his artist projects - do really like "Packet Of Peace" though - and wasn't really aware that he was a good techno DJ until I heard this mix. Frankly, it's one of the best of the period and probably up there with the best there is. Valentino Kanzyani did a similar styled mix around the same time in "Rock The Discotheque", featuring some of the same tracks as Justin Robertson's "Imprint". But where Imprint is a superbly crafted piece of blinding-techno-dance-floor-heaven, Valentino's mix is not very well programmed and sloppy in its execution (even featuring wildly drifting mixes). If I had made that mix I wouldn't have given it out to my mates let alone press up a few thousand copies and put it into shops with my name on the cover.

Discogs

Justin Robertson: Imprint (2001)

CD Rip _ 256kbps MP3 ...mediafire

2 comments:

  1. Probably the best CD I ever lost. Forever grateful to get hold of another copy, I haven't been able to find a replacement.

    ReplyDelete