This Mix Album Is Good (Real Good)

I got a mix album today that is quite exceptional. It’s rare that a DJ mix gets me excited these days, I’ve heard a lot of them over the last 18 years or so, and they generally stopped being remarkable to me a while ago. The odd one tickles my fancy, but they tend to all become a little introspective and are generally compiled for an audience of likeminded musos (which is fine if you’re into that exact sub-genre of click-house or nu-wiggle or whatever) or alternatively they end up sounding like a ‘how cool is my record collection’ know-it-all-show-off-a-thon. Or, oftentimes, just a commercial Ronco-esque Jive-bunny megamix.

But to my jaded ears this is the most sublime and awesome mix I’ve heard in a long long time.

I was going to just link to it and say, get it now! And then I realised that it’s not officially released for over a month. Which made me feel guilty. I shouldn’t have it. And I shouldn’t have heard it. BUT IT IS AMAZING! And I can’t wait for a month to share it with people.

So on the one hand I pre-ordered it from Amazon. Which will make sure that the artist(s) get rewarded somewhere down the line (hopefully). And on the other hand I’m banging on about how good it is, which might mean that someone else buys it too (maybe).

Dj Kicks: Mixed by Booka Shade

Any mix that manages to make sense of Aphex Twin, Yazoo, John Carpenter, Bridget Bardot, Carl Craig, Heaven 17, Ben Westbeech and the Streets is pretty impressive in my book (the tracklist is on the Amazon page). But not only does it make sense of it all, it makes it sound like it was meant to be.

If you want to know more about Booka Shade and hear some of their productions and stuff, head over to Last.fm and check out: http://www.last.fm/music/Booka+Shade – they’re basically a couple of massively influential producers out of Berlin who came up with a track called Body Language a couple of years ago. For me it’s one of the standout dance tunes since 2000.

And once you’ve heard that, I can share with you another ‘Silly Moment in Techno‘ (from a Booka Shade live show)…