Favourite Compilations/Mixes

[Enjoyed]

I love a good compilation/mix CD.
'Brothers Gonna Work It Out', the 'Finger Lickin' Thang' compilations and Skint's 'Big Beat Boutique' CDs were early favourites of mine that really opened up a world of new music but also a new way to present it - i.e. mixed seamlessly together to show off as many top tunes as possible.

I've always wanted to post in Now Playing with the entire compilation I'm listening to at the time but for space saving, and hopefully to create a little more discussion, I thought we could share our favourites here.

So to kick things off, I'd like to share a breakbeat favourite of mine that is currently filling my bedroom/workplace with delicious bass and tasty tribal rhythms - and also doubles as a fantastic mix for cycling to (IMHO).



Including a miss printed Santos track (it's actually Sabot, not No Ticket No Run), some Lee Coombs exclusives (including a cheeky Orbital Chime remix) and easily the best bongos in breakbeat, this mix is always a delight to return to. It's got a dark retro techno feel but also the same funky Finger Lickin' vibe that made me fall in love with breakbeat in the first place. I highly recommend checking it out.

Here's one of his mixes of another classic that for ages I just assumed was the original (as it doesn't mention it being his remix on the back cover).

Enjoy.

[Wolkenkrabber]

Here's one of his mixes of another classic that for ages I just assumed was the original

Pump Up The Jam? Dang you're makin' me feel old. I like Lee Coombs and miss that Nu Skool Breaks period... But nobody is gonna tell me that his breaks mix is better than the Punami Mix from 1990.

Although there was a bootleg acid mix in '05 called Pump Up The Marmalade which came close (listen to a snippet HERE). This bootleg mix was rumoured to be by a well known DJ Duo but never confirmed.

Nice topic though. My CD's are really badly organisd otherwise I'd probably reel off a list of mix albums (and some unmixed comps too). This might be my cue to tidy up...

[Ben_j]

There are a few that I really love :

King Cannibal - The Way of The Ninja
This is a mix done for the 20 years of the Ninja Tune label, "a 74 minute mix of 250 tracks blended, sliced, diced, torn up and finally rendered to audio".
Simply put, this is my favourite mix album ever. Compiling and condensing everything that makes Ninja Tune my favourite label, in a way that makes so much sense despite being a patchwork of so many different things.
https://soundcloud.com/kingcannibal/king-cannibal-the-way-of-the

Fatboy Slim - On the Floor at the Boutique
This was one of the first albums I ever owned, and I listened to it a lot. It's still one of the best Big Beat compilation.

MSTRKRFT - Essential Mix
I could list a good dozen of Essential Mixes, but this one is one of my favourites, perfectly capturing the turbine/electro-rock mood of this era.

EDIT : Does it have to be a CD ? If so the Essential Mix doesn't really fall in this category

[Born In Planet Dust]

All discussion begins and ends here.  This truly is still the gold freaking standard.

[NiCk.Dj]

https://soundcloud.com/kaytranada/0001a

[Joslyn]

Greatest mix compilation imo

Liam Howlett - The Dirtchamber Sessions

My favourite mix compilation
https://www.discogs.com/Derek-Dahlarge-FSUK-The-Future-Sound-Of-The-United-Kingdom/release/62917 (no YouTube link available)
Derek Dahlarge - FSUK 1
This mix got me Big Beat mixes and party

This followed by FSUK 2 and Rough Technique both mixed by the Freestylers and Live at the social by the Chems. Other top mixes for me are Plump DJ compilations

[Enjoyed]

Other top mixes for me are Plump DJ compilations

This was going to be my second post.

I mean...

[MadPooter]

Thanks for posting the compilations. I've been loving listening to these.

There are a huge number of DJ mixes/compilations that I've listened to and loved over the years. One in particular, though, is notable for both good and bad reasons.

The Twelves at one point in time had a grasp on energy that was both inspiring and extraordinary. They relied on remixing others' music, and they completely owned it.

Unfortunately, they peaked with this essential mix.

But what a god damn mix.

See also:

[ThePumisher]

Kruder & Dorfmeister - DJ-Kicks

https://www.discogs.com/Kruder-Dorfmeister-DJ-Kicks/master/252625



Underworld - Back To Mine (tracks 7 to 12)

https://www.discogs.com/de/Underworld-Back-To-Mine/release/6646176



Krafty Kuts - Old To The New vol. 2

https://soundcloud.com/kraftykuts/krafty-kuts-old-to-the-new-vol-2-june-2010-dj-mix



Pendulum - BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix (2005)

[Born In Planet Dust]

I forgot about the K&D DJ Kicks.


Other honorable mentions:

Coldcut - "Revolution" Breezeblock Mix (2001 or 2002) - All music and samples about revolution.  Fuck Yeah. 
Coldcut Vs The Orb - live on Solid Steel 1991.  Bonus points for containing the earliest known version of "Blue Room.
Mr. Scruff - Essential Mix (2010?)
Mr. Scruff - Breezeblock Mix(?) - Not so much a "dj mix" as much as a "radio dj mix."  The commercials (for erotic telephone banking, cheese & onion flavored toothpaste, etc.) are a freaking hoot.  And great tracks.
Kid Koala - ScratchCratchRatchAtchTchChH.  The Last Emperor, Star Wars, Bjork, The Untouchables, Monty Python, Phil Collins, and The Muppets REPRESENT.
Spank Rock - FabricLive.  Straight Up FUN.
Steinski - Nothing To Fear.  Fucking A.

[Fine Time]

In  the  early  2000's  i  used  to  listen  &  record  the  BBC Radio 1 Essential Mixes  in  the  early  hours  of  Saturday night / Sunday morning  and  was  lucky  enough  press  record  for  Paul Van Dyk's  Essential Mix  live  from  Columbia Halle , Berlin 2002.  Such  an  amazing  mix  of  uplifting  Trance  music ,  it  formed  the  soundtrack  to  a  great  Tenerife  holiday  later  that  year  - where  i  played  this mix  over  ,  and  over.  A  track  which  featured  at  the  end  of  the  mix  that  i still  listen  to  . . as  it's  got  that  optimistic  'everything's  gonna  be  alright in  the  end '  feel  to  it  ,  is  Club  Attack's - Solid Sleep  (Paul  Van  Dyk  re-edit)  .  .  .

[MadPooter]

Oh shit. How could I forget 2ManyDJs.

It is *IMPOSSIBLE* to leave 2ManyDJs out of this list.

They're literally devoted to remixes and compilations, and they are amongst the best.

[Fine Time]

This  awesome  fusion  of  techno/trance/acid/  mixed  to  perfection  by  Carl Cox  still  sounds  great  today ,  it  was  released  in  1995  on  tape cassette  -  which is  the  best  version ,  the  later  released  CD  version  had  different  ordering  of tracks  and  didn't  flow  as  well.  I  had  this  on  in  the  car  on  the  way  to see  Chem  Bros  last  year ,  one  of  my  fave  mixes.

                         

[Enjoyed]

It's good for working to. It's good for running to. It's good for cycling to. It's good for snowboarding to. It's good for making love to.
It's just fucking good.

[Wolkenkrabber]

Old thread revival.

Various - Junior Boys Own Collection (JBOCD2). Unmixed.


Purchased in 1994 because it had not one, not two, but three tracks by Mssrs Smith, Hyde and Emerson that didn't quite make it on to Dubnobasswithmyheadman (at least not in that exact form). Throw in the unique production of X-Press 2's Muzik X-Press, the slow building euphoria of Outrage's "That Piano Track" (don't let the intro put you off), and 4 mins 48 secs of Song To The Siren by those new Dust Brothers fellas, and it was an essential purchase. In retrospect this was my first Chemical purchase, but I didn't really know it at the time.

Honourable mention: 1 JBO: A Perspective 1988-1998 (JNR1001782) unmixed. How could any Chems fan fail to appreciate the majority of these? Starts well too, with New Order's Everything's Gone Green; perhaps the first ever indie track to incorporate programmed/sequenced electronic sounds. Yes, I am saying this was the invention of indie dance.
Honourable Mention: 2 Various ‎– A Boy's Own Odyssey (Acid House Scrapes & Capers) JBOD04CD. Unmixed. If you liked the comps above, you'll probably like this. There is some duplication but it's worth it alone for Weatherall's remix of James' Come Home.



Various ‎– The Haçienda Acid House Classics. Mixed



All the classic acid names are here: Last Rhythm, Ecstacy Club, Bassheads, Mr Fingers, A Guy Called Gerald. The seminal "Acid Trax" by Phuture which really set the template (and the name?) for acid house, and my all time favourite acid track: Acperience 1 by Hardfloor. Throw in some Chems favourites - Lack of Love by Charles B and Rock To The Beat - the original Reese & Santonio version (the Chems play the European "101" version) and you have an essential mix of brilliant acid from the late 80's and early 90's. Don't worry about Peter Hook's name on this, I don't think he actually mixed it. Also if you buy this mix album from Amazon they give you MP3s's of all the tracks - full length and unmixed straight away.


Simian Mobile Disco ‎– Club NME Presents Dancefloor Distortion Mixed.


Yes, a freebie! On the cover of the NME for One pound something-or-other back in 2006. "Nu Rave" was perhaps the last musical movement before "the internet" took over - for better or for worse. Remember when the 1st SMD album came out? That feeling of playfulness? Well it absolutely bubbles through this mix from James Ford. Justice remixing Franz Ferdinanad, Soulwax remixing The Gossip and James Ford's own re-edit of the underrated Shitdisco's "I know Kung Fu". You want indie? You want dance? You want to throw your beer and glowsticks in the air? This is the one for you. And it was available from your local newsagents.

Various ‎– BuggedOut! Classics Unmixed.


Released the year following The SMD thing above, there are unsurprisingly some similar names on here: Franz, Soulwax, Justice, Digitalism, and SMD themselves. But so much more. So many great tunes from the broad minds of the BuggedOut! crew, from Nathan Fake to Claude von Stroke, Lindstrom to Felix da Housecat, plus LCD, Braxe & Falke, Daft Punk, Slam, Green Velvet and some guys called the Chemical Brothers. You could probably put together a pretty good DJ set just using these 3 discs of unmixed brilliance. No one would ever know! PS: If you're ever at a music festival with dance tents, and if one of those is a BuggedOut! dance tent, choose that one.

TRANCE
Trance 1: the Credible One: Sasha ‎– Global Underground 009: San Francisco. Mixed.



Gets going around half way through Disc 1. Sounds a little dated now but at the time felt like a proper head trip. Some nice stuff by people like Breeder, Stoneproof, Der Dritte Raum and Slick Mick which I simply wouldn't have heard wihout this well-mixed comp. And it wasn't embarrassing to buy trance if Sasha's name was on there.

Trance 2: the Commercial One: Red Jerry ‎– 'Deeper' Euphoria. Mixed.


Try to ignore that track 1 is a Faithless track and look for the other gems on here. It could be branded a guilty pleasure but, pleasure there certainly is. Three Drives' "Greece 2000" followed by Y Traxx's "Mystery Land" =  guaranteed dopamine response (disc 1). Whilst Lustral's "Everytime" and Travel's "Bulgarian" (which is also on the Sasha mix) are top drawer on disc 2. Throw in some Ferry Corsten with System F's Out Of The Blue to remind you of the halcyon days of Dutch Trance, add The OT Quartet and Subliminal Cuts, and you just can't go wrong.

Rave & Old Skool

Somewhere around the autumn of 2001 all the record companies decided the time was right to release old skool rave compilations. Within a few months they were all selling at a large discount, and it was worth buying a couple of them. These comps aren't really about the mixing, they're about how many rave tunes you could squeeze on to a double (or triple or quadruple) disc compilation.
Rave Anthems (the best old skool rave and warehouse classics) from Virgin/EMI wasn't mixed at all. Just lots of radio edits, one after the next, but it does the job in terms of being a crash course in rave (and look, track 4 is Hou...Hou...Hou House Nation).
Back To The Old Skool from Ministry Of Sound took a similar approach with tracks flowing into each other but not really mixed. And they made the occasional exception re: length, allowing seven minutes worth of Paid In Full (Coldcut mix) to play out.
The Euphoria people decided to add an old skool "dj" name to their effort by having it mixed by Altern 8:
Altern 8 ‎– Old Skool Euphoria . Looks like this might be worth a few quid now, with just one available on Discogs. Altern 8's mixing isn't necessarily worth shouting about, but the packaging and track choice are great!
I've got these three and probably a couple more. Of course that leads to duplication of tracks, but they tend to be cheap. Everyone should have a couple of rave compilations in their collection.

Oh shit. How could I forget 2ManyDJs.
It is *IMPOSSIBLE* to leave 2ManyDJs out of this list.

Agreed. It's surprising that it took 12 posts on this thread before someone mentioned it. And it's nice that they went back and did the "animated sleeves" thing for this mix, considering it's the one that put them on the DJ-ing map. Doesn't feel like a rush job either.

the 'Finger Lickin' Thang' compilations and Skint's 'Big Beat Boutique' CDs

Yep, agreed on Big Beat Boutique. I believe I have a couple of those Finger Lickin' comps in card sleeves. Probably promo CDs.
Speaking of Breaks, that reminds me of Plump DJ's and their mixmag cover mount CD's. Mixmag had a lot of covermount CD's over the years. They often had good stuff on them, albeit they also had some so-so stuff mixed in there too. So it's difficult to pick one good Mixmag CD. But this Plumps one certainly springs to mind:

Plump DJs ‎– The Breakbeat Annual  (Mixmag). Mixed.



Towards The Sun (Evil Nine Mix) by Future Funk Squad is immense. Lots of great chunky beats on here. One day i would like a Breaks revival. It's time to MBGA - Make Breaks Great Again. Don't #DumpPlumps.

Spank Rock - FabricLive.  Straight Up FUN.

Ah the Fabric series of Mix albums. Fabric had two different names for their mix albums reflecting their Friday & Saturday nights. On Saturday it was simply "Fabric"  - generally very techno-y stuff. Fridays were/are known as FabricLive. A more eclectic mix of styles (Breaks, D&B, Electro etc).
So the "Fabric" mix CDs look like THIS. Whilst the FabricLive mix CD's look like THIS. Personally I tend to prefer the "FabricLive" stuff over the "Fabric" stuff. I went on a little run of liking FabricLive No's 28,29,30 and 31 (Evil Nine, Cut Copy, Stanton Warriors, Glimmers). I also agree with you Mr BornInPlanetDust, No 33 Spank Rock was also great (hell, lots of them were!).
So The Fabric/FabricLive mix CD's are definitely worth highlighting, but it's hard to boil it down to one mix alone. Nonetheless I'm gonna pick one based on the fact that it's not too old (unlike some of my other decade+ old selections):

Erol Alkan ‎– Fabriclive 77 . Mixed.



It has Tom Rowland's Through Me on there as well as Erol's Bang (mixed by Steve Dub!). And I think it's the most recent Fabric mix that I own. They're up to 99 now on both Fabric and FabricLive. I understand they're gonna stop at 100. A sign of the times; the end of an era. 


And finally, a spanner in the works, something outside the box. Something that will win me zero cool points.
Stars On 45 ‎– Stars On 45 Longplay Album (Volume II) Mixed.



One of the first mix albums I ever heard. It was like a mini musical education, exposing me to tiny snippets of so many tracks I'd never heard before. From Classic Rock To Motown to Folk Rock to ...um, Abba. Four mini-mixes varying between five and eight minutes in length, containing 16 to 20 tracks each. For years afterwards I would hear a song on the radio and go "I know ten seconds of this one!".
Some say it was the original mashup album, although it only played one (bit of) song at a time. But I sometimes wonder if the Soulwax boys (with their 1980's radio DJ dad) may have been influenced by this thing. Most of these tracks were never inteneded to be disco mixed, but Stars On 45 did it anyway! Of course they did it to eke out a profit from the arse-end of the disco era, but still...there was something to this.

[Born In Planet Dust]

Probably the first great electronic compilation I ever bought (at Circuit City).  Oh, and the Beasties sample in the Chems remix of Voodoo People is Not backwards. 

[neorev]

Favorite mixes:
Prodigy Present The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One
Lazer Sword - Blap To The Future Mixtape
Amon Tobin - Ninja Tune Takeover DJ Mix
King Cannibal - The Way Of The Ninja
Spank Rock - FabricLive
Justice - X-Mas Mix

[Wolkenkrabber]

Forgot this one. From the year before On The Floor At The Boutique.
Another freebie from NME. Great packaging, fun mix. I am never throwing this tape out.

Fatboy Slim ‎– Beat Up The NME

Side 1

Side 2

[Conn6orsuper117]

daft punk's 1997 essencial mix, introduced me to alot of other bands and DJs.

[Wolkenkrabber]

Following on from Fabric & FabricLive discussion above, both imprints have respectively released their 100th and final installments.

Resident Advisor have done an article: Celebrating Fabric's Mix Series

I can't help thinking the Chems must have been sounded out for one of these at some point...