03-02 Daft Punk and 03-16 DJ Sneak
The problem with this sort of filter house is it gets samey and repetitive quite quickly over a 2 hour set. DJ Sneak does it slightly better IMO because he adds some latin flavours here and there. There’s no disputing he is the king of this subgenre really (8/10). Daft Punk add some annoying bounce in parts that even a scouse house DJ would probably cast off. Still, it won Essential Mix of the Year, so maybe I am missing something. 8/10 just to have Millsy absolutely FEWMIN.
Listening to and reviewing all 1997's Essential Mixes
03-09 Ashley Beedle and 03-15 Seb Fontaine
(At the time) Cream Resident and future Cream Resident. Ashley Beedle’s set (7/10) is the more interesting while Seb Fontaine knocked out a 3 hour live set here without pissing his pants so deserves credit for that (6.5 upgraded to 7/10).
Looking like a deflated airbag 3 months in.
Bitten off more than you can handle.
Bite the bulket and send an SOS to JohnnyYeah Dave, before it’s too late.
I do wish Jonattan Yeah would come back, to be fair.
I would absolutely LOVE Canles McJeggings to do a guest spot for April too.
Cheers Hugo.
Into the weeds we go!
The Snr weeds too!
Hugo has just PMd me, volunteering to do April and May.
Who wants to see that?
Imagine having to be bailed out by Hugo.
Dave doing his usual ‘hold my beer’ and then fucking off out the tradesman’s. Tatters.
Fair play for making it the whole way through the year to March, dave, before submitting double reviews, no tracklists and a writing tone that suggests you’ve completely lost the will to live. With only 9 of the 12 months of the year left to cover, this will end up a board classic.
Dec 1 No idea who it was. Shite.
Dec 8 Fucked if i know. Didn’t check. Don’t care.
Dec 15 Fuck my life.
Dec 23 I want to die…
Dec 30 “anyone heard from dave?” The jonny yeah curse of the ess mix reviews strikes for a second time!
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bosstrabs 02-23 Nick Rowan
Gave this a spin, partly as the tracklist looked baffling.
I thought the mix itself was as baffling as the tracklist suggested. All over the place with a lack of cohesion and a fair bit of guff. ‘Song to the Siren’ over ‘Offshore’ is a mess that does neither track justice. I thought my ears were playing tricks with me.
bosstrabs Enough screen time! Nick went back to the Essential Mix he was also supposed to be delivering to Tongy that week, rage coursing through his veins. He cued up banger after banger, an eclectic set with focused mixing:
I agree that it sounds like the mix of a man filled with rage, but more in a ’having a mental breakdown trying to complete a jigsaw and chucking the pieces across the room" kind of way. I think the relative quiet from Tong-y was less out of respect and more out of just wishing to stand back as Warren has his meltdown.
It’s still not a complete failure, a mix which peaks with ‘Hidden Sun of Venus’ would struggle to be, but 8.5 seems generous.
Mad_Cyril As part of X-Press 2 I think Amps
Hmmmm. Maybe @bosstrabs can clarify here, as I think he was resident just as himself.
- Edited
bosstrabs Hugo has just PMd me, volunteering to do April and May.
Mad_Cyril Imagine having to be bailed out by Hugo.
Lol. I’m definitely not doing all of those, but having looked at the list I was curious about the first one in April anyway, so I’ll do a one-off guest review. You’re still on the hook for the rest, and there are a couple from March you’ve not done yet either!…
06-04 Sven Väth
The year is 1985. A bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Sven Väth emerges from ballet school, and devises a plan with his dear friend Michael to find an excuse to prance about on TV. Desperate music industry executives in a culturally bereft and irrelevant divided Germany give the pair a record contract with little objection. ‘Off’ are born, and with little in the way of competition on the German airwaves, they garner some initial buzz. But then, disaster!
An appearance on German show ‘Discoring’, performing their latest single ‘Electrica Salsa’… Not even the ravenous mob of teenagers in the audience fed on a diet of David Hasselhoff and cheap amphetamines could deflect from the sudden realisation of what viewers were watching - the Emperor has no clothes! ‘Off’ were turned off - as the duo were swiftly dropped by their label.
Fast-forward a decade, their music dream in tatters, and the pair are making ends meet working at the local Volkswagen factory soldering electrical components. Working overtime late one evening, Sven starts fiddling with the radio playing on the factory floor. At some point, the receiver picks up the crackling signal of a pirate radio station wafting across from Berlin, on which a DJ is playing Juan Atkins and Basic Channel records.
“Ach, Mein Gott!” squeeled Sven. “Was ist diese moderately paced music, vich machs mein toes tvinkle, und mein Herz so desolate feel als ein nacht-time autobahn in vinter?! Michael, maybe ve can mach somezing similar mit diese Machinen hier. Du hast ein tape-recorder, ja?”
“Richtig. Was für eine tolle Idee! And this music has no lyrics, so we don’t have to hear your shitty voice again!”
So the pair got to work, staying behind every evening after all their colleagues had gone home.
“Michael, how is it venn ich diesen button push?” “Ohh, es macht ein Fizz!”
“Vass venn ich pull dis knob?” “Es ist wunderschön Sven!”
“Und venn I vack mein hammer on this shaft?” “Ja… Don’t stop Sven!”
“Dis work macht mich schvett. Ich muss weg mit mein top.” “Ah Sven, all dis hart labor hast du schwoll”.
And so, many months and dinners of cold bratwurst later, their cassette was finally complete.
“Sven, vass should ve mit diss do?”
Again, Sven turned to the radio. Fiddling with the knob once more, a voice called to him: “Welcome to another edition of the Essential Mix, with me Pete Tong”.
Sven chucked the cassette in to an envelope addressed to Pete Tong at the BBC, along with a slip signed ‘Sven Väth, Germany’.
On receiving the tape, Tong thought it was pretty good and worth playing. He wondered whether he should try and get a bit more information about the artist before doing so, but then figured that it wasn’t necessary. “You’re listening to Sven Vath, from Germany” he says over the mix. No more context is provided, or needed.
Meine Bewertung: “Siebzig von Neunundneunzig Luftballons.”
Grant’s rating: “Pots and pans. Foreign muck. 2/10.”