20 best commercially available/broadcast quality dance mixes!

OK, in no particular order, here are my top 20 favourite radio or CD mixes. I've been wanting to write about these mixes for a while, but just haven't got round to it, really!

1)Coldcut -JDJ 
It's funny, but most of my favourite DJ mixes are defined by a single moment or track dropping which elevates it above the rest somehow. In this case it was  the closing act of this mix: 'Dr. Who' theme, followed by The Moody Boys 'Free' and DJ Food's 'Dusk', by the time  'Sparky, the magic piano' exclaims-"Your time is up I will no longer play for you!" the awareness that it would  be a while before I heard something as good again almost turned to a sort of bereavement. I realised that not only was this mix one of the best I'd ever hear (despite my relative ignorance of dance music at the time), but that it was extremely rare to hear any DJ back then go through so many styles. From Joanna Law to BDP, Jello Biafra to Jedi Knights and Plastikman to Jhelisa, this mix is, I believe the first genre-hopping trip through late 20th Century music to achieve universal acclaim. My belief is that this mix is the closest in spirit to the original hip hop DJ's of the 70's and early 80's, whose main concern was in finding the breaks to make people dance, a style which had almost disappeared in an era of 90's era swagger rapping and murderous rivalry or political po-facedness. Of course, a few years later, 2 Many DJ's came along with pro-tools to dispel the dominance of single genre dance mixing forever(I hope)

2)Justin Robertson Select free JDJ, (tape)1995

3)Trent Reznor & Charlie Clouser -Natural Born Killers Soundtrack, 1994

4)Dj Sneak Essential mix, August 1997

5)Richie Hawtin mixmag live 20

6)Derrick Carter: Mixmag Cosmic Disco (&Cut The Cra Back To Basics)

7)Liam Howlett - The Dirtchamber/Breezeblock mixes

8)Daft Punk Alive 1997(& Essential Mix Aril 1997)

9)Chemical Brothers Brother's Gonna Work It out(& NME Xmas Dust Up tape)

10)Richie Hawtin Dex, FX & 909

11)2manyDJ's-As Heard On Radio Soulwax,Vol. 4

12)Freddie Fresh-Essential Mix, 1997

13)James Lavelle(w/ The Psychonauts)-Cream Live

14)Jeff Mills Live @ Liquid Rooms Tokyo

15)DJ Krush & Coldcut-Cold Krush Kuts

16)Carl Cox F.A.C.T

17)DJ Lottie Muzik Maagzine summer 2001

18)Any Weatherall Fabric(& Cut The Cra Back To Basics)

19)Fatboy Slim-Beat up The NME

20)Dope Smugglaz Essential mix November 1998

I believe next time, I will give a list of my favourite Ive sets an  DJ gigs, as all this listing is right u my street.

I love my comics sometimes, I really do!

Just as I was beginning to tire of the amount of stuff on my pull list, and at a time when I was of a mind to wonder if still reading comics at the age of 34 is a symptom, or part result of my M.E and depression, things begin to look  up, wahey! 

Topping the list of my new reasons to be cheerful is 'Batman Inc. #6', written by Grant Morrison and featuring  the fresh and almost fetishist pencils of Chris Burnham, which contains so many characters, concepts and locations that it would fill up at least 3 issues in a lesser team's hands.

  The scene(panel, rather!) with the aboriginal Batman was so cool I thought I might cry a little, and the other little touches, like Dr. Dedalus' coat-tails turning to smoke were no less affecting, either. Overall, I'm simply amazed that the whole Batman corps versus the shadowy Leviathan storyline has exploded the way it has, after a relatively slowbuild in the series so far and I'm looking forward to August, which is another new beginning for the DCU, it seems. According to a lot of sites, and the DC solicits for August, only one comics will be coming out on the last week of that month, and that comic is the last part of "Flashpoint", which began last week. Of course, at this stage my inner fanboy(and accounts dept.) is more fretting over which tie-ins won't be a total waste than the main book, but suffice it to say that Geoff Johns' story, pencilled by Andy Kubert, would have to have been produced under the influence of severe anti-psychotics and drink on the month in which both men's entire families had been kidnapped or something for it not to be at least worth a look, give both creators' stellar track records. As it is, the story put the readers squarely in the alternative reality  using narration by this other place's Batman, while making Barry Allen both the centre of the story and the character through whom we see what's up.There's a big reveal at the end which surprised noone, really, and the best element of the story so far was in the interaction between variations of characters most of us fans would know and getting to see Cyborg in action as the lyncphin hero, rather than the Teen Titan babysitter/JLA sideman he sometimes ends up.

Across the divide, Marvel's 'Fear Itself' entered into the second issue, and things seem to be heating up, as hammers hurtle down from space, landing next to the already fairly intense characters like the Hulk, and transforming them into super, ultra badasses in the service of an evil god, who was resurrected by Sin(Red Skulls daughter)in the last issue. The story is ok, Matt Fraction seems to be able to spin a tight yarn well, but the best thing about this for me is the art team of Stuart Immomen and Wade Von Grawbadger, whose work here is very clean, fresh and basically a joy to behold. I'm not the biggest Marvel fan(and I simply can't be arsed with Thor for the most part) , but I'll no doubt stick with this series til the close, for the art if nothing else.

Originally a reply to yet another Moore v Morrison rammy on the cbr forum board.

Grant Morrison has always maintained that he prefers to tell stories that attempt bring bright colourful superheroes into our corrupt and and morally decaying world, which is more or less in direct contrast to the Alan Moore method of bringing our world to the superheroes in order to see how they would fare. When fans(and Moore himself) then accuse Morrison of some vague type of plagiarism, it somehow reminds me of Stan Lee talking about Marvel comics of the early 60's being alone in reflecting the 60's counter-culture, simply because he added a little depth and pathos to his characters' personal lives. Now,  I'm not disputing Marvel's revival of the comics industry at all, but, in fact, DC's stories had begun to anticipate(whether consciously or not) the weirdness of  sixties youth culture in story elements involving mindbending chemicals, evil conspiracies and mind control and with the late fifties rebooting of characters like Green Lantern and the Flash(among other concept renewals and revivals.), under noted sci-fi fan, Julie Schwartz. To me, expecting a writer to come up with the amount of new concepts to satisfy all, is like asking a rock band to make music entirely with instruments they've invented themselves, while avoiding using any chords that have been used before: Impossible.

 When I compare the documentaries 'The Mindscape Of Alan Moore' with 'Grant Morrison Talking With Gods', although I clearly enjoy both depictions of two singularly talented creators, I personally feel the rolling stone gathers no moss 'argument'(or 'no beard vs all beard' to some) for Grant Morrison's style comes out on top. He puts a lot of himself and his life and travelling experiences into his comics, whereas Alan Moore does seem content to judge, sorry, write about the world, from the relative safety of his admittedly large library and his beloved hometown of Northhampton.

It's interesting to me that the two most revered comic authors, whose tastes and influences are similarly esoteric and occult, of the last 25 years are so heavily divisive in their appreciation by their respective fan bases. For a medium that has slowly been gaining literary validation, this war of trolls makes the 'Beatles Vs Stones' or 'Blur Vs Oasis' ego wars/marketing tools of the pop music industry look positively dignified  and worthy by comparison. 

In general, Grant Morrison's most ardent fans seem to think that Alan Moore's work is over-rated at best and unbearably stagnant at worst; Moore's biggest admirers apparently feel that Morrison is a Johnny-come-lately fopp, whose best work was ripped off from Mr' Moore's good chum, Mike Moorcock(completely ignoring the fact that Morrison was a self-confessed unwordly 17-year old when he wrote those stories for 'Near Myths').  This is an annoying often-raised point that Morrison himself can forget when it comes to the filming of  'The Matrix'(but that's another story). The only thing the trolls seem to agree on is that their least favoured is over-rated. On comic book forums, any praise for one is quickly followed by an infuriating war of words by fans of the other. The sad thing is that none of the endless viewpoints raised are right or wrong-they all just form a depressing part of of the geek landscape.

   For my part, I believe in some form of a shared consciousness, as it helps to explain such occurrences as why the world erupted into war in 1914 & 1939, the hippy/punk/metal/rave generations, the renaissance, the internet explosion, the sixties, the war on terror's impact on western life and much more besides. There can be no theft of ideas if we are all individual working parts of the same whole universal mind. For no real reason, other than having seen the concept in comics ages ago I began thinking about morhphogenetic grafts, then ended up watching those Morrison and Moore films back to back on a Saturday night when I couldn't sleep while yet another Moore v Morison raged on the Comic Book Resources forum. The experience further enhanced my view, from misspent weekends of my youth, that there most definitely is a shared consciousness for humanity(and perhaps more besides) 

Although I respect their individual achievements and ways of thinking, I see them as basically serving the same function, which is to disseminate subversive ideals, memes and ideas to the youth of the day through the refracted lens of an innocuous medium.  They are actually very close in those ideals, even if they arrived there from very different avenues and are so dissimilar personally that even their fans can't get along. Another analogy could be made from comparing them to the two party system prevalent in most systems of western politics, but I'm not going to even begin with who the fuck's who there, cos it's all the same to me now. 

 Finally, to confirm my slight allegiance to on or the other, I'd have to say Grant has definitely outshone Alan in the end, simply through being more gracious towards criticism and working well within the framework of his chosen  medium to its ultimate advantage for all. I consider the ABC line to be Alan's crowning achievement, but even that has been marred by ownership wrangles and demented accusations. That being said, anyone who says that 'Necronomicon', the one bit of 'League Of Extraordinary Gentleman: Century' that came out in 09 and 'Dodgem Logic' are better, or somehow worthier, comics than 'Final Crisis', 'Joe The Barbarian', 'Seaguy: The Slaves Of Mickey Eye', and the latest installments Gmo's Batman epic run clearly hasn't been bothering to read them all.

(Post-Script: I keep coming back to this post, as I feel there is more to say on the subject, so don't be surprised if it is, or will be, changed)

Superhero President Saves well, one campaign promise, anyway.*

It had to happen, didn't it? As soon as I post a blog that reveals there's still a soppy, blinkered hopeful twat somewhere inside me(See my loving rant on the qualities of 'Justice League International' as they apply to me!) that still believes in the basic decency of humanity and justice for all, a black, sorry, special ops team set foot on Middle Eastern soil to murder the world's most wanted man. I'm not saying I don't believe Bin Laden was evil and deserved death,  rather that a fair and impartial trial would have been nice first. Not only might it have laid to rest all the conspiracy theories of true culpability for the 9/11 attacks, and added to the enquiry over what happened that day, it could also have been America's spectacle for the whole world; a sort of darker equivalent to our Royal Wedding, except it would've lasted months and ended with a definite death sentence for one instead of possible life for two.
I don't believe that a 12 man team were incapable of taking the Bin Laden's alive, it was just easier to get it out of the way, as a sort of wish fulfilment thing for the Obama administrations failure to get out of Iraq and close Gitmo as soon as was promised. The glee on the President's coupon was so palpable, and his alluding to his role in the operation so prominent, that I fully expected him to tell the world he'd been controlling the leader of the kill team from his fucking X-Box 360. On the early evening news we were treated to footage of a plain looking albeit blood soaked, room where, we were told, Bin Laden had taken a bullet to either his right, left or maybe even both eyes. Where his son's fatal wounding occurred on his body remained unknown. I've never been more grateful that I don't have kids I'd need to explain some segment of the news to. Apparently, one of three helicopters malfunctioned just prior to landing, which was cool because it gave the team a great excuse to create a massive explosion on the way out, perhaps in tribute to Arnold Schwarzenegger's retirement from US politics earlier this year. In hindsight, Obama should have said "I was involved closely in all stages of the operation-except the pre-flight maintenance of the faulty chopper that was, eh, Hilary's job to oversee" its not as if his credibility would have been called into question.

Tearful celebration  and joyful hysteria has broken out since the world found out Bin Laden has died and the US gets to call out "Mission Accomplished" yet again, just like they did in Afghanistan when they drove out the Taliban and in Iraq when they sacked Baghdad. Actually, going by previous accomplished missions, it now seems that Osama Bin Laden is set to rise from the grave with some sort of new masterplan to destroy the west, perhaps as leader of an army of zombies, although as a shambling, brain ravaged monster, they'll probably find him in less than half the time it did before, for sure.  Probably about four years.
Just to clarify, there is not a single doubt in my mind that Bin Laden was responsible for unspeakable atrocities and deaths of innocents in their thousands, I'm just dispirited that he was never made to truly answer from his crimes. What can they be getting out of halfwitted, confused and idiotic British citizens such as Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, or other idiots like the one with the weird bomb in his pants, that is of any real use? One might begin to think they were not even remotely interested in interrogating the world's most notorious terrorist. I'm usually just another sad fuck who write about his favourite comics, and it occurs to me now that I'll probably be happier if I can stick to thinking about that stuff in the future. You have no idea how much I wish I was fucking dumb right now.

* At the time of writing this article, I was unaware that Mr. Obama had just recently signed his healthcare bill, and was more focused on promises made such as:- More transparency in White House goings on, as well as the closure of Gitmo and withdrawal from Iraq. I did not, do not, and will not ever, care if he was born in Hawaii or not. Also, I was a bit concerned and, yes, even offended at apparent slights to the UK such as the return of the Churchill Bust and his insistence on re-naming the multi-national oil company, BP, as British Petroleum(it's original, and long since discarded name) during lengthy press conferences during the oil spill last year. Kudos to Mr. Obama for listening to & implementing Ms. Clinton's long sought after health care reform. But Bin Laden should have been arrested, questioned, tried and sentenced to death on US soil. The End.

complaints about people #6,000,003- Folk too ready too agree with anything.

people who agree with everything you say

Being a total fucking  misanthrope, I see the reasons for this bizarre phenomenon being one or more of the following:-

a they want something
b they're pretending they're so smart they already know what you're saying
c they're thick
d they have nothing to say for themselves, so are agreeing to deflect conversation from themselves
e they're wishing they were having another conversation, with someone else, or else they'd contribute something
f  they're waiting for their chance to talk, so agree in order to pint out that everything you're saying is utterly superfluous
g they think you're a wank, so only enter into the minimal conversational requirement!

I'm aware many of these reasons totally contradict others, but they are all equal in the eyes of an attempted conversationalist who has ended up annoyed orator. Sometimes I disagree just for the sake of not having to repeat the other person by proxy, like the time I found myself arguing that Eminem was more of a true representative of the feelings of his generation than Bob Dylan had been, based purely on Dylan's tendency to go off on pretentious stream of consciousness rambles about Spanish leather boots, bloody traintracks or John Wesley Harding's beard or whatever. It wasn't how i felt for real, but it sure as fuck stirred the pot, like any conversation worth remembering usually does.

A conversation without even a tiny degree of opposition is pointless, like 5 word emails are. what's the point of bothering to switch a pc on, go online, type in your passwords, open up a mate's profile to say - "I'm oK, how are u?", its fuckin daft, man. Like "LOL", I hate fucking "LOL", whether it means Loads of Love of Laugh Out Loud, which is more often the case, because some people type it meaning that so often that if they'd been laughing out loud as much as they typed it in a similarly mundane real world conversation, they'd find themselves in Carstairs in twice the time it would take to punch them in the mouth for it.

 Some couples have so little to say that they boast about being able to finish each other's sentences, like that's a good thing and if they're married it always makes me think, "well, that may be so but d'ye think ye'll finish the fuckin the life sentences ye handed each other in the church ya borin fuckin bastards?"

On the other hand, i can't stand people who need to be agreed with at all times, and occasionally take to reasonable debate like a spoiled child being told santa has them on the naughty list:- moaning like fuck despite the knowledge that they'll still get the moon on a stick come the 25/12 and bloody santa doesn't even exist anyhow. This need for vague approval through obedient agreement is so fucking annoying I'd rather tell a drunken copper I'd fucked his wife than an attention seeking model she was gorgeous.