I want to talk about the mix CD today...

Let's be honest, mixes aren't even on CD's anymore. We've come so far since the days of clicking a big record button on a tape deck, and carefully breaking up your demo into two well thought-out 45 minute slots. Today's DJ mix weighs in at anywhere between 10-minute mini-mixes, and 10-hour livesets, and is only really restricted by the amount of available host space an uploader has on their website account. Indeed, it's easier than ever to point a promoter in the direction of your freshest selection of unreleased floor-bombs. If you're one of the many Facebook subscribers, you'll see this every day.... not least from me. Incessant spam updates linking to Soundcloud or Mixcloud pages, with untold amounts of free-to-listen/download home-made compilations litter social network sites like some kind of audio blitzkrieg, with contents as varied as the weather. And I havn't even mentioned the meteoric rise of the podcast...

Naturally, this was always going to be a bi-product of technological advancement, and I do feel it's still predominantly a good thing that the recorded mix is so readily available to so many, in a world where waiting an hour for something is held in the same regard as a dinner date with an estate agent. However, there's more to it than simply creating an abundance of gratis music. I've been thinking a great deal about this over the past couple of years, as i'm certainly no stranger to setting aside an afternoon and creating an amalgamation of sounds from an assortment of recent favourites. Hell, i've been doing it since 2003, and i'd like to think that despite not always getting it right, i've learnt a thing or two in the 8 years that have since ensued. I would consider only a select few of the mixes i've ever recorded to be of sufficient quality to hand out as a demo to a promoter, but none of this matters, because I still wouldn't do it. I know for a fact that, as a DJ, you'll never get booked to play a gig off the back of a recorded demo... no matter how good you think it is. I know this because of the simple fact that the market is so over-saturated with like-minded turntable botherers that you cannot possibly hope to stand out amongst the crowd. Besides, they'll have already booked their mates to play anyway.

This leads me nicely to the focus of November's blog: What exactly is the point of the recorded mix these days?

If we're no longer using them to curry favour with our local club night organisers, then what is the purpose of spending hours meticulously connecting records together in a patchwork of individual preference, in the hope of crafting something that accurately reflects not only our taste in music, but our technical ability as master of the dancefloor? Maybe there's a few explanations...

First and foremost, I believe it's due to a personal desire to create something that you know you are going to enjoy. Call it self-centred, but I think most of us compile mixes for our own benefit, and nobody else's. There's a great deal of justification in this as well; why not have a 2-hour session of music where you know for sure you're going to love every single record that gets played? It's just common sense. No longer do you have to chance £18 on purchasing a CD, only to find that you only "sort of like" 3 of the tracks on it. Taking it further, it's also an extremely good way of testing a track before you commit to it. By this, I mean that certain records sit better with some tracks than they do with others. Dedicating an afternoon to really listening to a record and stacking it alongside its similarly-preferred brethren is always going to be time well spent. There is no better time to discover that elusive 'sweet spot' when one record drops perfectly and harmoniously at the tail end (or even over the top of) the preceding tune. Once you've mastered it, you make a mental note, and take it to the club with you whilst feigning that effortless look that says all your attempted mixes naturally come out cleaner than Mother Teresa's hard drive.

Whilst we're on the subject of ego stroking, it's probably worth mentioning that a large portion of uploaded mixes are there as a means to showcase to friends just how "on the pulse" you are when it comes to music. I know for certain that it's one of the reasons I do it, and i'm OK with that. I don't see any harm in showing off all the cutting-edge sounds that I spend so many hours hunting down as a result of my inability to restrain the geek within. Furthermore, it's genuinely lovely to receive a warm response for something you're secretly (or not-so-secretly) proud of. I always appreciate every word of feedback I receive (good or bad) as it shows that someone has taken a bit of time to listen to what you've tried to do, and had the consideration to jot down any reaction that arose from it. Indifference, for us, is truly the most soul-crushing of responses.

With that in mind, it's easy to see just how prominent the podcast has become in recent years. Desire to highlight the most upfront music currently out there has meant that every DJ and their dog has started up their own monthly 'cast... most of which masquerade as being transmissions from the label of the host in question, and most of them are presented in a manner that makes Emma Bunton sound like Terry Wogan (I'm sorry Liebing, as much as I love your guestmixes, I am talking about you). These 'pick and choose' radio-style shows have a lot to thank the dramatic upsurge in on-demand broadcasting for, and this format has now become precedent for listeners who just don't have the time to tune in to a regular broadcast, nor burden themselves with the responsibility of trawling download sites for something new. With a vast array of freely downloadable DJ sets suddenly available, the catalogue of what's hot is now brought to your doorstep, and they'll even let you try before you buy. Obviously there's an ulterior motive for all this overwhelming generosity. The mix has moved away from being a promotional tool for the DJ, to becoming a promotional tool for the music it contains. It's no longer a advertisement for the inherent skill of DJ X and his unfathomable ability to merge track A with the altogether-different track B, rather now it's a sales pitch to show you what you should be paying for in a month's time (or not, depending on your moral integrity). From this point of view, the savvy-minded producer can only hope that his crop of audio fabrications make it into as many distributable mixes as possible, as promotion doesn't get any more cost-effective than this.

Finally, for those of you in the privileged position of playing out regularly, the mix is crucial in maintaining an online presence. Whilst it's not a means to securing more gigs, as i've previously mentioned, it is certainly a decent way of keeping a name where it matters; on people's iPod's, and thus in their minds. Not exactly difficult to understand the plethora of Mixcloud links to yer average resident's monthly upload, often imaginatively titled "Tech-House Session #001", as if to suggest the series will easily run into triple figures under the weight of it's almost-guaranteed popularity (Editors Note: I've probably done this myself at some stage as well, for those of you hoping to counter my sarcasm by highlighting the hypocrisy of it all).

So we can still say that there's significant merit in the case for the recorded mix; it's a personal thing, it's an egotistical thing, it's a popularity thing, and it's even a financial thing. One question that keeps arising every time I think about this however, is the following: If there's so many cost-free options available to satisfy our wants and needs as consumers, then why the hell are we still paying for mixes? Perhaps the answer to this is that we aren't. The last CD I received was FourTet's Fabriclive mix, which was a present bought for me by a friend. Mercifully, I loved it (bar the odd track, if I were to be really picky). I'm thankful of this as it would probably piss me off to think that someone had spent good money on something that wasn't exceptional in any way. This is just a personal belief, but i'm of the opinion that a compilation of mixed records has to be outstanding in concept, research and ambition for me to even consider shelling out. CD's like 'Dave Pearce's Trance Anthems' have no place in society, let alone the pantheon of musical history to which it shamefully drags it's poorly thought-out heels. The Annual can fuck off as well for that matter. I demand something that, regardless of whether it succeeds, aspires to produce something that no other has managed to date. Failing that, i'd settle for a collection of records I wouldn't find on any other CD anywhere else (excellent work, Hebden). If you've stuck with me this far, you might also be reflecting on what has made a mix really stand out from its counterparts, and why that mix in particular popped up in your mind as being just that bit better than the rest. I couldn't possibly hope to articulate an explanation, as it's different for each and every one of us. However, i'll gladly share with you a small selection of my favourites, and tell you why they're so.