some mixtapes i downloaded with new broadband power:

the avalanches - gimix + breezeblock mix
gimix is the avalanches proper album with all the more anonymous bits replaced by huge pop classics like "girls just wanna have fun" and "got your money". it would be fair to say the avalanches are only interested in conveying two moods (already one more than prime fu manchu, and thus, one too many) - one is a sweet, almost sickly sentimental summers past thing (lots of phasing and swirling and evocative field recording sounds all over the mix, which is a slightly lame device for making it flow seamlessly, unless perhaps they're trying to recreate how these songs sound in their brains when filtered through images, smells, sounds, etc of sunshine and good times and hazy memory [this is also lame!]) and the other one is kind-of similar but with amazing b-lines.

the breezeblock mix is less manipulative in every sense as it's performed live on three or four decks with no stupid effects. they have good taste - more odb (this time it's "brooklyn zoo", which reminded me that it's my favourite ever wu solo single), "let's get butt naked and fuck", "the next episode", "bellbottoms", "if you want me to stay", lots of jackson five, some good stuff that i hadn't heard before, plus obligatory cruddy funk shit that can fill out any eclectic party mix. i think i prefer this one.

dj rectangle - r rated + vinyl kombat + rollin' deep + planet of the tapes + deadly needles
"yo this is ice cube from the westside connection, dj rectangle kick that shit - ya don't stop till the panties drop". i can't decide if rectangle works his mixes so it all comes out as g-funk, or whether he's proving that all good post 80s hiphop is g-funk. i originally heard r rated when i was very young on a crappy cassette; i would call it a pretty big influence on what i listen to, and still my favourite amongst his ridiculous body of work - a bunch of circa-1995 hiphop classics, some famous ("i got 5 on it", "mcs act like they don't know") and some unfairly forgotten (masta ace's astonishing "sittin' on chrome"), united mainly by heavy basslines that demand a physical reaction, expertly mixed at one continuous, obsessive tempo. sometimes he'll drop a catchy scratch routine over the beats and often he'll weave acappelas and instrumentals all over the place. he has repeated this formula exactly on all subsequent mixes, which means its possible to scientifically rate a year in rap music from a rectangle mix alone. (95, 96 and 99 are the best years!) i want a car just to play these mixes in it.

dj vlad - dancehall murda mixtape 2
i think this is a couple of years old but i can't be sure as my dancehall experience is limited to the occasional club night and chris goldfinger. conclusions: quality of riddims can take a while to discern. roots-style club tracks often rubbish. reggae version of craig david's "walking away" hard to extinguish from brain. this is pretty good since i can't find any brand new dancehall mixes.

soulwax - 2manydjs + hang the dj
do soulwax see a really obvious link between emerging nu-electropop scene and bootleg scene? it doesn't strike me as obvious, but it certainly all hangs together well and the tracks sound good on these mixes; more so than anything from those scenes i've heard unmixed. 2manydjs is the real proper-release deal, but hang the dj is two whole hours from radio 1 unhindered by copyright laws. it's sprawling and unpredictable and even though it's another computer-edited set, it's not oppressive like gimix is in trying to tame every track to meet whatever mood the dj is itching to convey, since the modus operandi seems to be: make the heard-everything, cynical-fuck listener grin with childish delight. (way closer to rectangle actually, but i think if i was trying to dance to this i might find it too contrived.) this is really, really good headphone shit for walking, at least until it becomes less surprising in a couple of weeks - i'm scared the magic will quickly wear off and i will find it annoying. anyway, obvious best bit: van halen's "eruption" segueing transcendentally into "superheroes" by daft punk. my goodness!