Jeff Mills - Exhibitionist - A Jeff Mills Mix

I understand the view of people that think this Mix is mixed poorly, but really you can't look at the tracks and how well they are blended you have to look at the over all story that is being told. Personally I think the mixing of this CD is one of the best I have ever heard. I think that Jeff Mills is one of the best composers, Artists, DJs, and Pioneers there ever was. The style put into this mix happens to be the best style out there, in my opinion.

This mix is by no means flawless, but there are people like me out there that LIKE hearing a flub up now and then or a pop in a record. While there are some rough spots, there are also some pretty damn rockin ones and listening to how Jeff put together certain tracks gave me ideas for my future sets/mixes.
Definatly a great CD if you're into Jeff.

This mix takes a bit of a different direction to what I would have expected from a Jeff Mills dj mix. There was a LOT of tracks on here that I was somewhat surprised to hear him play. But I guess I shouldn't be too surprised because he shares a passion of playing good music, much like contemporaries May, Francois K, Juan Atkins, etc, and not letting himself be pigeonholed into one sound/style. Which leads me to my next thought. The mix itself doesn't seem to follow any sort of flow, as compared to his "Live At The Liquid Rooms". This mix is a very cool collection of tunes, but I think Jeff could have done a lot better than this.

An interesting one this. I enjoy Mills mixes regardless of technical faults because he has a unique way of arranging tracks by using the 'best' part of an individual record (sounds curiously similar to Kool Herc's ethos of using the break as opposed to the whole track) the best example of this being his Liquid Rooms mix, which still has the energy to leave me reeling.
Strange then that I found 'Exhibitionist' leaving me a little deflated - bored even. It's not so much the mixing (a few dodgy moments, but even the best of us have 'off' days). No, the problem for me was the music. It was dull and uninspiring. Even the 'better' parts of some of his selection left a whole lot to be desired. Unimaginative and plagarised samba rhythms are slowly becoming the undoing of techno, and here we have a whole host of them tainting the mix. You know it's dubious when you hear 'The Bells' in a mix and think that it's refreshing!
I know that to compare the Liquid Rooms mix to this contemporary mix is a trifle unfair due to the different production values, techniques and influences used back in the early to mid 90s, but I strongly feel that a large part of techno has lost the edge that made it a forward facing, different and futuristic sounding. On this mix it is almost difficult to differentiate between productions because most of the tracks seem to derive from the loop driven formula that Mills inspired and shaped with his Purpose Maker output. But the difference is that instead of shaping, manipulating and striving for new sounds and ideas, the majority of records featured on this mix poorly imitate what Mills was trying to achieve...almost 10 years ago!!!
I recently listened to Mills being interviewed and he said that he no longer uses samples, and he doesn't remix tracks anymore. He strives to create original audio concepts. Perhaps his yearning for originality will be picked up on by his admirers and contemporary producers who use him as a reference point for their often questionable creativity. A case in point being Ben Sims remix of 'Alarms' which is just the usual 'Hardgroove' rinse out that will no doubt set dancefloors on fire, but personally leaves me feeling that I have heard it all before.

I assume this was unrehearsed (as usual) and recorded in one take, 'warts and all'.
This is a true picture of the man in the mix pushing the limits of what he can spontaniously achieve with 3 decks & it's pretty staggering, despite the few mistakes.
I'd never seen someone (remain so calm) holding 2 tracks & a 909 in the mix while searching through his record box for a particular tune (not just the next one in the pile) before I saw him play at the Theckla in Bristol on the Purposemaker tour.
There are very few dj's who put in the kind of effort he does, constantly searching for new combinations.
In my experience, the few times I've seen him, he tends to split his sets into two or three 'acts' with their own destinct vibe, you can hear that on this CD as well as the Live @ The Liquid Rooms mix.

I'd like to know other peoples views on this but the mixing on this is a bit dodgy to say the least. One of the tracks jumps at the end three or four time and eventually Jeff just pulls it out the mix.

The whole production seems a bit of a mess. There is even a gap between tracks 10 and 11. I'm surprised they released it as it is.

Awesome tracks though.