The words "kevin saunderson" and quality techno go hand-in-hand, and this mix CD is certianly no exeption. Put together as a tribute to Kevin and Juan Atkins Detroit radio station Deep Space radio which was live in the mid 90's, it includesd some live jingles and edits from the show to give it a live insight. The thought of jingles over a decent techno mix may not appeal to some, and it takes a bit of getting used to, but its a small sacrifice to make for a top mix of the finest selection of records from Europe and America. This is a release form a Dutch label (Studio!K7), so there is an emphasis on a lot of tracks from the likes of Dobre and Jamez, the duo behind most of
"fresh fruit" records and "Touche" records. It starts off with possibly the most well thought up into ever (it lasts 4 minutes!), and rolls into a Stacey Pullens "ritual beating systems", which is a bongo and synth tune that rolls on and on with no beat for almost 4 minutes before Kevin cuts in a superb record from the Tata Box Inhibitors, full tribal all round -perfection.
9/10.

I am baffled that some people regard this as the best in the X-Mix series. It is certainly different and the radio commentary makes it stand out from the crowd somewhat.

However, although a lot of the tracks are excellent, a few most definitely are not while some of the mixing is atrocious (perhaps deliberately so). There is also an air of self-promotion about the whole thing which can get annoying. Give me Angel's X-Mix 4 any day.

I love the voice over on this CD, it add's an element that no other CD has, i'm not sure how to explain it but it's pure detroit by far this is the best detroit mix i have on CD (way better then Juan atkins one, in the mixing/edits category). When i got this CD i listened to it about 3 or 4 times that night. simply amazing!!

This is an example of how edits can be used on a mix in order to make it more exciting. If you're in the know, think of old school Chicago tape edits versus new school edits where the mixes are extended to make them sound longer and therefore more homogenous. The voiceovers only come in for a few seconds every three or four records and don't really bother me.

I highly recommend this disc - lush, melodic, soulful techno that grooves all the way through. It really takes you somewhere; listen to the whole thing from start to finish and don't skip around the tracks. What can I say, Kevin Saunderson definitely deserves to be one of the top five producers/DJ's of all time, his production work slams for the most part, and as a DJ he's excellent - his style is captured well in this release.