Armand Van Helden ‎– New York: A Mix Odyssey

I like this mix a lot. It may not be a traditional DJ mix in the sense that it's obviously wasn't done on two decks -- rather, it was carefully sequenced in protools -- but for me that doesn't distract from the quality of the overall mix. It flows quite well, with some skillful edits and loops helping to blend modern (circa 2004) house music with some of the most classic tracks the 80s had to offer. If you don't take it too seriously, just throw it on when you want to groove to a bunch of great tracks for an hour, then it's great.

As for the concept of this one, I liked it, mixing house tracks with 80's & 70's tracks, and especially since alot of the modern house sound or sample something from that period, you are pretty much good to go. As for the mixing, well, it's very Armand, but it's also really not. Armand did an interview with DJ Ron Slomowicz for about.com where he explained the mixing with the cd.

"I did one take on the of mix CD very nice and smooth DJish like a real DJ set with turntables and CD, but they didn't like it. They [Southern Fried] said this was too smooth and too normal, we want this to be all over the place. If we put BPMs all over the place, how is it going to work. How am I going to go from a 145 bpm Blondie record into a 129 bpm house record? That annoys people. So most of these mixes were done by DJ / ProTools."

Either how, i enjoy this one alot. Although, i would have rather heard Armand's first take.

This is a great mix. Ruff, raw and straight to the point in typical AVH style. Armand mixes some high energy material that puts you in a clubbing mood, the great track selection makes listening to this one an experience to remember.

Though it's been a while since this album has been released, I would like to say: I don't like this mix at all. Is it a mix? For me it's not. On this CD, he almost always does the same thing, putting the end of one track on loop on his digital cd players, filtering the bass, and bringing in the next song. With almost every 'mix', I was thinking 'come on man, what the **** is this?' The use of classics (Black Betty, Call Me, Tainted Love, and yes ... Owner of a Lonely Heart) is a nice idea, but the fact that I look forward to these songs in the mix when I listen to it, that's just wrong. A good mix-cd doesn't have to make you party, but I think that was the idea behind this one. And do i want to party with this CD? NO, I just want to put in another one.

Brilliant! Whilst some of the recently released mix CDs that have been heavily produced have lacked a spark, AVH is right on the mark in his intro spiel (which you hear before track 1) when he says he was trying to recapture the "good time feelings" that have been lost of late. Using a well-weighted combination of old, new, his own and other artists tracks, AVH utilises modern production / mixing technology to take the listener on a great ride. The mix into Black Betty (yes, THAT Black Betty!!!) shows that, with some careful planning and modern technology at your disposal, anything can be mixed without loss of continuity or feeling. I can't see this one getting bumped from my iPod for a while!!