Various – Mix 'O' Matic

This is the musical equivalent of an own-brand supermarket pizza; cheap, fun, substantially lower in quality than its competitors yet equally tasty and covered in cheese. It's fifty (yes, fifty! Even the Now albums only had a measly 35ish tracks back in '96!) Top 40 chart hits on two CDs divided into four cheekily-named sets themed around a washing machine, of all things. What's not to love?

The reality is that the mixing is overall pretty amateurish, at least when compared to the mix albums that were also around at the time such as In The Mix. But Doctor Fox and his trusty CDJ's never claim to be anything but tongue-in-cheek with their tacky graphics, silly jingles and funny little cleaning icons on the cover (an iron with a cross through it and a sly ecstasy reference are particularly amusing). The Pop Pre-Wash is filled with pre-Spice Girls teeny pop, each mixed with a short fade or cut that actually works pretty well, to the extent you can almost hear the girls on the dancefloor cry with screams of excitement as each new track is quickly ushered in after two and a half minutes. It's the sort of mixing that makes Jive Bunny sound like John Digweed, but it's unavoidably fun and never tries to be something other than cheesy pop.

The mixing starts to get more serious as we move into the Dance Main Cycle, and to the trained ear is filled to the brim with cringey DJ slip-ups; key clashes, inconsistent volumes and the occasional inability to count to four. But you know what? It's hard not to grin from ear to ear with joy when the Bucketheads come crashing out-of-time into Alcatraz or E-Motion emerge out of Babylon Zoo at an alarmingly slow, timestretched plod. There's a carefree, relentless energy throughout the set that is infectiously fun and upbeat, enough to make even the most po-faced trainspotter let their hair down and embrace the madness (It's also amusing given the CD's mix-theme that the best transition out of all the tracks happens between Baby D and Winx, which is no more than a quick, well-timed cut with no actual crossover).

Disc 2 opens with the R 'n' B Rinse Out, easily the most successful of the four sets. The mixing is impressive and the tracks are high quality throughout, with things cooling down towards the end with some slinky grooves from D'Angelo and R Kelly. Etta James feels a little tagged on but would be out of place anywhere else.

Next is the Indie Power Spin, again boasting a very strong Britpop/indie roster including everyone from Skunk Anansie to Pulp. The mixing is minimal, but then again did anyone ever mix rock tracks before 2manyDJs? Despite this, the high energy level is still present and the odd bit of masterful timing gives transitions like the one between Garbage and Edwyn Collins a special sparkle. Finishing with two Motiv 8 remixes provides a conclusion rather than just a bunch of guitar tracks spliced together, and lo and behold they are sequenced together perfectly.

So, leave all pretensions at the door and crack open the bubbly, this is a happy, boisterous compilation filled to the brim with brilliant tracks. It's an ambitious project to build a mix from Take That to Technohead, yet despite its flaws Doctor Fox delivers a fantastic encapsulation of mid-90s pop. Where else can you hear Kadoc optimistically blend into Baby D, or the Outhere Brothers rubbing shoulders with Gary Numan? There's a time and a place for impressive DJ mixes with quality underground tunes, but for those nights when you just need a protein-fuelled sugar rush of pop, look no further than Mix-o-Matic.

Soft spot for this CD, as I was listening to it solidly for 1996. As far as mix CDs go, it isn't very good. As far as a selection of top 40 music from 1996 goes, it's actually very good.
CD1 is split in equal parts chart and cheese and then dance music. The chart stuff isn't really mixed, its quickfades, but some effort has been made to mix the second half of the CD. They tried to get clever with Everything But The Girl - Missing, by looping parts of Nylon Moon - Sky Plus, over the top of it it. It works, as it's in key, but it doesn't work because it's out of time.

CD2 is actually really well mixed, at least for the first half of the CD (the RnB/Rap part). Again a really good selection of RnB and Rap from the time. The rock part isn't mixed, but they've tried to keep the tempo roughly the same so the quick cuts aren't glaring bad.
My ratings system:
(343 out of 500) A strong 3 star. But again, that's certainly not for mixing, its more for overall vibe of the CD.