Welcome to the classic mixtape archive! Way back in our early DJing days, when we spun on belt-driven turntables and a beatmatch was a hard-won accomplishment, these tapes were our inspiration. After years of languishing in shoeboxes in the back of our closets, we’re dusting them off, digitizing them, and posting them here for all you ex-ravers out there. The sound quality isn’t going to be the greatest on these, after all they are coming straight from tapes we’ve played a million times, so we’ll provide a link to purchase the CDs if they are available. And while we’re at it, we thought we might throw in a few bonus tracks, our favorites from the old mixes; rare vinyl freshly-encoded in 320kbps. We hope that you DJs will help keep these classic tunes alive.

While all this surely feeds our own nostalgia more than anyone else’s, there’s no reason you can’t join in the fun. Got some old DJ tapes? Why not email us and let us add them to the archive?

Mystre - Natural Mystic (1998)

Last modified on 2011-01-09 05:02:25 GMT. 21 comments. Top.

Starting a retrospective of Mystre’s tapes with Natural Mystic is a bit like starting a Star Wars marathon with Empire Strikes Back… Sure, there are some other great ones in the series, but it’s never going to get this good again. But what can I say, I wanted to break out the good stuff early. I couldn’t wait to hear it again.

This tape was on repeat in my Walkman for pretty much the entirety of my freshman year in college which is when I started DJing (I guess I’m dating myself here.) It’s one of those albums I used as my introduction to a new genre, and consequently I own about half the records on the tape. I love the harder songs on side one, the tribal-trance at the beginning of side two, and the last track, “Words” by Paul Van Dyk, was my favorite song in world for a few months there. I only digitized one of the tracks for our Bonus Beats section, but if anyone out there wants more, comment below with the track you’re looking for… there’s a good chance I have it lying around somewhere.

- cor

Natural Mystic Side A (right-click to download)

Natural Mystic Side B (right-click to download)

BONUS BEAT:
Whoosh - Whoosh (Baby Doc Remix) (Second track on side 1)

Oh, and if you like this set so much that you want it on CD, I’m sure F8 would appreciate it if you bought a copy HERE.

Happy Kid Marty - Til You Just Can’t Boogie No Mo’ (1998)

Last modified on 2009-05-01 20:21:21 GMT. 4 comments. Top.

While I believe my first true exposure to house music was courtesy of DJ Dan, this tape showed me that electronic music can be fun and silly. A Stevie Wonder remix, some Quincy Jones, lisping voice samples, hell, even howling dogs; the tracks Marty selected for this one are quirky, funny, campy… they just put a smile on your face. It’s a solid dose of ridiculousness for a scene that could stand to take itself a little less seriously.

I’m sorry I don’t have a better copy to record. I would venture a guess that my copy of this tape was eaten by more than one car stereo, and it sounds like it. If you can torque it through the first and last bits of each side, the rest does get better. My apologies. If I manage to find a better copy, I’ll replace it.

Til You Just Can’t Boogie No Mo’ Side A (Right click to download)

Til You Just Can’t Boogie No Mo’ Side B (Right click to download)

BONUS BEAT:
Mighty Dub Katz - Ghetto Girl

Mars - Symphonic Metamorphosis (1996)

Last modified on 2011-01-09 04:54:26 GMT. 2 comments. Top.

I believe this was the gold Mars tape.  I always loved side A.  Blissful, euphoric, driving melodic cybertrance.  Classic Mars.  But outside the first track and the snippet of the Paragliders song in the middle somewhere I never really dug side B that much.  You?

Symphonic Metamorphosis - Side A

Symphonic Metamorphosis - Side B

If you’d like the remastered, hi-quality CD of this mix, it’s available from F8’s shop HERE.

Mars Vs. Mystre, Vol. 2 (1998)

Last modified on 2011-01-10 06:11:34 GMT. 11 comments. Top.

Another classic! I’ll be back to share my thoughts about this one later, in the meantime, drop us a comment and let us know who’s side you like better.

What to say about Mars Vs. Mystre vol 2?  That’s like asking what do you say about playing catch with your dad.  Or describing your first kiss.  Or how it feels to hug an old friend you know so well they’re like family.

This tape, these two 45 minute sides, are the absolute pinnacle of the “SF Cybertrance” sound of the late 90’s.  Mystre straight puts on a clinic.  Non-stop rolling cyber lines over driving trance beats with tight, arpeggiated melody lines complementing his clean, well thought out mixes.  The set reaches it’s zenith with “Curva Pelegrosa” by Wierdo at the 30 min mark, a song that really should be banded from listening while driving any sort of motorized vehicle due to its inescapable influence on the driver to exceed any and all posted speed limits.  Then the set takes us home with what might be the best song by arguably the best trance producer ever, Paul van Dyk’s remix of “1998″ by Binary Finary.

So how can Mars answer that??  The same way he always did: sacrifice mixing and flow for some of the most clever, unique, emotional, uplifting tracks the genre of trance ever had to offer.  Mars had more “hands in the air” tracks of any trance DJ this side of Tiesto and he throws them down, track after track after track on his side of this vs. set.  Highlights included Nostrums best song ever, “Brilliant”, at 11:00 and “Mira!” by Mira, at 18:30 that is probably the last remaining “holy grail” track from this era that we’ve never found.  I still to this day think that 0:00 - 22:00 of Mars’s side on this tape might be the best 22 minutes of cybertrance on record.

So if this were some kind of Cybertrance throw-down who’s side would you be on?  Do you lean towards better mixing, constancy in sound and flow?  Then you’re going with Mystre.  Or maybe you prefer maximum emotion, fun, and euphoria?  Then Mars is you’re horse, err pterodactyl, in this race.  Where do your allegiances lie?? Leave us a comment!

But of course in the end we all win.  Throw down some stars if you used to bump this back in the day, if you used rave like there was no tomorrow, if the music took you places you never knew possible!

Mars Vs. Mystre, Vol. 2 - Mystre Side

Mars Vs. Mystre, Vol. 2 - Mars Side

If you’d like the remastered, hi-quality CD of this mix, it’s available from F8’s shop HERE.

DJ Ghost - Acid Breaks (1996)

Last modified on 2009-06-21 21:55:10 GMT. 15 comments. Top.

Ahhhh… I like that. I credit my wife for bringing this mixtape into the relationship; it was a permanent fixture in her car stereo when we first started dating. I also credit this tape for being my introduction to wonderful world of breakbeat (unless you count James Brown, Afrika Bambaataa or other precursors to the modern breaks genre.) It’s crazy to me how different these tracks sound than the aggressive, bass-dominated breaks of today… these beats are looser, the production is thinner, and a simple modulating 303 synth can carry an entire song. Here’s to old skool breaks!

Acid Breaks - Side A (Right click to download)

Acid Breaks - Side B (Right click to download)

BONUS BEAT:
Electroliners - Loose Caboose

Mystre - The Mystery Machine (1997)

Last modified on 2011-01-09 04:59:13 GMT. 3 comments. Top.

Another great Mystre set here. It’s my personal second favorite (after Natty Mystic, of course.) I like the second side in particular, from the third track on it’s all really techy. It conjures images in my head of a busy factory with gears and pistons and conveyor belts; everything moving in perfect unison as they put together some kind of giant war machine, like the AT-AT up there.

This tape also contains one of my “holy grail” tracks… one of the few songs I’ve searched for high and low since I first heard it, but alas, I never found it. The track starts at 23:30 or so on Side A. It’s called “Fenomen” by Helle’N'Cool, and I still love it to this day. I don’t even spin anything close to trance anymore but I’d find a way to bring that back if I could. If you have it, send it to me and I’ll be your friend forever. But you don’t have it. No one has it.

Mystre - The Mystery Machine Side A

Mystre - The Mystery Machine Side B

If you’d like the remastered, hi-quality CD of this mix, it’s available from F8’s shop HERE.

Happy Kid Marty - I’m Going To Go Back There Someday (1998)

Last modified on 2009-07-01 21:06:17 GMT. 3 comments. Top.

It’s really a shame Marty didn’t record more mixtapes. His styles are varied, his taste is spot-on, and his mixing is flawless. He was just the kind of DJ I couldn’t wait to hear more from, but alas, after the “red” and “blue” tapes were released simultaneously, we never did.

I remember in the cassette sleeve for this mix (which I’ve long since lost) Marty said that if the red tape was his soul, this tape was his heart. Even without that explanation, it’s easy to hear that he poured himself into this one emotionally, going so far as to include a Kermit the Frog song on the end of one of the sides. While the mix gets a bit cheesy for my taste in spots, it still ranks as one of my all-time favorite mixtapes. In fact, my favorite song from the tape is an exercise in cheesy build-ups, but I love it so much I’ll still spin it from time to time. I’ll post that one too.

I’m Going to Go Back There Someday - Side A (Right click to download)

I’m Going to Go Back There Someday - Side B (Right click to download)

BONUS BEAT:
Full Proof - Sunny

Sasha - Live at Camden Palace (1997ish)

Last modified on 2009-07-24 20:28:18 GMT. 5 comments. Top.

I gotta be honest with you, when I first heard this tape I really wasn’t feeling it.  It was in my raving hey-day and if the music didn’t have big banging leads, hard cyber stabs, soaring melodic synths or be going at at least 135 BPM it just wasn’t my thing.  Over time though the simple structures of melodic and cyber-trance began to grow a bit monotonous and there was Sasha, live at Camden Palace, welcoming me to a different type of dance music.  Like Jazz to The Blues of traditional house or trance, progressive house/trance is geared for those who are looking for a bit more depth in the music; and like Jazz it’s not for everyone.  This tape probably won’t wow you rite off the bat, but if you give it a few listens while doing other activites you may find it growing on you.  And considering I got this way back in 1997(!), you gotta give Sasha some props for being way ahead of his time.  Enjoy!

Sasha - Live at Camden Palace - Side A

Sasha - Live at Camden Palace - Side B

Bonus:  See if you can hear where someone bumps into Sasha’s turntable on side B, wrecking his awesome mix.  I can’t tell you how frustrating that is… or was… one of the many advantages of not using records anymore is not having to worry about drunk/overzealous dancers wrecking your mixes!

DJ Dan - Weed Wacker (1992)

Last modified on 2010-02-03 15:42:15 GMT. 4 comments. Top.

Whoa nelly, it’s been a minute since we last posted a classic mixtape. Time to get back to it. This one is from 15 goddamn years ago, before Jay or I ever touched a Techniques turntable, back when Bill Clinton was just starting his presidency, and when DJ Dan played progressive house and breakbeat. Even the definitions of those genres have changed since then; these aren’t the deep progressive rhythms and hard nu skool basslines we’re all accustomed to today. So drop the expectations, turn up the headphones, and get ready for a new sound… and by new, I mean really really old.

DJ Dan - Weed Wacker, Side A

DJ Dan - Weed Wacker, Side B

Mars - The Electric Temple

Last modified on 2011-01-09 21:17:59 GMT. 15 comments. Top.

Alright ladies and gents, ready for another trip in the Waaaaay Back Machine?  This week I’m reaching into our digital shoe box* of classic mix tapes and pulling out another F-8 classic, “The Electric Temple” AKA “Mars’s Red Tape”.  I’m not sure if this is my favorite overall Mars tape, but it definitely has my favorite side.

* Is there really any better way to keep your tapes than in a shoe box?  Literally every tape we’ve digitized here has come out of someone’s shoe box: Cor’s, mine, Ben’s… we were all saddened to here that Alex emptied his shoe box of tapes into the garbage before we had a chance to get at them…

Side A has it’s jams: “Trance Emotions” is a nice starting song when you’re mixing unapologetic trance; the last two tracks are sweeping classics (one of which, the second to last, I still refuse to get rid of on vinyl); and then there’s the track three appearance of what we called “The Egyptian Song”, later discovered to actually be named “Snake Charmer” by Carpe Diem*, which was always caused pandemonium amongst my group of friends when played live, in a car, on a boom box… really playing this song at any time at any volume back in the day would make one of us pee our pants.**

* I’ll feature this tomorrow as our “Bonus Beat”, stay tuned in.

** Yup, that’s all one sentence.  I amaze myself.

But it’s side B that’s really the classic.  Mars starts us off with some “Infinity” by Guru Josh and just never looks back.  Trance hit after trance hit for 40 straight minutes!  We got “Out of the Blue”; there’s whatever the song is called that comes in after at about 18:35 that still to this day moves me; then the “Bun BE-dum… bun BI BE BE-dum” song, which should not to be confused with the “BE bun, be-bi-dun-be BE bun…”* track that comes in around 31:10; the violin track; and the list just goes on and on.  If I want to hear classic SF melodic/cybertrance from the late 90’s (AKA classic German melodic/cybertrance from a few years earlier) I’m headed straight for side two “The Electric Temple”.

So get your glow sticks out, dust of your ultra baggy pants, candy bracelets and neon tops ’cause we’re about to go a’ravin!

* You know what’s even more ridiculous than trying to sing a trance song for someone?  Yeah, trying to type one out.

Mars - “The Electric Temple” - Side A

Mars - “The Electric Temple” - Side B

For more from Mars, visit him at his website*

If you’d like the remastered, hi-quality CD of this mix, it’s available from F8’s shop HERE.