mixmag

How long has this publication been in circulation? Its actually surprisingly good. Being a dance music magazine I was expecting it to be aimed at the drum n bass loving riff raff, but actually it is pretty broad and open minded. Recent issues have looked at the physiological effects of the drug ketamine and its effect on club culture, the evolution of dance music since kraftwerk and in the current issue the emergence of acid house music in India for example.

While being a little bit poncy and metropolitian, it is nonetheless a credible alternative to NME which has really denegerated in to little more than a sixth form common room publication. All it needs now is an depth review of mid 80's Italian disco and I'll be rocking.

Ah i just found out 1983

I used to get it sent mail order in the very early 90's as it was pretty much impossible to get outside London. It was also had about a third of the amount of pages and hardly any advertising. With the commercial explosion of dance shortly after it became more of a lifestyle mag rather than a trainspotters bible, but still a good read. Not picked it up this side of the year 2000 I don't think. Surprised there's still a market for it. Will check it out this week....

In the late 80's early 90's they used to give CD's away on the front cover - a good 5 years before anyone else. Think i've still got the Sasha one somewhere.

I would pick up a copy nowand then from the few good bookstores around here who would carry it. At the time, they were including the free mix cd's along with the issues. Like someone mentioned, it became more of a lifestyle magazine. I think I threw out all the mix cd's when I can cleaning out my collection a few years ago. I think the last issue included an abomitable happy hardcore mix by Fergie. It might be interesting to see what they've done with the magazine since then - or not. Over the years my interests haveshifted from DJ's anddance music culture to the actual musicians performing and producing the music.

El Jarvo wrote: An old schoolmate of mine had his own column in Mixmag in the early 90's.

To be honest though, by the late 90's it was just a good excuse to look at pics of girls in skimpy outfits out clubbing. Lads in my office always used to flick straight through to the Chuff Chuff ads cos they always had the best girls. And that mag was literally chock-full of ads, each trying to outdo each other.

Still had the odd good article, but you had to flick through a lot of dross to find it.

Please don't suggest it as a creditable alternative to the NME though! We don't want the Indie gimps getting into dance muzak too. Let them get as far as the Klaxons and leave it at that!

So the magazine went downhill the same time dance music did then Al?

El Jarvo wrote:

Please don't suggest it as a creditable alternative to the NME though! We don't want the Indie gimps getting into dance muzak too. Let them get as far as the Klaxons and leave it at that!

You don't remember "Muzik" magazine?!!!! IPC persuaded a load of NME staffers to jump on the "dance" bandwagon in the mid 90's and launched this mag which began as a complete cunt up. I still remember the first issue had The Chemical Brothers on the cover (how bloody obvious!) and the second had Goldie (even more obvious!!). They had a column at the back called "Hang The DJ"(yeah, how relevant was that title to their target market?!) where they would rip into some superstar DJ or other for no reason other than they were angry indie-kids who really just didn't get it.

I remember Pete Tong of all people having a go at them on air after they'd done Ashley Beedle over in the afformentioned back page column. After running out of indie/dance cover stars (after about 4 weeks!!) and selling not many magazines IPC completely re-vamped the personnel,turned it into a Mixmag clone and it ran for a good few years. I know all this as my mate was a regular contributor.

Bought it a few times .Not for ages though.They seem to endlessly re do the history of dance music from Kraftwerk onwards ete etc blah blah.'Musik' mag was alright .Did buy the very first issue with the Chems on the front.Or were they still the Dust Brothers then?!! Remember going to Tribal Gathering at Luton Hoo (?) i think it was in May 1995 and it was being advertised every fcukin where you looked.Think i chucked it out ages ago though when i maybe should have kept it.Still got a few of the cassettes they used to give away with it.Yeah so was more a fan of Muzik than Mixmag.

Actually i've still got a copy of Musik from 2001 with Barney , Fat Boy Slim and Sasha on the front after New Order won soem award or other.Last time i bought Mixmag remembering now was 2005 when they had the Lemon Jelly cover.Ain't touched it since.

I think it was on a recent BBC Four music documentary that a couple of the old NME hacks said they didn't understand dance music, and so made up any old toss for the reviews...

There were, of course, some exceptions - e.g. Jack Baron springs to mind.

Having a large collection of old Mixmag/Muzik magazines at home, and recently going back through them (for music reviews/articles on various bands), I can see the quality dip as Mixmag got bigger and more corporate.

Mixmag/Muzik were, however, one of the few magazines out there covering dance music, so 6 of one and a half a dozen of the other.

Nowadays, there's also International DJ and DJ Magazine (which I prefer to the Mixmag nowadays).