It's Massive (Mixmag)

Member Name: SkyscraperFanClu

Product:	Mixmag
Date:	11/04/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Often very well written, good interviews and informative articles

Disadvantages: A little too drug - focussed and occasionally features completely pointless sections .

Mixmag is aimed more at the club junkie than the amateur DJ, but nonetheless caters for the UK dance scene better than any other magazine.
The primary focus of Mixmag is the music and the people behind it. The writers have a particular knack for pinning down the next big thing in dance music. In particular they plucked out the (inexplicably) popular 'You See The Trouble With Me' by Black Legend months before it became UK singles chart no. 1 last year, and have since picked out such hugely popular club tracks as DJ Zinc's '138 Trek' and Hatiras' might 'Spaced Invader'. Many top DJs have columns in this magazine, notably Pete Tong and Judge Jules, giving extra strength to the backbone of strong writing talent.

Extra value is added by comprehensive club and tune listings. The clubs sections is conventiently divided into local region and date, and gives a flavour of music genre and usual performers as well as handy data on dress code and contact numbers. The tune listings pick out the 10 top tracks of the month - invariably the section I flick to first - and arrange other vinyl reviews by genre. House, progressive, trance, leftfield, R 'n' B and many others are well catered for. Each genre also carries the three best tracks of its' kind for this month, usually interesting but occasionally repetition from the '10 tunes of the month' section. Album and compilation reviews are given more in-depth reviews.
This is also a fun magazine, unafraid to devote a couple of pages (at the back) to random rubbish simply for entertainment's sake. A great source of humour is the 'Mongo Chatline' a phone line service where stoned clubbers ring up, talk utter rubbish, and get it printed...

But sometimes the slightly mad edge to the magazine goes too far. On slow months some issues focus on rather uninteresting or just plain pointless subject - I avoided the issue promising an in-depth expose on 'Random Birds' last year. Other provide more interesting content. A massive interview with Daft Punk prior to their launch of their much-anticipated new album 'Discovery' was a particular editorial coup. The annual results of the Mixmag drug survey invariably makes interesting reading even for non-drug users like myself. The magazine unsurprisingly champions the cause of promoting a more liberal attitude to drugs but nonetheless provides interesting (though slightly limited) data.
Mixmag's value for money has jumped up since the beginning of 2000 when they began adding cover CDs to every issue, some of which have been extremely good. The writers take care, in both the magazine and the CDs, to cater for all of dance music's many genre, from house to UK garage via trance and leftfield.

A monthly dose of Mixmag is indispensable for dedicated clubbers, if you can forgive it the occasional foray into the obscure and pointless.

Also on ciao under SkyscraperFanClub.

Summary: well written dj mag