Historically, the “Mix CD Series” has been a bit of an irrelevance for fans of deep techno and house. Most of the name brand versions of this concept lean towards choosing bigger DJs whose selections are meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Every now and then you get lucky and one comes out that is worth purchase, but for the most part you could just ignore them and not miss anything. So when I saw someone post on social media about getting mix CDs by Specter, Mark Grusane, and more, I was quite intrigued.
It turns out that it was a project by Short Attention, aka Hector Ram and Ricky Ramierez from Juarez, Mexico. In classic DIY fashion, they decided that it was time to do something that nobody else was doing: releasing a series of deep dance mix CDs by some of the best DJs in the underground. And even better, they were to be given away for free with purchase at some of the leading underground record shops like Gramaphone, Detroit Threads, and Rush Hour. They make the CDs themselves, and then head over the border to El Paso, Texas, and ship them to their final destination. They document all of this over on their IG, where you can keep up with new additions to the series.
Thanks to this guiding principle, the packaging is stripped down but distinctive, with simple black sleeves, white discs, and stickers to identify the DJ behind the mix. This gives it a cool look that also keeps the focus on the music itself, and that’s a good thing as it is really where this project excels.
Luckily, the Short Attention CDs entered my life right as I got a new phone with no headphone jack, which made listening to my phone through the car stereo annoying at best. I had already begun trotting out my CD collection to provide tunes in the whip, and a fat new stack of mix CDs by some of my favorite DJs made for some excellent listening.
Chicago DJs are well represented here, with Specter, Mark Grusane, Tevo Howard, Chicagodeep, and Ricardo Miranda all turning in excellent editions, from Grusane’s funky disco to Tevo’s live set of his own jams. Basic Soul Unit is one of my favorites, and his eclectic mix shows exactly why. Santiago Salazar is another reliable source of sick mixes, and he also doesn’t disappoint. Impressively, all thirteen of the mixes that I have (approximately half of the series) is excellent and feels more purposeful than just another online mix.
But my two favorites have to be the mix CDs by Jordan GCZ and Owen Jay. Jordan is a longtime fav here at ISM, so it’s no surprise that he would deliver yet again. But his selections of abstract and jazz jams is incredible, and would make a fine addition to anyone’s listening rotation. It’s extremely impressive when one can sit alongside so many masterful mixing DJs and still stand out just by playing incredible music. Owen Jay is a name I had seen around, but never checked out. And what he has done here is very rare. Owen put together a fantastic mix with excellent flow, but most important is his selection of non-obvious (to me at least) funky techno and house tracks of a mostly recent vintage. This CD has the feel of something that was put together after spending wayyyy too much time searching out an entire mix worth of that one random dope track on a random overlooked record. Having been a listener in this style for so long, it’s very rare for me to be as pleasantly surprised as I was by this mix.
One of the things I’ve been thinking about recently is how “underground” dance music has largely changed into just another corporate product, with seemingly every “artist” looking only to get some of that corporate money, pay for nice PR, and play some of those festivals sponsored by big money media and liquor companies. Part of this is the fact that consumption of the music has shifted from old media that was no longer commonly used in the mainstream to being made by the same exact tools as mainstream music and listened to through the exact same channels as mainstream music. People complain about so called “gatekeeping”, but the effect this reliance on so-called “dead formats” had was to insert some minor obstacle that mostly just required GIVING A SHIT AT ALL to be able to participate in the music. We have seen what the results of allowing an unchecked flow of idiots into the culture is like, and it turns out it isn’t great.
It is quite exciting to see the DIY spirit and focus on music along with the embrace of another “dying” medium here from Short Attention. The irony of their choosing this name is that once you have these physical products, it will be around and always be available to you, even decades in the future. You don’t have to worry about whatever audio hosting site going out of business, or changing their product so that DJ mixes get taken down. These mixes are a snapshot of post-hipster deep house, techno, and disco, and they will be an important physical document of an era that has seen so much leave the real world space behind for the supposedly greener pastures of the internet.
I’m sure that the hassle of getting the CDs and even the format itself will have some people complaining. Guess what? These are not for those people. It’s funny to see something as “radical” as owning something that plays CDs being such a barrier for purported music lovers, but that is quite a common thing in 2021. In fact one might call it a very mainstream existence. Fortunately, Short Attention is committed to the underground.
Long live the underground.