I think the problem is that they tend to try and bring together too many disparate elements. Sort of a "Here's a cathartic output of all of the stuff I listened to from high school on" kind of list. I haven't heard the orbital one but personally I have just not been terribly impressed by these comps at all.

Funny, that's the same way I felt about the Orbital mix. Too many different styles that didn't blend well. I haven't heard the others yet.

Ben May wrote:

Come to think of, I have yet to hear a "back to mine" compilation that was worthwhile owning. The tenaglia one was weak, the Fila Brazilia one was boring, the Groove Armada one wasn't great... I think the problem is that they tend to try and bring together too many disparate elements. Sort of a "Here's a cathartic output of all of the stuff I listened to from high school on" kind of list. I haven't heard the orbital one but personally I have just not been terribly impressed by these comps at all.

Haven't heard too many of the Back To Mines, but FWIW, the Fila Brazilia Another Late Night is pretty good. Also, in terms of DJ sets, the sets Alex has been doing for two(!)* years on Groovetech have produced a number of really good sets, and not just ambient stuff. So, even if Alex's Back To Mine isn't that great, we have a relatively large number of good sets from LX, that cover a lot of ground (each one being three hours long). Of course, there are some mediocre and samey one, too... One of these weeks I'm going to go back and listen to them all, and try to annotate them in terms of genre, compellingness, etc. * Has it been that long? Damn, I'm getting old. Chris