Here’s nearly 100 mixes originally burned to CDs for most people DJ Poseur has known closely in the 21st century. PDFs of the original liner notes are below. All should be considered for promotional use, focusing mainly on obscure music. I think there’s like one Beatles song in the whole bunch. This is very much intentional, and I hope people whose musical tastes are stuck in the 20th century will stumble upon one or more of these. Give the algorithms a rest, and put your faith back in flesh and blood (if only for a few hours). Try something new, why dont’cha?
Jump to: Content Notes (What’s on the Mixes) Procedural (The Making Of) Liner Notes Menus
I’d like to think there’s a lot of variety within and between the mixes but expect most people who dare try to listen will sample one or two and assume what they hear represent the whole shebang. I’m not sure how to counter this natural tendency other than to say: look at the titles and the descriptions and avoid the ones you don’t think you’ll like (at least at first). Know what you’re in the mood for before taking a dive (and there’s really a mix for almost any mood or style preference). Woe be unto those who do not use adblock if seeking anything like the intended, immersive experience!
I’d like to think there’s a lot of variety within and between the mixes but expect most people who dare try to listen will sample one or two and assume what they hear represent the whole shebang. I’m not sure how to counter this natural tendency other than to say: look at the titles and the descriptions and avoid the ones you don’t think you’ll like (at least at first). Know what you’re in the mood for before taking a dive (and there’s really a mix for almost any mood or style preference). Woe be unto those who do not use adblock if seeking anything like the intended, immersive experience!
One positive note is that I appreciate knowing how popular any given track is by the number of views (though I don’t know anyone who listens to music mainly or solely on YouTube, so it’s probably not fully accurate). It’s always fascinating to me to find out something I put on a mix has its own music video or has been viewed millions of times, to put something next that I think sounds similar or better and have it only viewed a few times, in the double digits, or zero views, and wonder if there’s any discernible pattern. Is musical popularity any different from semi-random viral spreading?
CONTENT NOTES: There are a few (or many) that are part of a series, most notably and abundant the mixes intended for an audience of one, DJ Poseur’s ex, thus the recurring series title: Mixes for Exes. Novelties, Instrumentals, Electronic, Female Vocalists, Organs, Strings mixes are probably the themes that recur most and are therefore numbered. The oldest ones on here are from the conclusion of tenure as summer station manager of the Oberlin College radio station, WOBC, in 2003, done w/ the magic of Audio CD-Rs on a fancy component cd burner almost certainly now obsolete (though the sound quality was also almost certainly better than mp3 burns from iTunes). The newest ones should go right up to the present date, assuming DJ Poseur is still proselytizing.
There are probably more than 10 songs that appear on multiple mixes and lots of bands and albums who have multiple songs featured. If you find a song that repeats, it’s not a mistake; the mix was probably just intended for a different audience than the one on which it appears initially. I’d say 10 songs out of well over 1000 in total is a pretty small percentage, so don’t worry that you’ll hear the same songs over and over again if you listen to a bunch (or if it is humanly possible, ALL of them—GASP!).
This is not a comprehensive list. Many mixes made for nuclear family members and DJ Poseur himself have been lost to time or may take longer to find their way here. If you ever received one and notice it’s not listed, do the world a favor and send the tracklist for inclusion in the pantheon!
Since they were mostly burned to CDs, you won’t find many longer than 80 minutes unless they were compiled on YouTube.
PROCEDURAL After much reluctance from having mixed feelings (at best) about music on YouTube and the inevitability of missing tracks (noted meticulously in the mix descriptions), DJ Poseur took several weeks in July 2021 to search and type all these in to YouTube. There are definitely lots more out there, but the reception of these 100 intended for others will determine how much effort will go into finding long-lost track lists for another major installment.
Whenever possible, care was taken to include the official audio from the channel of the band or artist. Often times, for singles especially, only a music video is available on the official channel, and unfortunately IMO this often shortens the song. When no official channel was found, user uploads of the song suffice. When no original version of the song is available, a live version may substitute, regardless of the channel. Last resorts include remixes that bear a passing resemblance to the original and entirely different songs on very rare occasions.
I do not envy the task of the person in charge of maintenance of these mixes. Oh wait, that’s also me. Maybe in a decade or two, all the missing tracks listed will be available, and physical CD copies will actually be obsolete. Until that time, know that these compilations are a pale simulacrum of the genuine article with all tracks fully intact, the right versions selected, no video distractions, and no lengthening or shortening (or long silences for things like video credits, intros, or outros).
I fully expect that many of these videos will be deleted, especially (and for good reason) the ones that are just uploaded by random users without permission of the record label or copyright holder. I’d say a majority of the time, in fact, random users’ uploads of songs will have more views than the official artist or band’s channel…sometimes by orders of magnitude by “virtue” of having been posted earliest, having more views and thereby being a “more popular version” that shows up first in the very weak and non-advanced search results. All this in addition to sub-meagre compensation rates adds up to YouTube being a rather evil streaming platform. Please use it only for new discoveries and emergencies and buy albums on Bandcamp, eMusic, at concerts, or otherwise in person to actually put some significant cash in artists’ pockets!
Some time in the 2010s, Dean recommended the site tape.ly to share music mixes, and I thought it looked cool. Unfortunately the site’s gone today, but I fully expect YouTube to endure a bit longer.
LINER NOTES Since almost all of them were burned to a CD at some point, DJ Poseur put a lot of time and obsolescing skills in desktop publishing to extensive use in printed liner notes that fit inside a standard CD case. Sometimes, with a decent printer, there were even images on both sides! A few of them only have tracklists and are in a text file compilation.
For “ease of navigation,” the Mixes for Exes series liner notes are separated from the others, as they had an intended audience of one.
In the YouTube playlists, these may help to make sense of every time a track is unavailable on YouTube and I write “Track ___ should be…” These are all references to the original tracklists on the mix CDs. Now I just have to put a link to this page on all 100 playlist descriptions. What fun!
Home Favorite Music Favorite Record Labels Favorite Films Favorite Print & Other Media Concertgoing