CDs that came free with magazines: a discussion thread/a C or D thread/a chance to blag some even

I've a shelf of CDs that came free with magazines: NME, Melody Maker, Select, Jockey Slut, The Wire, Muzik, Mixmag, DJ, probably others. Most haven't been played in a while, some possibly never. I occasionally get the urge to play odd tracks that I remember on them.

Are there any CDs that came free with magazines that are classic or you would recommend?

Did they once seem important or influence your music listening?

Are there any CDs that you are actively after?

(Are there any that you would pay for? Are there any that you would like for free?*)

* If you were Oxford-ish and in walking distance of my home or work, I might post through your letter box; I'd plausibly be up for posting in return for postage, too. I reserve the right to never get round to organising either of these things, though.

Charity shops nearly always have a selection of these going cheaply.

I thought about taking some to a charity shop but suspect they would just sit there until the shop realised no-one was going to buy them and then they would have to be thrown away.

I remember the Muzik DFA compilation being very good, ditto a Rune Grammofon compilation that came with The Wire.

The Wire Tapper series that came with The Wire used to be great, a mix of new stuff by both familiar and lesser known artists. A while back, though, they changed the thinking behind it and now it's completely given over to showcasing music from new and (mostly) unfamiliar names. I never bother to listen to it any more.

Up until the last few years of its existence, the CD with CMJ was usually pretty good. I know it was essential to the development of my tastes before I went to college and near a real record store that wasn't Musicland.

Knowledge Mag came with a couple of very good mixes throughout the years (I recall a DJ Clever one as well as an Inperspective one that both got some play.) Definitely a few of the Wire label mixes (Rune Grammofone, Raster Norton in particular) are well worth it.

This was pretty formative when I was 13, although there's nothing on it that would surprise an ILXor:
http://www.discogs.com/Various-RCD-Classic-Rock-Vol-10/release/3403622

And this Smalltown Supersound sampler with Plan B mag is the last covermount CD I can remember getting at all, so at least it was a good one:
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Smalltown-Supersound-On-Fire/release/1742590

In my experience the problem with taking covermount CDs to charity shops is that if they're in a jewel case they'll get put at the same price as full albums (and therefore not sell because £2+ for a free CD?), or if they're in a thin cardboard sleeve they'll go in a basket of free Mail on Sunday film DVDs on the counter, which few people who like music will bother to look through.

Oh, and yes, free tapes/CDs were hugely important to me in my early teens. I only had the money to buy a full album every couple of months so I couldn't afford to be adventurous. But I'd buy a music magazine every month and get a tape out of the library every couple of weeks and discover entire new genres.

It sounds ridiculous now but I'd been fascinated by the dance reviews sections for a while but would never have dared to buy a whole album of electronic music until I got a CD from Select magazine with an Orb track on which I became totally fascinated by.

("uh someone in my class said all electronic music ever was really repetitive so even though I like the 3-minute pop-rave tracks I've heard on the radio and even some of their longer, artier B-sides I probably shouldn't spend £14.99 on an hour of srs techno when I could buy a CD by some terrible early 90s brit-rock hairspray band instead, because they're real musicians")

Mojo has had some great free CD's over the years in fairness, such as the Heavy Nuggets one (proto-metal) and the I Can See For Miles one (psych)

There are loads of these that were very much influential for me. last year this soundtracked my Ibiza visit;
http://www.discogs.com/Cassy-The-New-Resident-Of-Circoloco-At-DC10-Ibiza/release/2969701

There was a magazine called Soul CD that did some great cover CDs. Jockey Slut etc. Muzik Magazine cassettes;
http://www.discogs.com/Various-RS-Records-Refresh-Your-Ears/release/226686
http://www.discogs.com/Billy-Nasty-Flux-Trax-02/release/164296

Muzik:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Locked-On-Unlocked/release/74201

http://www.discogs.com/Miss-Kittin-Electroclash-Massive-19-Track-Mix-From-Miss-Kittin/release/43711

http://www.discogs.com/DFA-Muzik-Presents-Disco-Punk-Dance-To-The-Underground/release/124665

http://www.discogs.com/MJ-Cole-Bassline-Pressure-Its-A-Ruffneck-Sound/release/136585

http://www.discogs.com/Erol-Alkan-One-Louder/release/152531

http://www.discogs.com/Cassius-Cassius-Present-French-Disco-03/release/160871

Mixmag:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Turn-It-Up-The-Booty-Shaking-Sound-Of-UK-Garage/release/206583

http://www.discogs.com/Master-Stepz-UK-Garage-The-Next-Step/release/80034

http://www.discogs.com/Loco-Dice-Minimal-Explosion/release/522798

I listened to that Miss Kittin mix recently. its still great. ten years old now?!

Just happened to see this:

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2jmoq3KPU1qz4jnxo1_500.jpg

The Wire Tapper series that came with The Wire used to be great, a mix of new stuff by both familiar and lesser known artists. A while back, though, they changed the thinking behind it and now it's completely given over to showcasing music from new and (mostly) unfamiliar names. I never bother to listen to it any more.

oh good, I hadn't bought it for a while and when I bought the latest one with the Tapper I thought in that period of time I'd somehow lost all connection to Wire-world.

p lol in ILX terms but a pile of Uncut ones I came across about ten years ago was important to my immersion in boring indie.

then of course there are things like the Prince album that was given away free with newspapers

Kind of ironic that that run of Muzik CDs in 2002 - 2003 now feels almost iconic, like it defined the mid-00s in advance, and yet the magazine folded after its August 2003 edition (on a high - the Cassius CD was fantastic). I remember being very disappointed when I realised there weren't gonna be any more.

If only it had been able to hang on, it might have found a very sympathetic audience in another two years or so!

I didn't include it upthread as I can't remember it much now but the Audio Bullys Hooligan House mix was part of that process too probably.

The Erol Alkan one is great and I still listen to it in the car now and again. I have that Audio Bullys one but it's pretty rubbish in my opinion. It wants to sound hard and it really is quite tame. Also they interject stupid random cockernee shout-outs all the way through and it gets really annoying.

I used to really enjoy the Jockey Slut discs from around 2002-2003 as a way of hearing new stuff - there were usually three or four great tracks on each one.

I just recalled that Jockey Slut gave away and All Seeing I disc that was pretty cool too.

I have that Audio Bullys one but it's pretty rubbish in my opinion.

Ha, this doesn't surprise me. Though in 2002 it made sense for Muzik to be excited by 'hooligan house'.

OTOH IMO hooligan house really peaked in late 2001 with Par-T-One's "I'm So Crazy". If I was gonna make a hooligan house CD it'd have that and "Where's Your Head At" and "La La Land" and the only possible Audio Bullys tune might be "Real Life".

Yeah, that "I'm so crazy": Thought it based on a sample from Wire-alike band. Turned out to be INXS!

haha, no Australian was confused by the sample source I'll warrant.

A few years later there was some electro-house remix of the original song which basically recycled all of Par-T-One's tricks.

i'd forgotten abou that muzik DFA mix, so good. muzik was teh best.

"I'm so crazy" & "la-la land" pretty much the sound of Bugged out, right up until the International DJ Gigolos showcase in Heaven. It was pretty obvious from about halfway through the night, that Timo Mass/John Carter DJ sets playing Hooligan House was over.

Found some old Jockey Slut CDs recently and Damn there were some great tracks on there.

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Jukebox/release/54079?ev=rr

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Loaded-Fine-House-Music/release/228136

I think this is the only CD I got free with a magazine:
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Raygun-Magic-Orchestra-The-Sound-Of-Japan/release/434385

Love the ones that come with Oxford American's annual southern music issue.

the play paul "hooligan house" record was good i seem to recall, wtf was that called again. can't find which alias he used for it.

hip hop connection : the cleaner

a 30 mixtape of prime era rawkus material all cut-n-paste by the scratch perverts.

still love it.

best mixtape they cover mounted, and they did some damn fine ones to be fair

eg. dm & jemini - 25 minute mixtape of the album that i think i prefer to the album proper.

I really liked this one, came free with DJ magazine around Christmas time 1994. Some tribal house mixed by Danny Tenaglia and then a more laidback Ninja tune mix by Coldcut:
http://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Night-Before-The-Morning-After/release/301958

This was great as well (though was on cassette):
Poll/Nostalgia - Best track on side 1 of Justin Robertson's Journeys By DJ mix free with Select magazine in May 1995

i was 16 when the believer's 2004 music issue came out. it changed my life! there were 18 songs on it, basically the cream of the crop of milquetoast indie artists. i knew 2 of the acts when i got the cd, and eventually dug into all of them. i even soulseeked the 4 buried beds tracks in existence.

when the next music issue came out in 2005, i had discovered def jux and stones throw, and had moved on. apparently the 2005 issue had the decemberists on it. i never liked them.

I've still got that Tenaglia / Coldcut CD. It's great.

The two Gigantic comps (one tape, one CD) that came with Melody Maker in the late 80s were amazing. Lost the tape years ago, still got the CD somewhere.

"in the bushes...on the ceiling...behind the curtain...in the windooooow" (xp)

The Coldcut one has this on it;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_RZSi4d1Qc&feature=related

Yeah, I bought Funki Porcini's Hed Phone Sex on the strength of this mix about six months later - it wasn't really that similar.

Love the ones that come with Oxford American's annual southern music issue.
This. Especially love #10 and #13.

I have 4-5 years worth of CMJ CDs sitting in my closet. I've ripped a handful of the good ones.
I've even been pleasantly surprised by the odd track that hadn't registered with me when I first got it.
Now I want to go home and listen to em!

I have some Mojo compilations in my CD tower, and used to have that Muzik "Disco Punk" one but sold it via Amazon for a surprising amount of money.

Love the ones that come with Oxford American's annual southern music issue.

― Advanced Uncle Meat recovery system (Dan Peterson), Monday, April 16, 2012 8:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was about to post exactly this.

The two cover CDs that had a significant impact on my listening were both from Mojo:

"Soul Riot" singlehandedly started my love of Stax-y soul/r+b: http://www.discogs.com/Various-Soul-Riot/release/834929
"Blue Christmas" started my love of Christmas songs (though the CD is only about 60% classic): http://www.discogs.com/Various-Blue-Christmas/release/521418

Oddly enough, those were the only two times I ever bought Mojo. I keep all the Wire Tappers but like others here I've more or less stopped listening to them.

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Plan-%C2%B5/release/1335981

I remember loving this Planet Mu sampler a lot at the time, especially Boxcutter's "Mya Rave."

sealandi, yep, those were both keepers for me.

Usually these CDs go straight in the dumper, in fact the Tom Waits one before last was one, I ended up having to re-buy it to get "16 tons", "Jesus blud" and "When you wish upon a star", as well as other excellent tracks.

ahhh, Planet Mu.

ok, so, who's up for predicting the inevitable 'baggy' compilation that either the revised Q or Mojo sorts out prior to this summer festivities ?

if they include my jealous god and/or world of twist then i will be a very happy man indeed.

so, am i the only person who separates the reggae based ones that mojo puts on its cover ?

as i would suggest that each of these are worthy of shelf space !