Hairy mix-mas

>> DJ sets in your Discman this season

by KRISTA

-- Annie Dufresne eyes the linguistic divide -- Genetically programmed for your listening pleasure -- Depressing sounds for the holidays -- Electronic sounds for the hard-to-please -- The sound of Christmas evil -- This year's bumper crop of comp CDs made easy -- DJ sets in your Discman this season -- Stuffing the R&B renaissance in your stocking -- Country cracker Christmas -- This holiday season, rock the Chanukah bush in style -- Some seasonal jazz hints -- Yuletide mood swings

Forget trying to buy anyone original music this year. Instead, buy them a mixed CD. There are thousands of them. Here are four that will do in a pinch.

As much as I hate to face the music, the truth of the matter is that this whole trancey progressive house movement is here to stay--at least for another season or so. That said, I've decided to make a concerted effort to like some of it, and figured that Deep Dish and their Renaissance Ibiza was a good place to start. Ditto for that someone on your list who doesn't think he or she likes dance music but listens to the CKOI club-mix and has been to a 514 party. This double CD from the Washington, D.C. duo of Dubfire and Sharam is about 50/50 on the commercial cheese versus underground-appeal tip and 100 per cent Ibiza in a box. There are recognizable remixes from pop favourites like EBTG, Moby and BT as well as deep, heavily tranced-out tunes from guys like Timo Maas and Sven Vath.

Anyone into house music knows by now that the best booty-shaking beats are born in Chicago. There's no fighting it or trying to explain it, it just is. Derrick Carter has reigned supreme as purveyor of the Midwest funky dance movement for over five years, paving the way for a handful of other like-minded Chi-town DJs--and Heather is one of those like-minded DJs. Her first mix CD, Tangerine, is just about the best mix CD ever. However, this is not a CD you give to an amateur house music aficionado. This is for Chi-house purists, for the kids you know who travel six hours in a Toyota Tercel to hear Honey Dijon, Derrick or, of course, Heather. Superbly programmed and mixed, this comp features tunes from new-school hot-shot producers like J.T. Donaldson, Nick Holder, DJ D and more.

I don't think I ever really fully appreciated Danny Tenaglia until I heard this compilation. I had heard him play a few times and never understood the praise lauded to him by the hordes afterward, chalking it up to the fact that I had abstained from ingesting MDMA. Then I listened to this Back to Mine mix. Slowly, as each track progressed into the next, I started to catch a glimmer of the magic that is said to be "the Danny touch." While it should be noted this is not a main-room mix but rather a collection of tunes that hold a special place in Danny's heart mixed together with the aid of a studio and trademark Tenaglia-isms, I think it better represents the true Tenaglia sound than anything else I've heard. And the extremely varied list of featured artists includes names like Herbert, Bang the Party, CeCe Penniston, Roy Ayers and Sergio Mendes.

This year's two major trends in music have been the rebirth of trance music as mindless accompaniment for the multitude of "just add water" teen bands (bad) and the unearthing of early-'80s electroni-pop, recycled in the nouveau-techno gems of the Deutsch/Euro underground movement (good). To compliment this latest fad, Belgian label Eskimo have compiled and mixed an eponymous collection (Eskimo) of dance classics from the late '70s through the '80s into the '90s that includes Hall & Oates' "I Can't Go for That," KC Flight's "Planet E," Mission Control, Liquid Liquid and De La Soul. Perfect for the friend who rides every trend to the max, and is currently rocking studded belts and mesh tops.