Claude Young – DJ-Kicks

My most played DJ mix of all time. A master class (for those that know). Claude Young's beat juggling is next level. I have many of the tracks on vinyl but I’ve never dared to attempt to recreate any of Claude’s cuts or transitions. Not that I ever could.. His precision and creativity is untouchable.

Track 1 is supposed to be Brother From Another Planet – Ascension Of The Elect

Anyone know anything about the first track and if it was ever released? I can’t find it listed under either Claude or Ian’s entries and wondered if it was a dubplate or something

This mix CD was a major influence on me. I wore it out, bought it when it was new.... Claude took a few ingredients and played with them in a dozen different ways. Essential listening for any techno DJ, period!

so so good really 5/5 here doesnt do justice how good this is I'm going to give it 10/5

I'm a big fan of Claude's first two albums and earlier mixtapes, so I was really excited to get this CD. Compared to his mixtapes, this is less frenetic and focuses on DJ tricks more. Claude is very skilled on the decks and does a few things you might expect from a hip hop DJ, such as juggling the beats, some stops and starts, and looping certain sections of a record into the next record. The track selection is mostly great and several of them are lesser known tracks you won't find on other commercially released mix CDs from this time. Unfortunately, there is one track here I find very grating (Da Sampla's "with a piece of ice"), and Claude saw fit to loop a vocal sample from this track in and out of about 3 other tracks. The rest of the disc is great, so hopefully I will eventually learn to tune it out. Overall, an interesting mix CD if not a perfect one. I'd recommend checking out his "Dexit" tape if you can find it. Too bad there isn't a remastered CD reissue of that.

OK, Claude is my all time favorite techno DJ - I mean NO ONE even comes close in my opinion except for maybe Mills, but it's hard to compare them because they have different styles... I've got a soundboard of Claude in Vienna at "Liquid", and it is absolutely off the hook!

The basic jist of this CD is: play two copies of every single record, bounce the beats around. Problem is, I don't really think the track selection is that superlative. The energy kinda stays the same the whole way throughout. Still, if you have more than a ing interest in DJing, you need to pick this up to at least realize how bad you probably are. These are almost like mini-remixes... my personal favorite is how he creates his own buildups out of two copies of the record, making the beats go in double time and then fading the doubles so to eliminate the beat and then kicking back the single 909 kick again... best exemplified on the Surgeon cut, for which he should win some sorta DJ award...

Absolutely Crazy. This is the album that sold Detroit techno to me. The swinging bass beat from M5 by maurizio to the intensity that is Badger Bite make this album a journey through all influences and past.