I just bought my first copy of Muzik...

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..Who actually reads it? It's written like a tabloid football gossip column, complete with cheesy nicknames for DJs and everything.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 22:21 (twenty-three years ago)

i have issues 2 - 35 still i think...and one or two thereafter - i used to love it, i think it was the most important dance mag ever for me (more than DJ or Mixmag) because it stood out more back in '95 with a great range of articles and they did actually take the music more seriously (there was snobbery, elitism, perhaps even a little patronisation at times...but i found it quite en education) than similar mags i seem to recall...

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 22:33 (twenty-three years ago)

So...did it just get shit?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 22:36 (twenty-three years ago)

yes. and thinner. the cover CDs are sometimes very good though

― michael (michael), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 22:40 (twenty-three years ago)

ah yes, the first 35 issues, 'twer a golden time. plus i liked the pictures of the girls. does calvin bush still write for them?

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 22:50 (twenty-three years ago)

there's an Andre Asmar review in the new one supposedly...new CD/LP due out on MUSH soon "Race to the Bottom"

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go.to/stevek

― steve k (stevek10), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 22:59 (twenty-three years ago)

It is a bit like when Jockey Slut used to be a decent mag, and then it went real bad towards the end of the 90's. I do not know if there was somehow more energy in dance music, and therefore more to write about back then, but the state of dance music journalism in print form has gone down hill in a bad way.

The good news is that for all the bad journalism in print these days, there is every bit as much good information to be found in online zines. Underground dance music has always worked like that, it is just nice that these days it has escaped xerox and obscurity.

One of the most interesting things I have come across are the old Surreal Sound zines that Joost DeLister(sp?) used to put out in the early 90's. I was a Dutch zine that specialized in Detroit Techno and the early European techno records. It is interesting to see what the scene issues were back that, and what records were being written about. It is still strange to think that there was a time when B12 records were the brand new hot shit.

Anyway, this is off topic enough. Are there any other old dance music zines from way back when that you guys appreciate?

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 23:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I've just started buying it again - rather good I think.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 23:20 (twenty-three years ago)

It's very flimsy now. I tend to buy it for the cover-mounts, when I fancy them (as this month), but it sure doesn't last long now. It is still the best written of the dance mags, on average, but it's not what it was.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 23:26 (twenty-three years ago)

i might go buy one then, for the train ride. latest in the newsagents here is...the missy one. Any good?

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 23:48 (twenty-three years ago)

this months' back page
(20 reasons why working men's clubs are better than regular clubs)
is hilarious.

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 22 January 2003 00:15 (twenty-three years ago)

those first issues were something like a bible for me, my month revolved around their release. then it went really, really bad but now seems to be getting its act together again. still, i will never again get that buzz from a magazine so there's a special place in my heart for muzik.

― michael wells (michael w.), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 11:57 (twenty-three years ago)

I just bought it because it had Prince on the front. it smells nice, though.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 12:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I still think Jockey Slut is good. I like Muzik too but I think ILM and the internet and also one of my best friends being a DJ means I don't really have to read anything.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 13:21 (twenty-three years ago)

i got the most recent issue,and other than that i also got the one a while back with the miss kittin cd
its quite good,as in it would keep me entertained for an hour or so,but i don't see the huge difference between it and the nme,except obviously in taste in music
the attitude seems similar

― robin (robin), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 13:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd prefer to read more gig REVIEWS in dance mags, there never is any and to be honest I'd like to hear people writing well about a really good night. I mean I think dance gigs ARE interesting to talk about, even with a mate or whatever because they're unpredictable, and loads of good DJs have shit nights or bad ones do well etc etc. I'm not sure why there isn't even tiny gig reviews, how did this never begin in dance mags? It's no more potentially boring than rock gig reviews.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 13:28 (twenty-three years ago)

i think dance mags suffer through a general lack of substance. not in the music or scene but in the approach. it's just all promotion.

― michael wells (michael w.), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 14:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I've seen a number of reviews of specific gigs in dance mags, Ronan. They're usually pretty dull pieces, I think, and I'm guessing that they never proved popular.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 20:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I bought the last/latest issue because Madonna was on the cover and the free CD had Squarepusher's cover of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' on it. I've bought it a few times before that, it seems alright to me. Nothing amazing but I wasn't offended or anything.

― DavidM (DavidM), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 21:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Muzik featured a gig review of Oasis back in '95, heh

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 22:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the gig review has potential, definitely.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 22:28 (twenty-three years ago)

I mean lets face it the DJ set is the reason 90 percent of people who love dance music ever began loving it in the first place.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 22:29 (twenty-three years ago)

i've always enjoyed good dance gig reviews...if i can write about it i can read about it...can't see the problem really - you can focus on how the music sounds different live and how the backdrop video screens compliment them, heh...thats if the actual performers arent really doing anything interesting like gobbing on the front row or dancing like gibbons (which is ironically rare)

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 22 January 2003 22:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Ronan, I think the theory has always been that going to a club, unlike to a gig, has always been about the whole experience, the DJ, yes, but the venue, soundsystem, lights and most importantly the other people. Describing a DJ set blow by blow is one of the most boring things to do or read about ever. Especially if it's prog house, it's impossible not to sound sarcastic, even if you're not. "blah chugging ... blah building ... blah ... driving ... Digweed drops in the first high hat of his own exclusive dubbed down non-vocal mix of Rui Da Silva's 'Touch Me'! ... and then fades it out again." I exgaerate, but you get the point.

Okay, a good DJ will feed off the crowd, but there's nowhere near the same level of interaction as at a gig. People have their attention elsewhere too. You can write about a club, of which the DJ is part, but not the DJ as a solo entity.

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 23 January 2003 11:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah I see how it could be boring, but I still think some kind of review system wouldn't go astray, I mean if someone's doing loads of shit sets it would be good to know. In some ways this must contribute to DJs getting to DJ forever once they get a name, I mean they've noone to answer to.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 23 January 2003 12:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe even some kind of bulleted mini review with an indication as to what they've been playing and whether it was any good. I guess Muzik's DJ top ten section is a bit like this but still, like I said it can be interesting talking to a mate about just what the DJ played and I mean I know I'm a trainspotter but there must be some way of translating it.

And don't knock digweed's ace 30 minute version of Rui Da Silva, I hear he once smiled when playing it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 23 January 2003 12:27 (twenty-three years ago)

This is true. I think they're held accountable in a more fiscal way, that is, club promoters stop booking them. But you do get a lot of dead wood. The tack that has been tried is to just stop talking about them full stop.

(For the record. I think JD is a very sweet man, but he does look like a miserable bugger whilst playing and kind of typifies that 'five hours of plodding prog' thing. No I take that back, we'll go with Steve Lawler instead.)

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 23 January 2003 12:31 (twenty-three years ago)

I only saw him once because my best friend is a big prog fan whom I've weaned onto house gradually, well he likes "So Much Love To Give" now so my work is done I think. Anyway I also realised that night that I have developed a moany streak about having to pay cos the person I normally deal with was away. It was 25 euro, I don't even like prog, I had a good night but I didn't like his set, my friend loved it though so I was able to buzz off him.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 23 January 2003 12:35 (twenty-three years ago)

That's just it, people not DJ. That's what makes it hard to gaugue.

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 23 January 2003 12:48 (twenty-three years ago)

It never ceases to amaze me with these clubbing magazines that whenever you look at the listings pages, it appears that only scantily clad 'birds' ever seem to go out nowadays??? These pages are cheap excuses for a selection of boob tubes, boas and glow sticks. And said 'birds' pawing and snogging each other.
Do guys never go out, then?
Or are these photographers ex-Fleet St paps after a dark room thrill....? I think so.
Ministry magazine is the worst offender for this - dreadful design, too.
Muzik is....ok. The CDs are usually quite good (M8 tends to be better, though), but this month's 'Heroes' one is nasty, I reckon, even the normally sublime Bent fucking things up.

― russ t, Thursday, 23 January 2003 13:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Saddly Russ if you break down the readership stats then the male/ female split for your average dance mag is something like 75/ 25. Now whilst anyone who cares enough about music to post here is going to be someone who purchases a magazine to read about music (with this being enough), there aren't enough of us to make such magazines commercially viable. Hence all those bloody tits out slappers.

Maybe if they weren't there more women would read, but that doesn't seem to be the case either. I find it really fucking sad, but there you go.

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 23 January 2003 13:59 (twenty-three years ago)

It's strange cos I'd say the split is even less with something like Jockey Slut which doesn't do the pictures as much. Though the name can't help. I mean JS is very anoraky I suppose.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 23 January 2003 14:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Also much smaller circulation anyway, allowed to just appeal to trainspotters.

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 23 January 2003 14:13 (twenty-three years ago)

you are right - it used to be good about 7 years ago...buy jockey slut instead ... written by people who really love their MUZIK!! sorry i went straight to answer and didn't read anyone else's responses!!

― hugh ogilvie (hugh ogilvie), Friday, 24 January 2003 10:37 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a Jockey Slut tshirt once. It caused some strange comments that...

― russ t, Friday, 24 January 2003 11:44 (twenty-three years ago)

from Jockeys? or horses?

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 24 January 2003 13:42 (twenty-three years ago)

from sluts.

― russ t, Monday, 27 January 2003 17:11 (twenty-three years ago)

two months pass...

the new cover disc has my favorite song from last year, Artful Dodger - "Ruffneck Sound (Basement mix)" (the one Tim Finney talked about on another thread). The mag itself is really great too; I mean the cover title 'Most Wanted: Justin Timberlake from Fool to Cool' is pretty funny.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 14 April 2003 17:10 (twenty-three years ago)

the mock gov health warnings on fag packets
bit is hilarious. they're onto a winner all
round as it's such
an antidote to all the other po-faced dance press.

― piscesboy, Monday, 14 April 2003 17:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I write for muzik (even tho i keep given new-jazz reviews all the time) and it's kinda amusing at times, so i'm glad people are enjoying it. but what dance mags are po-faced? i think too many try to be funny and irreverent, but come off as snidey and crass, jockey slut is the worst culprit, i loathe and despise that magazine... i'd give anything for a magazine that took electronic seriously with some understanding of its culture, too...

― Dave Stelfox, Monday, 14 April 2003 20:35 (twenty-three years ago)

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