Annual Millennium Edition, The (Mixed By Judge Jules & Tall Paul) - Various Artists

This beautifully presented double CD set is an excellent guide to the dance music of 1999.

Each CD opens with a set of house tracks, before moving off into trance territory. It's interesting to see how each of the two DJs accomplish this. Judge Jules (CD1) starts off with the tougher end of the trance spectrum, blending 'Communication (Mas Mix)' (Mario Piu) into early-'99 classic 'Turn Around' (Phats & Small). It works well, the transition ...
...is spot on. My only complaint is that he uses the odd-sounding original mix of 'Turn Around', rather than the far superior Olav Basoski Mix.

Tall Paul merges house and trance with less success on CD2. The mix from Starfighters' 'Apache' to 'Everyday' (Agnelli & Nelson) is well-executed, but the two songs just don't belong together. Despite this, Tall Paul's trance set has slightly better content than that of Jules'. He throws in the ... more

This beautifully presented double CD set is an excellent guide to the dance music of 1999.

Each CD opens with a set of house tracks, before moving off into trance territory. It's interesting to see how each of the two DJs accomplish this. Judge Jules (CD1) starts off with the tougher end of the trance spectrum, blending 'Communication (Mas Mix)' (Mario Piu) into early-'99 classic 'Turn Around' (Phats & Small). It works well, the transition between the two is smooth and the mixing, of course, is spot on. My only complaint is that he uses the odd-sounding original mix of 'Turn Around', rather than the far superior Olav Basoski Mix.

Tall Paul merges house and trance with less success on CD2. The mix from Starfighters' 'Apache' to 'Everyday' (Agnelli & Nelson) is well-executed, but the two songs just don't belong together. Despite this, Tall Paul's trance set has slightly better content than that of Jules'. He throws in the brilliant 'Liberation (Ferry Corsten Mix)' (Matt Darey), DJ Jean's 'The Launch' (but he should have used the original mix, not the Yomanda version), '1999' by Binary Finary and Fragma's 'Toca Me' in its' original (and far better) non-vocal form. He also throws in some fancy mixing between 'Liberation' and 'Synth & Strings' (Yomanda) to keep everyone interested.

Perhaps fittingly then, Jules has the best of the house stuff with 'Right Here Right Now' (Fatboy Slim), 'Big Love' (Pete Heller), 'You Don't Know Me' (Armand Van Helden) and 'What You Need (Full Intention Power Mix)' (Powerhouse). He also seems to have suffered from the constraints of the CD, as the final two tracks (ATB '9pm Till I Come (Signum Remix)' and Dj Jurgen presents Alice Deejey 'Better Off Alone') are dealt with quickly and abruptly. It's not a very smooth ending.

I can't think of many songs which aren't on this compilation that really should be. Sasha's 'Xpander' and the excellent 'Saltwater' (Chicane featuring Marie Brennan of Clannad) are two which spring to mind. Perhaps they could have replaced 'Sanctuary' (Dejure) and the irritating 'In And Out Of My Life' (OnePhatDeeva).

This is an excellent compilation of the mainstream dance music of 1999, guaranteed to include almost all your favourites. It's not perfect - there are a few tracks worthy of dropping, and the mixing is occasionally dubious - but there is no better 1999 compilation on the market.  

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