Derrick May (Mayday Mix)
Derrick May (Mayday Mix) New Years Eve 1988
Sometime in 1988
I happened to press record back in 1988 on New Years Eve to catch this “MayDay Mix” by Derrick May as 98 WJLB (Detroit Radio) counted down to the new year 1989. I really loved recording these MayDay mixes because there were always traxx that were not in stores or If I happened to have the record I would hear a different version of the song than the one on the record. But the craziest thing about the MayDay mixes is the reel to reel that you can hear sometimes spinning backward through the mix. This is classic Detroit I bet no one has this recording ha-ha!!! I’m sure I have a lot more of them I can dig up as well. This is a good history lesson for those pretending to know about the roots of Detroit Dance Music!
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How is he reversing the track and then hitting the start of the measure forwards? two copies of the same record and one going in reverse? or is this being played through a mirage or some other sampler?
LOL!!! That’s a gook question. What you hear is reel or reels spinning backwards in the mix because some songs were actually played off reel to reel before they were pressed to vinyl.
DJ assault to the rescue! I have always wondered how these acid house DJs did this stuff. That makes sense. I guess the latin rascals were using a similar technique up in new york around the same time.
Maybe so? I’m glad I could help!
Wow, quite a few Transmat classics in the mix. Thanks for sharing this one, Assault. I love all those old Transmat records. I’ve heard Wizard mixes before, but this is the first time I’ve heard an old-school Derrick May mix. I imagine that this is what the Music Institute might have sounded like. What I wouldn’t give to go back in time and check out that club for a night! I wonder if Derrick and those guys knew that they were making history back then.
Yes I wish dance tracks people made now a days were this hot and original.
Those mixes were done on a Tascam 4track machine if I can recall. The backwards songs were edited on a Quarter inch Reel to Reel I believe and put to cassette or to Reel. Sometimes he would bring the Reel to the Music Institute and mix his Edit’s live with the turntables(Incredible)! It’s a Trick he learned from the Master(Ron Hardy) from the Music Box in Chicago. I have some early cassettes with Big Fun Edit’s and a lot of his edit’s he was doing at the time…that’s kinda his Signature when he does a remix…backwards drum sections.
I knew it sounds like reels spinning backwards. But it seems like some songs he didn’t play very long? Like he didn’t really want you to hear much of it.
Hi Craig,
Many thanks for sharnig us these classics.
I just can’t stop to listen them.
I’ve got some simmilar mixes made in the early 90’s by hungarian djs and it’s really intersting how sounds changed whitin few years till it reached Hungary.
DO NOT STOP to upload more and more mixtapes!
anyway: have you got an original TB303?
Yes I have much hotter mixes to come. Also me and a few people I know have the original TB-303.
Good for you.
Still wriggling it?