New School Fusion Vol. 1

The one-year anniversary issue of Milwaukee’s Massive in October 1994 reviewed this landmark mix with these words: “Lacks scratching but since it has ‘Circus Bells’ and ‘Future’ [sic] we’ll forgive it.” Mullan had made his name on the Midwest rave scene with his acrobatic scratch work—he made it work with house records, no mean feat—and his selection here connects the breakdancing youth of many American rave kids with speaker-freaking contemporaneity. Mullan’s second volume, from 1995, deserves its legend, but the first still has all of its initial spritz. And yes, Robert Armani’s “Circus Bells” and Phuture’s “We Are Phuture” are indeed here—but, even better, so is Black Science Orchestra’s “New Jersey Deep.”