Albums:   Back to the Old Skool and Back to the Old Skool 2
Artist:   [Various]
Label:    Ministry of Sound
Released: 2001-10-01 and 2001-11-19
Summary:  Classic anthems and cringe-worthy gimmicks halfheartedly mixed
          together.

Back to the Old School and Back to the Old Skool 2 are two compilations
of rave and early house music released by the Ministry of Sound.  As
two releases aren't enough to really qualify as a series, I'm reviewing
them as if they were one big box set.  Each part contains two CDs,
and each CD contains twenty tracks, giving you a grand total of
eighty songs.  That works out as over five hours of dance music.

First off, this compilation includes many classic and unashamedly
cheesy songs that pretty much defined the genre.  If you're only
casually into rave and early house, this contains all the songs
you'll need.  Unfortunately, there is a catch.

The problem is how the songs are mixed in.  In my opinion, there are
two types of compilation worth getting:

The first type involves many songs being mixed in together skillfully.
Often two songs are played at the same time that sound so well
together that you'd think the artists intended them to be played
this way.  Turntablism is used, the tempo and preferably key of the
songs are matched, and the whole mixture turns into a new piece of
music in its own right.  The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One is a
good example of this type of compilation.

The second type has the tracks unjoined, with a small amount of space
between each one, so you can leave out the songs you don't particularly
like, and put the remaining ones on random play.  You can then pretend
you've got your own tailor-made radio station with no adverts.  This
is by far the most common type of compilation as it's much easier
to make.  It's also the type of compilation you should make when you
have a phenomenal number of songs to include.  Let's face it, any
genre more specific than "classical" or "rock" is unlikely to have
eighty classic songs.

Back to the Old Skool is a lot closer to the second kind of compilation,
but many of the songs overlap by a small amount, with all the finesse
of a wedding DJ.  This means that although the mixing isn't impressive
or artistic, it will still get in the way of rearranging the songs.
This is a shame, because the songs themselves include all the classics
(such as Pump Up the Volume, Voodoo Ray, Hear the Drummer Get Wicked
and Back by Dope Demand) as well as all the best forgotten gimmicks
(including Sesame's Treet and Trip to Trumpton).  It's impossible
to separate the gold from the gravel.

As a result, I for one am still searching for a compilation that
firmly falls into one of the two groups that I like.  This definitely
doesn't.
