by John Bush
I-f's Mixed Up in the Hague is an excellent dance-history lesson focusing on the electro-disco that's been such an influence on his productions. Wisely avoiding most of the endlessly compiled electro classics (&Planet Rock,& &Rockit,& &Clear&) that tend to bore advanced listeners, I-f instead looks back to the motorized sequencer disco of the late '70s and early '80s with a parade of excellent obscurities. (Featuring track titles but no list of performers is undoubtedly not an oversight but a challenge to potential trainspotters out there.) The more familiar tracks include &Manmade& by Man Parrish, &The Chase& by Giorgio Moroder, a remix (cover?) of Kraftwerk's &Tour de France,& &Space Is the Place& by Newcleus, &Problemes d'Amour& by Alexander Robotnick, and &Dirty Talk& by Klein + MBO. The mix is raw and hands-on too, with almost two dozen tracks squeezed into an hour of mixing.