Global Underground Series

My Overall Ratings

So after hitting the prominent landmark of 30 years old from 29 to 31, the past year and a half my life has been taken up with this series, considering I have always had a fondness for this era of DJs and electronic music such as Paul van Dyk (who to my disappointment never got a release in the series, please make it happen GU), Sasha, Digweed, Oakenfold etc. Maybe it was because I missed this so-called golden era of music by 10 years to the fact I was put off because Sasha's Ibiza was the one people hyped up and I had way too high so many expectations for it I had for it ended up being a letdown, so I thought to myself if I did not enjoy the best this series had to offer then why bother with the rest of them. Then I came across Super Progressive's ranking video on YouTube so shoutout to him and his channel. Afterwards, I thought I would give the rest of the series a proper chance so after probably 100 or so cans of Red Bull later, one for each disc and my super alertness cranked up, I ranked them all with my attention paid to: track selection, mixing ability, creativity, enjoyability and how much the music matched or mimicked the artist's style or the feel of city's atmosphere the album was based on.

Here is how my rankings will work:

S: A very rare/hard mark to attain, the mix must match the city it's based on, and be PERFECT from start to finish on BOTH discs with next to no DUDS, both discs must be varied in style, so no playing it safe for example Sasha's disc 1 was more varied, sunnier and softer like exploring the island of Ibiza during the day whilst disc 2 was harder, more anthem-esque like in being in a club during the night or Oakenfolds Oslo mix, with disc one being perfect Drum & Bass & disc 2 being perfect Trance. I will never get bored of replaying these.

A Mark: Next to near perfect just missing that little something to give it the S mark, some of these were very close to being perfect, it might be 1/2 tracks that stopped it from getting there, the overall feel or whatever. It was super enjoyable throughout though with some of the series best high points. Replay these daily still today.

B Mark: An excellent mix not quite perfect I would say a balance of two discs being 70% excellent/30% good, would happily return to these for a second listen.

C Mark: An overall enjoyable mix, not amazing or anything, but I was content from start to finish, with lower entries being standard mixes that I would not return to but would not complain if they were being played. But mostly a one-and-done with no desire to return to these mixes.

D Mark: Just not my cup of tea, with lower entries being straight-up bad with almost every track bombing and nothing redeeming about whatsoever, I would hate to replay these almost the opposite to the S rank.

Here are my overall rankings up to date:

S Tier: (Perfect)
013: Sasha, Ibiza
004: Paul Oakenfold, Live in Oslo
007: Paul Oakenfold, New York

A Tier: (Near Perfect)
024: Nick Warren, Reykjavik
012: Dave Seaman, Buenos Aires
003: Nick Warren, Live in Prague
028: Nick Warren, Shanghai
022: Dave Seaman, Melbourne
021: Deep Dish, Moscow
043: Joris Voorn, Rotterdam

B Tier: (Brilliant/Excellent)
023: James Lavelle, Barcelona
006: John Digweed, Sydney
009: Sasha, San Francisco
016: Dave Seaman, Cape Town
008: Nick Warren, Brazil
030: Nick Warren, Paris
020: Darren Emerson, Singapore
019: John Digweed, Los Angeles
026: James Lavelle, Romania

C Tier: (Good/Solid)
038: Carl Cox, Black Rock Desert
005: Tony De Vit, Tokyo
001: Tony De Vit, Live in Tel Aviv
045: Danny Tenaglia, Brooklyn
046: ANNA, Lisbon
042: Patrice Bäumel, Berlin
014: John Digweed, Hong Kong
015: Darren Emerson, Uruguay
029: Sharam, Dubai
011: Nick Warren, Budapest
018: Nick Warren, Amsterdam
035: Nick Warren, Lima
036: Darren Emerson, Bogotá
041: James Lavelle, Naples
037: James Lavelle, Bangkok
032: Adam Freeland, Mexico City
047: Joseph Capriati, Montreal
039: Dave Seaman, Lithuania
025: Deep Dish, Toronto

D Tier: (Decent/Poor)
017: Danny Tenaglia, London
010: Danny Tenaglia, Athens
027: Danny Howells, Miami
040: Solomun, Hamburg
033: Layo & Bushwacka!, Rio
034: Felix Da Housecat, Milan
031: Dubfire, Taipei
044: Amelie Lens, Antwerp

PS: Firstly, please these were all 1st time listens and you know how DJ mixes go, sometimes you feel them and sometimes you don't sometimes a mix hits the first time sometimes it can take multiple listens for it to really click. Secondly just because say a Danny Tenaglia is a D does not means distinctly its a bad album/mix, it just did not click with me although I could see why its high for others and his mix had a distinct style and was different to anything else much darker and strange in style which I gave kudos for hench why its top of D but it just was not for me as its my list.

***New Danny Tenaglia - Brooklyn GU#45 is coming....
https://www.globalunderground.co.uk/product/gu45-danny-tenaglia-brooklyn/
Looking forwards to this one :-)

Hello, fans, what about GU044 in 2022? Any ideas? Still no news up to date

If I'm not mistaken, there were also 2 box sets released - GU01:11 which contained the first 10 CDs plus Transmission 00:1 DVD, and GU12:21 which contained the next 10 CDs plus Transmission 00:2 DVD. I don't own them anymore but my old lists of items suggests the codes were GUPACK1CD and GUPACK2CD respectively, and there doesn't seem to be anything on the net about them either. So if anyone has anymore information please add this box set to the GU Series.

The original GU002 is the cassette release of Tony De Vit's Live In Tel Aviv release, with cat# gu002t. It wasn't until the series 4th release, Tony De Vit's Live In Tokyo, that they added the numbers to the title. It was numbered 005, most probably to match the cat#.

Still a great list, but some things need to be put in perspective.

The US sets started with John Digweed's Sydney sets, which were actually GU006 everywhere else. The US list complicated many, many things, including the list above. By virtue of that list above, the GU002 by Paul Oakenfold from New York is actually the true GU007, and if you compare the track listings of 002 and 007, they are identical. In my search around, I've never actually found a GU002 (other than in the US), as the list goes from 1 (Tony de Vit's set in Tel Aviv) to 3 (Nick Warren's set from Prague).

IMO, GU002 should be removed entirely from the list above, and all lists should reflect the original (non-US) numbering scheme, not the (temporary and now defunct) US scheme.

While jiggwhat nails the most acclaimed ones, they are missing a few really great ones.

GU025 Deep Dish Toronto
GU017 Danny Tenaglia London
GU009 Sasha San Francisco
GU006 John Digweed Sydney

The golden standard of mix CDs. They were the best and the greatest before Fabric, DJ-Kicks, Balance, or any other wanna-be came around.

Global Underground is built around underground dance music. It started off with trance, it continued with progressive house and tech house. There's a variety of styles and Global Underground has been very accommodating in this regard - perhaps too much so.

If you're looking for the best mixes in the series, these are the universally acclaimed ones:

GU007 Oakenfold New York
GU010 Tenaglia Athens
GU013 Sasha Ibiza
GU017 Tenaglia London
GU019 Digweed Los Angeles
GU023 Warren Reykjavik
GU027 Howells Miami

Sadly, they have gone a whole different path nowadays, featuring some artists with a very commercial sound and some artists who simply may not belong in the series because of the music they play. I don't appreciate it - this is not a series for your mainstream house and trance anthems.