I fucking love mixtapes, The days when you would just load a tape in your cassette player and just drive around bumpin it, then hearing it click over when it was done. Wanted to get to another part in the mix? fast-forward or rewind, no track skip.

Besides the Frequency-8 tapes, I also have SDF1's Ultrasoundz and Micron's Though Control

Now one thing I do hate though, being a analog source, it sucks converting them to digital. This is my second time I am ripping the tapes to my computer, as the first time around I made the mistake of saving the originals in mp3... a lossy format. So this time around I decided to re-rip them at 96/24 and save the originals in flac, so I hope this will be the last time.

Anyone who has ever ripped analog items know that you have to listen to the whole tape. So meaning, I am listening to all of mixtapes, and gives me a chance it listen to my Mars & Mystre mix tapes (not like I haven't recently).

Mars & Mystre plays a very important roll in my life. It all began in the summer/fall of 98, I believe September, when the group of friends and I were at the Irvine Spectrum, I picked up a copy of Mars' Symphonic Metamorphosis sporadically at Manga House for like $7 or $8. I have never purchased a mixtape before considering that CDs were already dominate, and CD burners were on the rise. I did receive two mix tapes from my sister (one for the life of my I wish I could remember* and get again and the other being Keoki's Transatlantic move, putting me in my second electronic awakening.)

I remember Paula throwing the tape in her car on the way back to home, and it was different than anything I have heard. You have to understand that I really only was exposed to CDs and whatever Groove Radio played at that time, so this was a great change for me, no songs I recognize off the album ('cept Robert Miles' Children) and it was a completely different sound. To say the least, I was hooked. Before then I had no real emphasis on what sub-genre of electronic music I liked, people asked and I would just say 'electronica'. This album put my focus on trance.

After that I began purchasing Mars' mixtapes any time a new one came out, and I didn't start buying Mystre (Mystr-e) mixtapes till I bought the first volume of their vs. album.

I have become a Mars & Mystre fan, a Frequency-8 fan, a cybertrance fan. I would walk to school with my trusty Walkman bumpin my mixtape, where most classmates had CD players. Fuck that, you can't get this shit on CD. When I got my car, I was bumping it in there too. I would literally go tape after tape, cycling through the Mars' mixtapes, then VS volume 1, then Mystre's, then VS volume 2, and back to Mars. One of the great aspects of the tapes is how many there were, the inlays and tapes themselves looked great, and the sound was phenomenal, pretty much CD quality, and they never repeated tracks in their other mixes, I mean they would repeat tracks like 'Are Am Eye' or 'the Orange Theme', but each one was a different remix.

One of my greatest memories is walking into the Frequency-8 store in San Fran (after convincing my dad to take a trip up there :) and buying my first two records (that later got warped in my car, I was young, forgive my ignorance). I was seriously a hardcore fan, but never got to see them live. That is until A Trip to Mars, held at the Masterdome in September of 1999, oh shit was I excited. I danced my ass off to them.

I had all of their mixtapes by about mid-1999 (with the exception to the rumored and very rare Mystre's 'The Mysteries of Cybertrance') and even replaced two busted mixtapes (another reason to convince my father for a trip to SanFran :)

And then came the news about Mars & Mystre's next and first CD album, Faith in 2000. Oh shit was I excited. You see I never knew of any new tapes coming out, as I could only go to Manga House and check, and considering most of the tapes were older, they were already available, so once I found out about the new album, and being a CD, I was def excited to say the least, to the point where I was going to go with my girlfriend to go buy it the day it came out, which I believe was around February/March 2000.

Come that time, and I remember my girlfriend telling me she went and got it right after school (since I had track practice). I was pissed, cuz I wanted to go with them to get it. Regardless I got to listen to it, and honest to god, it didn't sound like Mars & Mystre. I enjoyed it, mostly because it carried the Mars & Mystre name, but it wasn't like anything in their former mixtapes.

The most noticeable difference was the amount of recognizable tracks on there. When I saw ATB's 'Don't stop' I just shook my head, that song was played out. And then I also saw 'Save the Rave' by them & Captain Trinrib, Mystre already used that track in his mixtape 'Mysticism'. I was wondering what the fuck was going on? Normally I could listen to a new mixtape of theirs and maybe recognize one track at most, but never did they repeat their tracks. Fuck it, I decided to listen to it anyway, and that is when most of the disappointment came about.

Originally there were never any tracks in their mixes with full vocals, probably the most vocal track was 'The Sound Ceased' by Ocho/Next Generation, from their second VS album (great song... and album btw). Then I noticed their sound changed, Mars was always the more melodic one, and Mystre was the harder acid bassline one, yeah not so much in this album. The first disc felt more fluff and more commercial, the second disc was the same, what happened to Mystre's edge?

I never bought the album, never really wanted to. I guess I saw that this album was the end of the Mars & Mystre that I enjoyed. And with the ability of creating my own mixes with my CD burner through CD Architect, and dramatic changes in my life, Mars & Mystre mixtapes signified a period of my life, that was pretty much over. Honestly, I still listened to the mixtapes, pretty much all of them up to Mysticism (rarely to never listen to Faith in 2k). I would watch Mars & Mystre and see what new stuff came out, like Mars' The Mysteries Within, that once again started with a track that was already used on side 8 (side 2) of his 'May Peace Prevail'. Nothing really was of interest to me anymore, I guess it was more the moment than the music.

I find it funny, reading a lot of comments on the Faith in 2000 album, apparently it was a lot of people's first introduction to trance, or even electronic music. It kind of makes me sick when I would mention them and they would tell me about how great Faith in 2000 was, not knowing of their older albums, ones without as much fluff.

But looking back now, after I have become more exposed to tracks and history of electronic music, I see that Mystre's 'Mysticism' album was kind of a foreshadowing of the change. That mix had more popular tracks than I knew at the time, and less acid basslines. He really doesn't spin music like he use to, but then again, the 303 has fade out of popularity, with only hope that it will come along, and trance will stop being so fluffy.

Actually, the first album of Mars/Mystre I bought again was Mars' Sonic Sunrise. I was curious how he was as a producer since I love 'Save the Rave' and 'Trip to Mars'. The album was ok, I think I enjoyed the documentary more. I believe I was moreso hoping for that 'Mars' sound from his old mixtapes. Then his second album came around 'Alienaided', and it was what I was looking for, the album felt more like Mars, and had some great tracks on it.

So I sit and wait, the Frequency 8 store is closed, Mystre has joined back with Mars again. I sit and hope that once again I will get to hear the style of the music that they once exposed me to, the music that made me fall in love with trance. As I have learned a lot from their mixes, I have learned that heaven is a state of mind, I have learned that because it makes no attempt to be great, it is therefore extremely great, I have learned about paradise and when the sound ceased, I can only hope a new message shall arrive. Oh... and I have also learned that Mystre is apparently a big Star Wars fan :) (based on his tape inlays).

Now I am considering buying the CD versions of the mix tapes that they have on their website f8gear.com. Maybe then I will buy 'Faith in 2000', that is, only to make it go past $100 and get the 10% discount.

The Unknown Mixtape
*If anyone can help me identify this old mixtape, or even the tracks, I will love you forever. All I remember is the first track starting off with the nature sound of a river stream and moving into a song with vocals from a female stating (all that I can remember);

"beauty and the beast"
"making love while we dance"
"it all starts out with an e"/"it all starts out with a need"
"and (it) ends in ecstasy"

Thats all I remember, any help and I will love you forever! I believe it was circa 1993-1995.

Edit: Today (8/18/2011) is a great day because I found the mixtape thanks to ezeskankin.com. The Mix tape in question was "Funky Void" By Dutch... I am so damn happy, this was like my first mix tape when I wasn't even a teenager!