This mixtape was recently featured on my rave forum site Ravetrash.com, re-discovered and uploaded by my buddy Ria. In his words:
JAJO was the name, DJ JAJO a.k.a Juan Mauri Vera. Jajo was from Spain & going to school here in St.Louis. He soon dropped out & started DJing full time for STL raves. the scene was just flourishing and there was a party every weekend there, it seemed. He passed away in 1997 from a drug overdose. R.I.P.
This mixtape came out circa 1992. It did not get to me until the next year as it was re-recorded onto other tapes and passed on down the line until i got it and did the same thing fro my friends. This was pre-internet so it took more motivation and time to spread your mix.
The mix is an underground legend. This mix got me into house music which then led me more into raves and such. I’m not the only one.
This became my “white whale” ever since i lost my cassette copy of it after driving off with my tape case on top of my car. I have since searched for a copy to no avail. Friends and colleagues like Perry Ellis & Melloman who had a copy, could not seem to find it in their pack-rat lifestyle abodes.
It was just a waiting game.
Melloman recently FINALLY found the tape and we reminisced about everything as it seemed like i was listening to this for the first time. My room mate ripped it from tape and digitized, cleaned up & remastered the mix to mp3. it still has a few pops & hisses but overall, decent quality to rock out to.
I’ve listened to this mix myself many times, and it is timeless and funky like all the greatest house mixes. It is a relic from the earliest days of the midwestern rave scene, but doesn’t sound “old” in any way. Rock out to this immediately and savor your old school cred.
