Yep, I agree T, there is no right or wrong.
If I take a step back from being specific about Mills for a moment, I guess the main point I'm trying to make is that to me this music is all about what and how it makes you feel. If you are making it, mixing it, dancing to it or listening to it the main thing is that it should come from the heart, not the head. And I guess the majority of the techno we're talking about here is dance music and that's important to remember. It's dance music NOT anally-retentive shoe-gazing analytical introspection music. So I reckon if you are spending loads of time analysing your own or somebody elses mixes then you've lost the feeling of the music. You should just be going with it, whether you're playing it or dancing to it, just feel it, enjoy it, love it but don't get too hung up on the technicalities. If you're spending lots of time trainspotting mixes then you need to ask yourself if you actually love the tracks being played ? Personally, when I'm lost in that moment, loving some tunes I don't even notice mixes, good or bad. I just get into the music. Just because we use machines to make it doesn't mean we have to analyse it and respond to it like robots.

Ask yourselves this : How many times have you been on a dancefloor when someone has dropped a tune that made you smile, that made you laugh out loud, that made you want to scream and shout or that's brought a tear to your eye just from the raw emotion of the tune itself ? Probably a fair few times, I'd guess.
Now ask yourselves how many times a mix has made you feel any of those motions ? Probably never. You may well acknowledge the technical brilliance of it somewhere in your head, but it won't be making you feel anything where it counts.

So that's it in a nutshell I guess. To me mixes are just a tool, but they are never more important than the tunes and the music itself. So don't get too hung up on them and lose the focus of what the music is really about. And the reason I feel so strongly about this is that when I was learning to mix (back with mc Noah on the Ark ) I wasted so much time listening to my own and other peoples mixes I forgot about the music for a while. I guess I kind of got lost with my head up my own arse. Now after many years of hearing loads of top DJs in loads of clubs, parties and festies I've realised none of that shit really matters and at the end of the day the only important thing is the music.
Enjoy it.
Peace.
P.



Disclaimer : Obviously the above should not be taken to mean it is acceptable to train wreck every single mix as though the tunes were being played by a deaf, blind monkey. Apply common sense and take the meaning within reasonable boundaries.