Quite a good system! The quality of music on those NME tapes is pretty mind boggling. Have been rifling through various free cds from dance magazines in late 90s/early00s I found in a box and very little is any good 
. Quite entertaining Erol Alkan one from Muzik magazine and err that’s about it.
Edit - a couple of jockey slut cds had some really good stuff on them! King Britt’s H-Foundation - Tonight mix etc
DJ Mag had this fab Tenaglia/Coldcut cover mount CD in '94 - 2 classic mixes
https://www.discogs.com/release/301958-Danny-Tenaglia-Coldcut-The-Night-Before-The-Morning-After
Actually, from memory, I think the only one they did that for was the very first one, then it moved to available by post only. I bought all of them. I’ve had a few stolen at house parties over the years but I still have almost all of them. The C81 one, you also had to cut out the liner notes for it and add it to the tape once it arrived. You kind of forget just how HUGE cassette tape culture was back then. From the 1970s right up to the early 90s, I recorded so many things from the radio. I’ve still got about eight Peel compilations that I made, and all sorts of weird things like Studs Terkel on Radio 4.
Rock Machine Turns You On was my teenage admission ticket to the then-contemporary world of music.
Then came the Island comp, You Can All Join In.
https://www.discogs.com/release/1965104-Various-You-Can-All-Join-In
Just about every label back then, certainly all the “cool” ones, had a budget compilation series. They got a lot of wear from me, but I didn’t buy many of the full-price albums represented. All these years later, if and when I give them a nostalgic spin, I remember every last note. This proves that drugs, at least the right ones, don’t rot your brain.
Somehow, even in the US, I accumulated many of these NME cassettes - just how I don’t recall. Unfortunately, they were pretty budget and many of them are now jammed up and unplayable. Still, I keep ‘em.
More recently, but not like last week -perhaps going on 30 years in some cases, the *Ambient Dub series seriously changed my listening habits.
https://www.discogs.com/label/874546-Ambient-Dub
Then there was the Select Cuts From Blood & Fire series plus other Select Cuts of dubby styles on a sub-label of Echo Beach.
https://www.discogs.com/label/2482-Select-Cuts
And, of course, all the King Size Dub compilation releases, also on an Echo Beach sub. Still going relatively strong.
I have this, and play it regularly for the Wynder K Frog track 
I enjoyed the three Country Funk comps that came out on Light In The Attic a few years back. Lots of tracks like this…
And in the 80s, as a teenage mod, I got really into the Kent northern soul compilations which broadened my horizons from sub-Jam mod revival bands. The first one i got was Right Back Where We Started From which someone has lovely recreated as a Spotify playlist here…
Having a flick through some tunes last night and this popped up - another comp from 1981 that totally changed my listening taste.
I’d gone out to buy Soft Cell’s Tainted Love single in what must have been a chart return shop as all their copies came with the album, so I guess this counts as a freebie comp too!
https://www.discogs.com/release/28107-Various-Some-Bizzare-Album
An old neighbour of mine recently wrote a book about Some Bizarre which looks pretty good and I need to pick up - something on Quietus about it here
The Sky Girl comp is a favourite from recent years. it was originally made for Collette the shop in Paris then released properly. It’s lovely though, outsider folk, synth pop and generally nice mellow songs.
All the Wynder K Frog LPs are worth picking up!
I tend to rely on real-world record shops for my purchases, and have yet to find any Wynder K Frog LP’s in the wild. Judging by online prices for Sunshine Superfrog, I may have a long wait before I find a copy…!
I occasionally see the two later ones these days but yeah the first is pretty rare. I was lucky enough to pick it up years ago, but even then the store owner immediately realized he’d let something go for a tenth what it was worth. It’s such more of a 60s organ banger; the other two are more funky. All are great. Into The Fire is very good and in this mix Jazz Rooms V | Ricardo Severe - I think the link still works
btw - since a lot of those links are dead you inspired me to put a bunch of those jazz/funk/latin mixes up on mixcloud. these should all work now"
jazz rooms | Ricardo Severe
