Mixtape Shmixtape

Despite the "for promotional use only" stickers marking their packaging, there's a whole cottage industry of Web sites, retail outlets, and manufacturers supported by the cash hip-hop mixtapes generate. So far no other genre has bothered to tap this precious market, but creatively, the format avoids musical boundaries.

Superfriends Mix Vol. 1: Vin Sol

(www.milkshakesf.blogspot.com)

At "Superfriends," a club night at Milk weekly on Thursdays and on every third Saturday of the month, rulebooks fly off the turntables; DJs create the craziest mixes their imaginations can conjure. This first installment of the Superfriends Mix is a great primer that finds Vin Sol playfully warping previous perceptions of familiar tunes. Those who love Depeche Mode and RBL Posse in equal measures — and who don't mind some Lil Jon in with their George Michael — will no longer have to hide their eclectic tastes.

Also recommended:

ComeUnion

(www.conexusvillage.org/music)

Taken as a whole, these six individually curated discs from local DJs (Shanti, Giamma, rrrus, Mike W., Rhythmystic, Star-D) showcase a worldwise spectrum of electronica, from bottom-heavy breakbeats to throbbing house. The project was conceived to generate funds for the construction of the Conexus Cathedral at the next Burning Man.

Bonus beats:

Various Artists

The Best Mashups in the World Are From San Francisco 2

(tbmitweafsf@mutemail.com)

Sticklers might say this disc doesn't belong in a true mixtape category, since these creations aren't blended together by a DJ. But each of the locally made "mashups" (a collage of two often disparate records) is like a little crafty mixtape in itself, from the opening sound-clash pitting Beethoven against Kanye to the crunkification of the Spice Girls. DJs like Party Ben and Mei-Lwun communicate in just a few minutes what other DJs struggle to express in an entire set.