What are the best Radio 1 Essential Mixes

Now that they are, amazingly, all available for download, which should I be prioritising (beyond the ones I already know like Dreem Teem / Goldie / A Guy Called Gerald / Carl Craig / Photek / Lindstrom & Prins Thomas / Underworld / Smith & Mighty / Basement Jaxx)??

They are?

http://www.mixesdb.com/db/index.php?title=Category:Essential_Mix&from=1993

!!! amazing!

This Optimo one is v good:
http://www.mixesdb.com/w/2006-11-12_-_Optimo_%28Espacio%29_-_Essential_Mix

Justin Robertson Essential mix from late 90s is great.

starts with Jimmy Castor Bunch, ends with Jackson 5.

has Grooverider , PRMLSCRM, stereolab and all sorts of great music in between.

link here http://www.mixesdb.com/w/1997-11-23_-_Justin_Robertson_-_Essential_Mix

Jeebus...

I've heard that Weatherall from 1993, that's a great one.

Possibly terrible, probably great fun: Jon Carter & Richard Fearless playing big beat records:
http://www.mixesdb.com/w/1996-08-04_-_Jon_Carter,_Richard_Fearless_-_Essential_Mix

I used to have the Weatherall mix on a tape

Worst?
http://www.mixesdb.com/w/2010-08-05_-_Zane_Lowe_B2B_Mark_Ronson,_Grandmaster_Flash_@_Space,_Ibiza_%28Essential_Mix%29

some commentary from DJs here -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/essentialmix/essentialmix500/

For other R1 mixes, this is a good Twitter account to follow..

https://twitter.com/#!/ExtradjBBC

daft punk from 97's pretty classic iirc

daft punk from 97 is all time

some other ones i really like

portishead 1995 - great mix of dusty breaks, NY hip hop and heads-down trip hop

carl craig 1995 - basically a two hour version of his classic dj kicks, spacy yet jacking abstract techno from all corners with an emphasis on "weird"

guy called gerald 1995 - classy mix of early metalheadz and good lookin and mid-period reinforced

jon carter / richard fearless as upthread - pretty much everything good about big beat at a time it was actually exciting

weatherall 96 - stunning "aquatic" take on dubby deep house

basement jaxx - all of them for reasons tim already knows

photek 97 - the second hour is goldie's "mother" in its entirety but the first hour is the steeliest hour of not-yet-techstep metalheadz "platinum amen" style d'n'b i've ever heard

daft punk 97 - easily the best EM of all time, TROO KVLT house music all night long

cassius 99 - more frenchy house / tough guy house euphoria

after 2000 i stopped listening to EM but afaict it's a wasteland of trance, electrohouse and bad "eclectic" mixes

WORST essential mix of all time was 187 lockdown - WTF were they thinking spinning two hours of jazz-funk?

Oh yeah I know and love the Daft Punk!

I almost downloaded the 187 Lockdown on principle and then looked at the tracklist and was like (backs away slowly).

Thanks for the recommendations.

- Stacey Pullen's 1996 ess mix managed to combine fine US garage with deep Detroit techno in equal measures. Highly recommended

- Grooverider's 1997 mix. Wall to wall tech-step is f'cking boring right?? Luckily the Rider balanced it with some soulful tuneage from the likes of PFM and Lemon D.

- The already mentioned Weatherall mix from 96. Proper deep house musics.

- Terry Francis 1998. Vintage tech-house.

Pretty overwhelming trawling through these - thanks for the tips.

Daft Punk 97
Laurent Garnier 95
Billy Nasty 94? ( The one with The Aloof, Robotman, Lemon 8 and Red 1 & 2 on)
Dave Clarke 95
FSOL 93/4?

I still listen to the Tania Vulcano and Loco Dice live from DC10 in 2005. Some great bangers on there; Traffic Signs, Matt John, Argy, Cosmic Sandwich.. sounded pretty cool to be there on a Monday morning.

as for 187 Lockdown, is Jazz Funk pretty much maligned on ILM or just a bit inappropriate for Radio 1 EM?

It just seems like a missed opportunity? I want a mix of bad boy julian jonah tunes.

heh, yeah.. love Julian Jonah.. even the Watergates stuff! ...

yeah i love jazz funk but it's not really what i want to hear from 187 lockdown at the height of their awesomeness, want to hear an hour "cape fear" type badness

similar inexplicable lack of focus on this comp

Flying Lotus is one of the best in recent memory. Also a fan of the Dmitri from Paris and Masters at Work sets.

Dave Clarke 95

dave clarke's mixes are so ... enervating, they make me want to hide between the couch

i remember one time i was driving with two bros and we were blasting dave's essential mix 2001 which is like one hour of increasingly grating chukka-chukka-CHUKKA-CHUKKA-chukka-chukka-CHUKKA-CHUKKA-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-chukka-chukka-chukka-chukka followed by some electro and then back to grating loop techno and at some point after "the seawolf" we inexplicably got into a screaming argument even though we were talking about something innocuous, decided to turn it off and everything was okay again

Pete Wardman, 1996: Accurate summary of what I was hearing out at the time, played it many many times back in the day.

http://www.mixesdb.com/w/1996-03-10_-_Pete_Wardman_-_Essential_Mix

awesome thread

mike t-diva - that's exactly what I was hearing out clubbing then too. Fridays at Heaven etc.

Know what I hadn't heard until now that is amazing? Daft Punk's New Years Day 1999 Essential Mix. Really captures that post-Stardust flush.

Jon Carter one is an all-time favourite

this one is great... amazingly there are many, many good ones in the short 12 years that have passed since 2000

http://www.mixesdb.com/w/2004-11-28_-_Blackstrobe_-_Essential_Mix

Thanks for the Weatherall mix suggestion, this is killer.

Stacey Pullen is great too, thanks for that tip.

Maybe I'm being dumb but I can't find the 1999 Daft Punk one on that site, just a 1997 one?

i think if you just google 1999 daft punk soundcloud it comes up, i found it in the weekend

It's not actually an Essential Mix but an Essential Selection - kind of meaningless distinction given both are on Pete Tong's show but anyway...

well Essential Mix has always been more prestigious - peaktime Saturday night, usually midnight-2am (though now 1-3am). Essential Selection felt a bit more like a warmup in comparison (Friday evenings, pre-midnight). But yes, in archive form it's a distinction without much of a difference.

http://soundcloud.com/jonnytwotimes/daft-punk-essential-selection

Essential Selection - warming up for the weekend, playinh you the hot new tunes, gettin you hyped.

Essential Mix - Driving back from the club... giving you the post nightclub vibes.

Annie Nightingale - getting back to someones and gouching out to a varied mix before the work experience DJs comes in for the Radio 1 sunday dawn shift.

having a timer plugged into a socket to that it turned a cassette deck on with record pressed & a C120 tape in it at 02:00 - Classic.

Did it really start at 2?? Maybe that was after my time...

Any more tips pals? The Weatherall is ace, as is the Pullen. All mixes should be two hours long, minimum. Must try and find that Weatherall Heavenly Social mix online when I'm not on iPhone.

am i just being a moron but where do you download or listen to these mixes on that website? i get no link or anything...

This is probably the best place: http://soundcloud.com/das-boy/sets/essential-mix/

am i just being a moron but where do you download or listen to these mixes on that website? i get no link or anything...

― J0rdan, Diddy (tpp), Thursday, May 3, 2012 5:54 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

click on the link of the mix you want, then on the next page will be the soundcloud thing where you can stream and/or DL

oh yeah that blackstrobe one is really something
]

not played any of these yet, but just checked the tracklisting for the weatherall in 96 one, some gems on there

Vahid is right about the Carl Craig and Daft Punk EMs, they're my two absolute favourites.

Anybody feeling Nina Kraviz's new one?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h5gtt

daft punk mix is ridiculous

100% obsessed with this website

eric morillo set from 1995 is totally slamming, esp. the second half. Always love that monstrous chunky percussive diva house sound, wailing hearts and steroids and amyl in a giant mirrorball blender.

unreleased frankie knuckles mix last weekend - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nkb46

Future Sound of London one from 1995 is all over the place and intensely brilliant. 400 Blows, Stockhausen, John Hassell, erm the Beatles.

What does a late great think of the morillo

ace, obv

also been vibing a lot to Andrew Weatherall 1996. So pretty.

in retrospect the lindstrom and prins thomas essential mix kind of changed my life. & i think I heard it because of ilm! i bet i could even find the thread and post

yeah that was an amazing one. early Aeroplane! R&B Drunkie!

Weatheralls bloodsugar mixes from that time are good, I'll try the essential mix, dont think ive heard it before

it's a little bit different from the blood sugar mixes, less dubby more jazzy

I just looked at mixesdb, the 96 essential mix and bloogsugar 1, are they the same mix?

I used to go see morillo at thursday night at centro fly. hearing him play "the dronez mix" of big love was one of the very highest highlights of my 90s clubgoing experiences

This 1995 one from Laurent Garnier is an all time favourite of mine. So many great records and possibly the first time I heard Da Funk (love the way he mixes it out of EPMD)

https://soundcloud.com/laurent-garnier/laurent-garnier-essential

yeah saer it is

thank you this thread for alerting me to the existence of these blood sugar mixes.

handy link: http://sound.modelfruit.com/tracklists/weatherall_bloodsugar.html

yeah that's where I've been sourcing them from.

This thread makes me want to pull a forks and ask for top 25 lists from Tim and Vahid,

rtc also

Spoon feed me genius plz

The still unidentified track at 21mins in bloodsugar 4a - heard this a lot recently, I cant remember if i know what it is and forgot or just never knew.

Any ideas?

Not actually serious about top 25s ("unless you're gonna do it" -nelly voice) but the institutional knowledge itt is appreciated

Two decent ones recently from EZ, and Four Tet w/ Jamie XX.

LTJ Bukem from July 1995 is a corker but the Feb 1996 one takes things to another level entirely. There's a sequence of DJ Crystal/ Subject 13/Intense which may be the best in all of dance music.

Joe T Vanelli Jan 1995 is awesome.

Billy Nasty May 1994 unrelenting.

Oh and Goldie April 2006 with Commix Be True on it is fabulous.

But as stated upthread the Laurent Garner from Nov 1995 is best of all. The mix into Submarine by Felix da Housecat is blinding.

tbh i don't really listen to e-mixes anymore

i really enjoy most of the e-mixes from the early years 1993, 1994, 1995. they're just great time capsules of an amazing time for dance music. you would have dudes like slam or david holmes or weather come on and just every single track is a deathless classic.

then around 95 they diversified, started splitting equally between the older sound, clubbier pete tong type stuff, big beat and jungle. there are some really great big beat and jungle ones from the mid-90s, like chemical brothers 1995, portishead 1995, guy called gerald 1995, jon carter / richard fearless 1996, goldie 1996

some very housey ones that i don't know what to say about other than i know you'll love them: derrick carter 1996, daft punk 1997, basement jaxx 1997 / 1999 / 2001