The Art of the Mix: DJ-Kicks Approaches 50

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the death of the mix CD, although that’s not exactly breaking news. Since its late-‘90s peak as the best way to hear your favorite DJ in the mix when he wasn’t playing your town, broadband has pretty much killed the mix CD market by offering an endless deluge of podcasts, radio sessions, and live recordings from every DJ on earth—and for free.

A few mix series have survived, thankfully, mostly due to careful curating, exclusive tracks, and an authentic reputation maintained even throughout the lean years of CD sales. One of those left standing is DJ-Kicks, the long-running mix series via !K7 Records has captured many of the most important movements in underground dance music over the past 19 years.

This month marks the 49th DJ-Kicks release, mixed by Will Saul. “I’m hugely honored to have been asked to contribute to the series,” says the UK DJ. “It’s a documentation of you as DJ that you will be able to hold onto forever, so it’s very special.”

With landmark release #50 not far off, it seemed like a good time to dust off the old collection. The whole catalog is worth hearing, but here are a select few of our favorite DJ-Kicks CDs over the past two decades.

Claude Young (#3)

The second ever DJ-Kicks release came from Detroit techno veteran Claude Young. Tough and minimal, yet with a surprisingly slow tempo for the era, it’s a unique look at the ’90s Detroit sound that you won’t hear on any other mixes of the same vintage.

DJ Cam (#8)

Moving from techno to a more downtempo vibe (no doubt driven by the success of Kruder & Dorfmeister), the blunted style showcased on this DJ Cam mix represents the series sound throughout the late ’90s, with Terranova, Nicolette and Andrea Parker also delivering superb selections during this period.

Kemistry & Storm (#12)

DJ-Kicks’ first proper drum & bass mix, put out in January 1999, would sadly become the final document by this duo, as Kemistry was killed in an auto accident just three months following the release.

Playgroup (#19)

A return to 4/4 dancefloor action after an extended absence, Trevor Jackson mixed up new wave, early house, and electro in one of the opening salvos of what would become the nu-disco explosion a few years later.

Erlend Øye (#22)

A surprising mix by indie folkster Erlend Øye of Kings of Convenience, this disc demonstrated the merging of two camps—indie and dance—that had been slowly taking place since Pitchfork decided to start writing about Kompakt records around Y2K.

The Exclusives (#26 & #40)

One thing that has always made DJ-Kicks special is the inclusion of unreleased tunes by the artist creating the mix. These two unmixed compilations, released in 2006 and 2012 respectively, collected some of the best exclusive tunes from the series into one package.

Juan Maclean (#32)

Released at the height of DFA’s disco powers, this compilation (along with the James Murphy FabricLive.36 mix CD from a few years earlier) pretty much defines the coolest dancefloor sound of the mid- to late-’00s.

Photek (#41)

Released the same year as his long-awaited KU:PALM album, this mix reasserted ’90s star Photek’s mastery of all things bass—whether house, drum & bass, breaks or experimental.

John Talabot (#46)

This star-making mix by newcomer John Talabot was so masterfully executed that it landed the #1 spot on Resident Advisor’s Best Official Mixes of 2013 list, coming in ahead of big names like Cassy, Theo Parrish and Ben UFO.