Mixes Of The Year 2015

An exemplary warm up set: paced, stirring, full of strange and shimmering details.

The Norwegian veteran fills his lungs with “springtime and the end of a dark, cold and very windy and rainy winter”.

One of the most unique techno mixes of the year, taking banging, warehouse rigidity and veering left, with unexpected blends and rich textures all contributing to its singular vision.

Crack staff simply refused to choose one single mix out of Hunee’s four week stint for NTS, so we’ve settled for the series here. Of course it was brilliant – it dug for gorgeous, timeless sounds in an effortlessly eclectic range, perfecting a style we’ve come to expect from the beloved selector. Being blessed with eight hours of the stuff was aural therapy in 2015.

Hear all the instalments here.

For Tri Angle’s insane-looking fifth birthday party Björk put on that sequin mask to play a set that layered visceral female vocalists over some of the Tri Angle artists she has been raving about this year. With the likes of Rabit, Lotic and Vessel blended with Kate Bush and Sufi singer Abida Parveen, and the mix swerving from Jeremih to Death Grips via Total Freedom, it felt like a snapshot of where Björk’s vision is at right now.

Calling this a “profoundly intense, joyful experience”, Objekt’s annual Freerotation stormer was a high-octane journey through soaring house, techno and electro, with this recording capturing the relative chaos of the entirety of the festival attempting to bulldoze through the last of their energy with Hertz.

Part of the excellent Truancy series, Planet Mu mainstay Kuedo was conscious of listening environments while compiling this mix, which “loosens itself from rigid club logic and opens up some more airy spaces too.” An inspiring exploration of electronic textures to be consumed in “post office lines, bus stops. Various public transport & queue situations.”

Nils Frahms’ addition to the Late Night Tales series was a collection of records, mixed, edited, over-dubbed and remastered to give a soundbite into the Berlin-based composer’s mind. There is a weightiness to Frahm’s tales that, instead of dream weaving sweet nothings into our ears, has a whiskey-swirling heaviness that leaves the listeners contemplating and reevaluating those sleepless, late nights.

What can we say? Intergalactic FM legend I-F presenting over two hours of Murder Capital and Viewlexx records is as banging as you’d expect. We came back to this a LOT this year.

As London bid farewell to the beloved Plastic People club in January, there was one light in the darkness. This cherished token of the club exemplifies its legacy, a freewheeling selection of classics and tracks born of the club’s incubator of sound.

2015 was the year that crate digging culture came to the fore. Plenty of sought after Japanese gems found new glory this year after being reissued, and this mix was a further peek into the country’s colourful world of 80s electronic pop.

Featuring wonky pop created or curated by the Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Yukihiro Takahashi, Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto, in the form if collaborations or music released by their label ¥EN Records, prepare yourself for wonder and some serious Discogs raiding.