Suprised this hasn’t come up yet!
I’ve got loads but I’ll start with this one ,
I love how John mixes in goofy italo, arabian vibes and kooky balearic business, plenty of his trademark edits in there and the whole thing just swings (that Axel cargo edit is great) in a lovely way x
Gotta be Lexx’s Symptoms of Love mix for me, a perfect example of a DJ “telling a story” through their selections. 11 years on and I keep coming back to it. I’ve managed to collect most of the records featured, save for a couple of eye-wateringly expensive ones.
355-DJ ricardo at KU holy shit. First time hearing stop bajon; enough on its own. I used to play it for everyone, i remember jamming out to it in a hostel in bumfuck kyrgyzstan with a bunch of polish backpackers geeked up on naswar and gnarly local booze. No ibiza but we made a good night of it
I really loved the combined effect of the Boys Own mixes and the stories/sleeve-notes that Dr.Rob wrote along with them. They introduced me to a load of records, told an interesting story and I loved the way they didn’t just list the records but often gave slightly oblique clues to what some of them were, so you still have to do a bit of work.
Murk 437 - really sweaty, fierce house music that’s had a huge influence on my shopping habits.
808 State 478 - a snapshot in time. I was 9 in 1997 so I had no concept of dance music culture, I just loved my Pete Tong and Cream compilations, but I remember the vibe of listening to the radio in the car on late-night journeys with my parents and this one captures that pirate amateur scrappiness with the obvious thrills of new sounds.
Phil Mison & Apiento 497/498/499 - they’re like receiving a mixtape from a pal - a mix of familiar stuff and things I hadn’t heard before, joining the dots in a way I wouldn’t ever have thought to do myself.
Used to play that Plez track a LOT. Used to think it was the maddest thing I’d ever heard… used to consistently clear the floor, sounds quite Balearic now…
Another record that consistently had a young me transfixed in the “house room”. In big clubs like palladium, perhaps with a little lysergic performance enhancement it stopped you in your tracks. It also mixes in to ANYTHING.