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Music

THUMP UK's Mixes of the Year

We've compiled a list of people who did the work for us so you didn't have to
THUMP Staff

Christmas might be just round the corner, and that's great and everything because we all like getting books to read in the bathroom and spending a day trapped in a living room with only warm bottles of Budweiser to distract from familial tension and overdone turkey, but something more important's even closer.

This week THUMP bring you the best thing you'll recieve this year: Mixmas. For the next twelve days we're giving you a great mix by an incredible producer. Every day. For twelve days.

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To celebrate that, and our love of the mix as an artform in general, we thought we'd keep you posted on the sets that we've had on constant loop throughout the past twelve months. In the interests of fairness, we've decided to keep our own MIXED BY and ON DECK selections out of the list. Those are all great though, obviously, but for those wanting to look further afield, see below.

PLO Man - Trushmix 61
This sublime selection for Sex Tags weirdo DJ Fett Burger's ever trusty Trushmix series is a genuine all time classic, a peerless hour of the kind of wonked out house that sends you straight into your local damp basement to find everything he plays. A seasick set of alluringly deep, alarmingly sexy tracks that gets better and better with each listen. The ground that the mysterious PLO Man covers is stunning - from ocean floor scraping near-ambient to hypnotically thrusting whispered diva moans to anguished dark blue comedown trax, he makes it work like magic. 

Ben Steidel  - Peach Club Mix 005

A gorgeous blend of slow and steady low rollers and gospel tinged cuts - including Kenny Bobbien's "Gave U Love", aka one of the greatest house records ever made - saw this one on repeated rotation round our way. There's nothing flashy going on here: it's just fourteen filter-friendly head nodders nudged together with a precise subtlety.

Motor City Drum Ensemble - Boiler Room x Dekmantel Set
Danilo Plessow's output as MCDE has always resided in that liminal space between house and disco, so it was no surprise that his set at the Dutch festival was a masterclass in assessing the overlap between the two. Consisting of the kind of loopy-boogie that screams GOOD TIMES, this one's 45 minutes of sparkling high-end sheen. Bonus points for introducing the wider world to Bileo's effervescent "You Can Win".
Mystic Crystal - COPSON 022
Scunthorpe joyboy and south east London's finest curator of rain forest sodden basement jams Tom Glencross threw together sunset thudders and sunrise epiphanies under his Mystic Crystal moniker on this striking hour of diving bell deep house and stratospheric ambience that's best enjoyed in a Sunday shimmer. Glencross keeps things low and slow, resulting in a mix to wallow in. Definitely at the weedier end of the spectrum. 

Steffi - Essential Mix

There's no need to overthink the Panorama Bar resident's entry in Radio 1's venerable Friday night series. It's straight up heads down throbbing, thumping, brusing techno and it's absolutely incredible.

Balearic Mike - Balearic Interpretations Vol.1
Unrelated to the guy from NOFX, sadly. This Mike's been embded in the UK Balearic scene for years now and this mix, the first in Mark Barrott's Interpretations series, is the lushest, smoothest, creamiest selection of West Coast freewheelin' acoustica, Sealife Centre ambient, bossa nova and Haircut 100 of the year. Prime teleportation material. Whack this on the Sonos player, douse yourself in Piz Buin, get a cocktail on the go and you could be there on those long white beaches on one of those long hot days, even if you're sat in student halls in Telford. That's the power of balearic. 
Helix - FACT Magazine 474
Night Slugs American wingman Helix took a break from chatting about chicken wings on Twitter to smash through an hour of roughed up, rough cut, rough hewn house and insectoid, brittle techno. The result is one of the most exhilirating releases of 2014, a breakneck ride through some far off imagined city. This one's a certified bumper. 
Slow to Speak - 20 Years of Subculture"Slow to Speak know their shit. When they aren't punishing clubs with their relentless classically minded house sets, the pair run one of of the worlds finest, and snottiest, record shops: Dope Jams. This set is a fast and furious run through of two decades of diva wails, Korg M1 organ stabs and hilariously thuddin' kickdrums - two hours of endorphin pumpin' madness from a pair of house hardasses. Steam has been known to rise from laptop's playing it. 

Floorplan - XLR8R Podcast 371

Robert Hood is the absolute fucking master and if you don't think that "Never Grow Old" or "We Magnify His Name" or Minimal Nation are complete masterpieces then don't ever, ever click on this site again. On this mix Hood keeps it techy as hell - this is the kind of primal, visceral, raw shit that sounds so precise, so measued, so relentlessly propulsive, so fucking HUGE that you can't quite believe it's been put together by human hands. Until Hood's trademark gospel side comes through and the whole thing turns on a sixpence. Human after all.

Dimitri from Paris - My Tribute to Frankie KnucklesNo 2014 round up would be complete without a nod to one of the saddest events of the year - the passing of one of dance music's most revered, respected, admired, and adored practitioners, Chicago pioneer Frankie Knuckles. It's not hyperbole to say that without Knuckles, a site like THUMP wouldn't exist. His impact on the lives of millions of people is immeasureable and Dimitri's respectful selection shows off Knuckles' eternal command of dancefloor emotion. A soulful, doleful, but ultimately incredibly uplifitng testament to a true icon. As houses' chief architect's own "Tears" fades out there isn't a dry eye in the place. . 
Tagged:Listenfloorplanplo manhelixDimitri From Paristhump blogsteffislow to speakmcdeben steidlmystic crystalThump
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