Despite its ups and downs, 2016 was a phenomenal year for dance music, and in particular for the quality of Essential Mixes released on Pete Tong’s BBC Radio 1 show.
Midland’s two-hour Essential Mix was crowned as Essential Mix of the Year, an honor that in the past was bestowed to artists such as Ben Klock (2015), Caribous (2014), Eric Prydz (2013 and 2012) and Nicolas Jaar (2011). The rest of the bunch were up there too though, including spectacular renditions from the likes of Âme b2b Dixon, The Chemical Brothers, Seth Troxler, Richie Hawtin and Rødhåd just to name a few. There is absolutely no doubt that house, techno and the more underground side of dance music commanded the vast majority of Essential Mixes this year, with EDM and its off-shoots receiving less than 10 airplays throughout the year.
We have compiled a special playlist of all Essential Mixes released in 2016 for your enjoyment. As three of them were not available on SoundCloud we included their separate embedded players below also. Enjoy!
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