Music
The best DJ mixes of 2022
Each month, we round up the finest studio mixes, radio sets, and extended audio voyages electronic music has to offer. Here are the best mixes of 2022.
For the electronic music fan, there's never any shortage of new mixes to dig into. But which are actually worth your time?
To help you uncover the best of the best, we've gone to work hunting out the finest DJ sets, live stream recordings and mix series instalments available on the internet. The mixes on our radar span all sounds, from house and techno to trance, drum & bass, UK garage and more, and come from all corners of the globe.
We'll be updating this list each month, so check back in to keep up with the best DJ mixes of 2022.
Related
January
Jennifer Cardini - Live at Positive Education Festival 2021
Jennifer Cardini is a house and techno lifer, making her name in the underground clubs of Paris before evolving into one of Europe's most dependable DJs.
In January 2022, Cardini casually shared a set that's anything but casual. Recorded live at the Positive Education Festival in the French city of Saint-Étienne last November, the set hits hard, weaving banger after banger with the programming smarts and level head of a true veteran. This is exactly the bracing start to the year we needed.
Bradley Zero - RA.816
On the first day of 2022, thousands of party people streamed into the Coburg Velodrome in Melbourne for a proper, honest-to-goodness party. The party in question, Sun Cycle, greeted the summer weather with a line-up built to shake off a hellish couple of years.
On the ‘Body Heat’ stage, Melbourne royalty Tornado Wallace and Roza Terenzi played either side of visiting Londoner Bradley Zero. The DJ and Rhythm Section International label boss has a lot of love for Melbourne, and it showed in his set. Luckily for the rest of us, those 120 blissful minutes have been immortalised as episode 816 of Resident Advisor’s long-running podcast series. This one could clear the clouds on the dreariest of days.
FEBRUARY
RA.818 - Flava D
Genre-hopping UK DJ Flava D kicked off the year with a burst of sunshine in this mix for Resident Advisor, diving right into the garage and bassline sounds that made her name. Recently signed to Hospital Records, Flava D reserves the final stretch of the mix for her latest passion, drum & bass, largely made up of her own productions and collaborations.
MARCH
Phonica Mix Series 93: Alex Kassian
If you’re sampled sets from Berlin-based DJ and producer Alex Kassian, you’ll know his impeccable taste and knack for finding underrated gems. This mix for London’s Phonica Records is no exception, weaving in driving drums, ear-catching melodies and hints of acid over 70 captivating minutes.
APRIL
RA.829 - HAAi
Australia’s own house and techno dynamo HAAi has been on the ascent over the past few years, largely focusing her attention on the UK and Europe. Her mix for Resident Advisor’s long-running series is loaded with her signature tempo-shifting, body-shaking sounds, bringing in tracks from the likes of Atrip, Simo Cell, Tesla and Piska Power. HAAi’s own productions are also well represented, including her powerful ‘Baby, We’re Ascending’ with Jon Hopkins.
SPANDAU20 Mixtape - Naty Seres
Recently added to the roster of residents at Berlin’s hallowed Berghain/Panoramabar, German DJ and producer Naty Seres cuts her house and techno with a healthy dose of pacey breakbeats. In April, the DJ was called up to contribute a mix to FJAAK’s SPANDAU20 mix series, alongside fellow contributors like Rødhåd, Luke Slater and Helena Hauff. Naty Seres more than holds her own in that heavy-hitting company, delivering a breakneck hour that never flags.
MAY
Dekmantel Podcast 387 - Elias Mazian
Elias Mazian is one of the brightest talents to emerge from Amsterdam’s fertile house scene in recent years. With a sound that straddles his Dutch and Moroccan roots, the DJ is heavily booked throughout the 2022 European summer, and this mix shows why. Starting slow and seductively, Mazian finds his way to jacking house for true heads - including a perfectly timed edit of Janet Jackson’s ’Together Again’.
Essential Mix - Secretsundaze
James Priestley and Giles Smith, the unflappable duo behind the London house night Secretsundaze, celebrated 20 years of throwing parties by making their debut on Pete Tong’s Essential Mix. The two-hour mix captures their deep, groove-led sound, with a tracklist that spans decades and includes Secretsundaze favourites like Andrés, Aaron Palmquist, Deenamic and Smith’s duo with Martin Dawson, Two Armadillos.
JUNE
Steffi X Virginia... IsBurning #103
IsBurning is an Amsterdam-born LGBTQIA+ event series hosted by DJ and promoter Carlos Valdes, who kicked off the renowned night at the now-closed Trouw Amsterdam. In addition to club nights and curated stages at European festivals, the IsBurning mix series showcases top names from the underground scene. This mix from powerhouse pair Steffi and Virginia, best known for the 2011 collaboration ‘Yours’, chugs along with an irresistible house pulse, with highlights including the pair’s excellent recent remix of Josh Caffé’s ‘Do You Want To Take Me Home?’.
Bassiani invites DJ Nobu - Podcast #125
While Japanese master DJ Nobu is best known for his hypnotic, layered techno sets, he’s unsurprisingly a very fine house DJ too. This mix, recorded live at the esteemed Bassiani club in Tbilisi, Georgia, stretches out over three luxurious hours of impeccably mixed four-to-the-floor, from tough, bass-heavy stretches to joyous anthems. It’s hard not to picture the locked-in dancefloor with a serious pang of envy.
JULY
HÖR Berlin, Jul 19, 2022 - Claire Morgan
Right in the thick of a sweltering European summer, Australian techno tastemaker Claire Morgan stopped by HÖR Berlin in her adopted hometown. For the uninitiated, HÖR Berlin beams out DJ sets on YouTube from a tiny studio decked out in bathroom tiling and understated lighting. The channel showcases a diverse and forward-thinking rotation of DJs, with Morgan now a repeat guest. This set is a typically punchy and propulsive hour from the Berghain regular, blending old and new with ease.
AUGUST
Dekmantel Podcast 396 - Yazzus
On the first weekend of August, revered Dutch festival Dekmantel returned for the first time since 2019, drawing a sell-out crowd. Right before the festival kicked off, UK DJ and producer Yazzus - best known for her EP on Mall Grab’s Steel City Discs - dropped an entry for the festival’s long-running mix series. Described by Dekmantel as “one of the most hard-hitting [mixes] we have had in a while”, the 60-minute set moves at a breakneck pace through ravey house, breaks, jungle, footwork and more.
SEPTEMBER
RA.850 - Nene H
In a world of po-faced techno sets, Nene H knows how to bring the fun. The Berlin-based DJ’s hour-long mix for Resident Advisor is rooted in techno, but refuses to get stuck in a monotonous groove, bringing in flashes of ghetto house, electro and purist-defying pop.
“I hear connections in the tracks and genres that are not so typical and try to find bridges that are a bit unusual or not really traditional,” Nene H told Resident Advisor. It’s exactly those unexpected and highly idiosyncratic connections that elevate this mix above the fray.
OCTOBER
Phonica Mix Series 100 - Erol Alkan
For the 100th episode of its tastemaking mix series, London vinyl emporium Phonica Records turned to hometown hero Erol Alkan. The stalwart DJ, who Londoners know as the man behind the legendary Bugged Out club night, has long been a dedicated Phonica shopper, rolling in on Thursdays to stock up for the weekend’s gigs.
For this full-steam-ahead set (as close to 100 minutes as he could get it), Alkan presents an updated take on the bleepy, acid-drenched sound that made his name. A representation of his current club sets, the 100th edition also features exclusives from Alkan’s Phantasy Sound label and a few of his own hot-off-the-presses remixes.
NOVEMBER
Crack Mix 474 - Paramida
Opening with the sounds of lapping waves and seagulls, this mix from Berlin-based DJ and producer Paramida takes its time to draw you in. Crack Mix 474 captures the Love On The Rocks label boss in typically commanding form, serving as a 90-minute snapshot of the time-stretching sound she brings to her slots at Berlin’s hallowed Panorama Bar. As always with Paramida mixes, fans are scrambling to ID the wall-to-wall house gems contained within.
“I was extremely emotionally loaded because of the situation in Iran,” Paramida (who lived in Iran as a teenager) told Crack of the inspiration behind her selections. “So I stayed up all night making this super psychedelic and emotional mix. Afterwards I cried my eyeballs out and called my mum in the morning, asking her whether it was still just a protest – or a revolution. She answered: ‘the revolution has already started.’”