The Essential Mixes

Essentialmixes.net is a website where you can stream, download, view tracklists and rate every Radio 1 essential mix since it began in 1993. Wow, but its not flawless.

There are so many amazing mixes on the site… One which takes me right back is Force & Styles mix from 1997. Just check out the playlist from this sweet mix. The only tune missing is the Eyeopener by Dj Brisk.

1. Force & Styles – “Paradise & Dreams” (Diverse)
2. Force & Styles – “Apollo 13 Pt II” (UK Dance)
3. Bang The Future – “Body Slam” (GBT)
4. Force & Styles – “Cuttin’ Deep” (Diverse Recordings)
5. DJ Quatro – “Musical Mayhem” (HecTec)
6. Sy & Bunter – “Connect Your Step” (GBT)
7. Sy & Demo – “Love & Devotion” (Quosh)
8. DJ Stompy – “Body Rock” (Hectic)
9. JDS – “Higher Love” (Stompin’ Choonz)
10. DJ Eruption – “Don’t You Want Me” (United Dance)
11. Demo
12. Ham & Time – “Here I Am” (Jal Premium)
13. Ramos & Supreme – “Gotta Believe” (Hectic Rewinds)
14. Hixxy & Bananaman – “Together Forever” (Essential Platinum)
15. DJ Eruption – “Let The Music” (United Dance)
16. Force & Styles – “Pretty Green Eyes” (UK Dance)
17. Force & Styles – “Your Love” (Happy Trax)
18. Bang – “Cloudy Daze” (Next Generation)
19. Force & Styles – “Shining Down” (UK Dance)
20. DJ Demo – “Your Mine” (Universal)
21. Slipmatt & Eruption – “Sunshine” (First Recordings)
22. Billy Bunter – “Untitled” (GBT)
23. DJ Eruption – “Reach Out” (United Dance)
24. DJ Vinyl Groover – “It Doesn’t Have To Be” (Hectic Rewinds)
25. DJ Vinyl Groover – “Time After Time” (Obsession)

The site its self is pretty impressive, it really celebrates the dj and the amazing mixes which is good thing. So I went to register and found out, registration actually costs money up front which is a bit cheeky, yes its only 2 pounds 50 but there should be a option to sign up without paying. Then if you want to download, you have to pay. There’s also no clear indication what kind of downloads will be available. I can’t actually tell if the downloads are mp3′s, ogg vorbis or something drm’ed like AAC/WMA?

Reading people tweets, there seems to be a lot of problems downloading mixes, so maybe they should adopt some kind of P2P system like bit torrent to ease the bandwidth problems there having. Something like P2Pnext would be perfect for this setup. Finally, it would be great to have a API or at least RSS feeds.

I’m sure someone is already writing a script/app for this site to go into XBMC/Boxee/other devices, if there not – I might just do it myself.