Online mixes are an essential currency of electronic music, and they arrive at a rate that's impossible to keep up with. For that reason, this list of our favourites from 2018 is by no means comprehensive—there's no way it could be. Instead, this is a selection of mixes that have stuck with our staff throughout the year, drawn from our monthly Best Music features and the recommendations of our staff.

Feel free to share your favourite mixes from 2018 in the comments below.

- Yu Su
  Truancy Volume 201
  
  In an infinite pool of online mixes, Truancy Volume 201: Yu Su felt remarkably personal. The Chinese-born, Vancouver-based artist's mix references her classical piano training, the death of her mother and her love of Edward Yang films. In Yu Su's singular world, Liszt's impressionistic piano swells blend seamlessly into Terekke's deep dubs and the motorik optimism of Kraftwerk. The mixing and flow are remarkable.
- Nathan Micay
  BIS Radio Show #946
  
  Nathan Micay has long professed a love for trance and progressive house anthems, but few of his sets capture it as well as this radio session, which begins with the euphoric swell of Björk's "Big Time Sensuality," weaves through Paul Oakenfold remixing Smashing Pumpkins and Grooverider reworking The Stone Roses, with newer day-glo productions holding things up in between. If you're dying for an alternate future where '90s excess never ended, this mix is for you.
- Akua
  DISCWOMAN 51
  
  Akua is one of many young techno artists who aren't afraid to notch up the tempo, and she's also one of the DJs who does it the best. Full of throttling kick drums, careening synths and thrillingly broken rhythms, Akua makes you feel like you're hurtling through the air at Mach 3. It's a fast and skilled mix worthy of the DJ heroes—Claude Young, Mike Dearborn—that she names in the accompanying interview.
- CCL
  HNYPOT 291: Ode To The Queer Steppas
  
  On "Ode To The Queer Steppas," their entry in Honey Soundsystem's excellent podcast series, CCL gives us tour through dubstep's strange outer reaches. Weaving together cuts from innovators like T++, Peverelist, Pinch and Shackleton, as well as newer bits from labels like SUED, the mix is balmy, psychedelic and utterly devoid of genre clichés. HNYPOT 291 exemplified that most difficult of DJ tricks: make a familiar style sound utterly different.
- LSDXOXO
  FACT Mix 667
  
  LSDXOXO's journey from enterprising hip-hop producer to edit master to no-holds-barred DJ has been exciting to watch. This mix, jumping from old-school house and techno to Baltimore club to ghettotech to hardstyle and lots of subgenres in between, is no less of a rush. It's classic, it's new, it's queer and it's tough, and it's an example of the kind of flair that should help this New Yorker make waves in his new home of Berlin.
- Avalon Emerson
  Essential Mix
  
  It's not exactly surprising that Avalon Emerson's Essential Mix is good as it is, but you still have to marvel. The mixing is slick, dynamic and bold. The tracklist is full of private edits and upcoming music by talented friends (Aurora Halal, Nathan Micay, Overmono), as well as curveball bits of shoegaze and synth pop. As for that bit with the Soul II Soul acapella played at the wrong speed over a rumbling Paul Woolford track—was there a better moment in any mix this year?
- re:ni
  XLR8R Podcast 557
  
  Recorded live at the debut edition of Orbits festival, you can almost feel the sweltering Portuguese heat emanating from re:ni's opening tracks. Everything is built from the same building blocks—precisely layered percussion, unconventional rhythms and airy pads—as the mix builds up from soft dub and trippy chuggers to psychedelic techno. It's a lesson in coaxing mid-afternoon revelers onto the dance floor.
- Peach
  DISCWOMAN 55
  
  "I don't think I've been ever very good at the chill thing," Peach admitted when her Discwoman mix was published in October. No matter: her sets happily exist in a space well outside the chill zone. DISCWOMAN 55 was as bright as it was tough, with dreamy breakbeats, 135 BPM rave, the odd dollar-bin oldie and loads of great new music. This was Peach doing what she does best.
- Ricardo Villalobos
  Essential Mix
  
  What constitutes a good Ricardo set is one of dance music's enduring questions. This one, recorded at Amnesia in Ibiza, has been decried in some quarters for being too commercial. There are some bigger-room tunes in here, not least the Girada Unlimited rework of "Zapatac," but Ricardo's signature tightrope walk between hyper-precision and his famous no-fucks-given attitude is in full effect. And you know from those fader-flicks in the opening stretch that you're in for a treat.
- Omar
  MOJ mixes 15
  
  Though currently based in Berlin, Omar comes from Uruguay, a scene where Nicolas Lutz looms large. No surprise then that he'd deliver such a stellar contribution to the podcast series of My Own Jupiter, a "multidisciplinary art platform" run by Lutz and Edurne. A high-energy trip through charismatic techno, electro and house, Omar's mix moves through a range of sounds and moods, strung together with the slick transitions associated with Uruguay's homegrown selectors.
- Mumdance
  Shared Meanings
  
  If you're the type of person who delights in music that sounds like nothing that came before, Mumdance is your guy. Recorded as a free companion to the compilation he curated, this mix flirts with techno and drum & bass and swerves off the genre map altogether. Featuring tracks from Nkisi, Bambounou and Galaxian, Shared Meanings rounds up some of the most defiantly futuristic club tracks of the year.
- Kyle Hall and Jay Daniel
  Live: Fundamentals @ Marble Bar Detroit
  
  Despite their international acclaim, Kyle Hall and Jay Daniel are doing it for Detroit. Case in point: their Fundamentals party, a no-frills back-to-back session that's gone down over six years at bars, coffee shops and lofts in the D. This live recording from Marble Bar is a masterclass exploring the intersection of Detroit house, the jazzy '90s Chicago sound, UK broken beat and a whole lot of soul.
- Slikback
  Unsound Podcast
  
  Slikback's first gig outside East Africa took place in a Kraków basement on a chilly night at this year's Unsound festival. That performance saw the Kenyan artist play an hour of trap, grime and deconstructed club music—all his own music and remixes, including a tune he'd made earlier that day. It was one of the festival's highlights, announcing the arrival of yet another exciting Nyege Nyege talent.
- Beatrice Dillon
  FACT Mix 657
  
  Unafraid of pauses, jitters or pivots in direction, Beatrice Dillon showcases her distinctive approach to DJing on this winding mix. She describes it as an hour of "complete tracks and cut up fragments of work by so many different artists," with credit given only to artists and no track titles. Carefully arranging tracks like a jigsaw puzzle, it's the way they interlock and sit together that reveals a bigger picture as the mix unfolds.
- Mx. Silkman
  Beyond / Below 10
  
  In less than a year, Hi-Vis's Beyond / Below mix series has established itself as a go-to for ambient mixes, thanks to an open-ended approach that emphasizes both patience and personality. This mix from Cleveland's Mx. Silkman might be the best of them all. It's peaceful with a hint of tension, and underlined with a kosmische-inspired sense of melody.
- Skee Mask and Zenker Brothers
  Unsound Podcast
  
  Unsound Festival is ostensibly a showcase for music's cutting edge, but it's also earned a reputation for being a superb place to cut loose. Exhibit A: this three-way back-to-back from Skee Mask and Zenker Brothers, recorded early one Sunday morning in Hotel Forum's main room. The range of styles reflects the Ilian Tape sound, but its rowdy energy draws from jungle—from the spinbacks to the volatile, seat-of-your-pants mixing.
- Yaeji
  Blowing Up The Workshop 98
  
  There are artists who stand out in their field, and there are artists who are their own field—like Yaeji. Not content to merely play 40 minutes of her favorite music, on Blowing Up The Workshop 98 she adds improvised vocals to create a kind of mix/mixtape hybrid. Yaeji hums, whispers, raps and sings over modern club tracks from the likes of Etch, Chevel and the late DJ Rashad, using her voice and effects to make stylistic jumps feel like natural transitions.
- Teki Latex
  The Naked King
  
  This guy doesn't call himself the "king of blends" for nothing. The third and final instalment in the French artist's mix trilogy might be the most hilarious and impressive of them all. Squarepusher into Lil' Flip? Sure. Crime Mob's "Knuck If You Buck" over Swedish House Mafia? Why not. Eurythmics into Daft Punk into DJ Deeon? Naturally. Every moment of this mix is so turbo-charged with energy and humour, it's like a roller coaster ride you'll want to go on again and again.
- Kampire
  Sounds Of Sónar
  
  Kampire set the tone for her standout set at this year's Sónar festival with this Sounds Of Sónar mix, released a couple of months before the main event in Barcelona. It was some calling card from the Kampala DJ, mixing up fresh sounds from Angola, Uganda, Nigeria and the DRC. Full of catchy pop hooks and booming bass, this one showed precisely why Kampire is one of East Africa's leading DJs.
- John T. Gast
  UVC Roots & Destruction
  
  John T. Gast's enigmatic druid dub creeps quietly out of London with little fanfare, but his fans are cult-like in their devotion to him. This year's instalment of the Roots And Destruction mix series for Bus Editions is more like a solo album than a mixtape, an extension of Gast's private universe that connects dub, knackered electronics and ambient, making heartbreaking paeans with MIDI instruments.
- Mama Snake & Solid Blake
  Live: Dekmantel Festival 2018
  
  Apeiron Crew cofounders Mama Snake and Solid Blake are formidable DJs in their own right, but this live recording from Dekmantel shows how phenomenal they are back-to-back. From the brooding electro to the Shepard tones of Ploy's "Garys," through wild cuts of breakbeat, electro, techno and trance, the duo's 90-minute set at Dekmantel's UFO stage is a reminder of the kind of synergy that a back-to-back makes possible.
- Violet
  Crack Mix 214
  
  As founder of the record label Naive, cofounder of Rádio Quântica and a string of local parties, Inês Coutinho is a galvanizing force in Lisbon's music scene. She's also a sick DJ, as small clubs and parties around the world are beginning to discover, and as her Crack mix makes clear. Elegantly swerving through one raucous banger after another, never playing the saying type of track twice, Crack 214 shows a gifted DJ having a blast with her records.
- upsammy
  BAR Radio #40
  
  When she's not making bangers, Thessa Torsing, AKA upsammy, spends most of her time digging for bleepy curios. She's got a particular penchant for downtempo tracks in the 90 BPM range, a style she explores beautifully on BAR Radio #40. The mix is a slo-mo meander through golden ambient, IDM and other hard-to-define melodic jams. There's even a UK bass track played at the wrong speed. Together, they form one of the year's classiest and most adventurous mixes.
- object blue
  Bandcloud Guest Mix
  
  The Beijing-born, London-based artist object blue was a producer and live act before she was a DJ, and the way she mixes tracks has the arresting flair of a live performance. Her Bandcloud mix is a good example. Dizzyingly complex but intuitive, blending techno, breaks, experimental club and footwork, she bobs and weaves through angular, futuristic sounds with an ease that reflects her level of technique.
- Flo Dill
  SANPO 121
  
  The aesthetic of Australia's Sanpo Disco mix series is leisurely—"Sanpo" is Japanese for "stroll," the series being inspired by its founder's love of long walks. NTS regular Flo Dill got the memo, starting out with some glorious Pat Metheny on ECM, before spending an hour sharing the wistful music that soundtracks her bus commutes around London.
- DJ Healer
  Planet Lonely
  
  In May, a few weeks after his his double-album release on Easter Sunday, DJ Healer released a free mix through his Soundcloud page called Planet Lonely. Except it isn't really a mix. Moments of silence separate its dozens of tracks, which dip through ambient, downtempo and something like drum & bass, their mellowness offset by themes of self-destruction and apocalypse anxiety. Released as an album, Planet Lonely would have been among the year's biggest records. And yet this oddly understated format seems fitting, if only within the strange logic of this artist's word.
- DJ Senior Vasquez
  PARAISOMIX001
  
  You probably know about the Detroit-Berlin connection, but how about the New York-Lisbon connection? New York master Junior Vasquez was a fan of the Portuguese tribal sound of the mid-'90s, and he often played tracks by Portuguese producers at the Sound Factory in Manhattan. DJs like Danny Tenaglia caught on too, and a musical bond formed between the two scenes. Lisbon's Photonz makes this sonic connection audible with this funky, smooth mix of Portuguese house from that era.
- Nazira
  Mixmag - Kazakhstan scene
  
  The proverbial electronic music map has expanded these last few years, with cities like Kiev, Tbilisi and Montevideo earning overdue recognition. Nazira's January mix for Mixmag turned our attention to Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, and her hometown. Capturing the sound of Nazira's ZVUK parties, its big basslines, razor-sharp synths and precision rhythms offer a thrilling glimpse into this small but lively scene.
- Evan Baggs
  XLR8R Podcast 530
  
  In the two years between Evan Baggs' RA Podcast and this mix for XLR8R, his focus on an acidic strain of vintage sci-fi techno has tightened. Baggs embodies excellence in this field, and the mix is a sort of mission statement for the vision he's built over the past three or four years alongside artists like Binh and DJ Masda. Without feeling remotely nostalgic, it's a history of dance music's forgotten corners that jolts the present with new energy.
- Olive T
  Truancy Volume 205
  
  On first glance, Olive T's Truancy mix feels like it's going to be a smooth ride through deep and melodic house. Then it starts to get more psychedelic, ratcheting up to a rude and heavy breakbeat section before settling back down again. That mid-section explores UK-inspired sounds, but there's something so American about the demeanor of the mix—its confidence, its soul—that reminds you why she's one of the country's up-and-coming DJs.

- DJ Bus Replacement Service
  RA Podcast 610
  
  Doris Woo's RA Podcast, which includes a recording of a North Korean newsreader, an ode to Donald Trump sung by preteens, and a song called "'Roxanne' By The Police But Every Time They Say 'Roxanne' It Gets Faster," shows that her DJ-set-as-stand-up routine isn't just funny—it's downright innovative.
- Sonido Confirmación
  An Introduction To The Sonidero Sound
  
  The loose and groovy sound of Mexico City's mobile soundsystem parties, mixed by one of scene's key sonideros.
- Octo Octa
  RA Live: Sónar, Barcelona
  
  The New York artist's jubilant live set from this year’s Sónar festival covers a wider variety of sounds and genres than we’ve heard in her music before. Slipping effortlessly through bouncy breakbeat, shimmering trance and heads-down techno, Octo Octa's music has never felt more vibrant.
- LilMofo
  RA Podcast 646
  
  Recorded at Grassroots, one of Tokyo's finest small venues, this full-throttle selection of techno and jungle won Lil Mofo plenty of new fans.
- Orson
  Version: RA Label Of The Month
  
  Version is known primarily as Germany's preeminent dubstep outpost, but Orson's mix for Label Of The Month shows the impressive scope of their vision. Fusing Version dubplates with old records from rave heroes like Joey Beltram, Frankie Bones and Lenny Dee, the mix exemplifies Orson's knack for time-travelling blends.
- Sofay
  RA Live: Brilliant Corners
  
  For our RA Live event at Brilliant Corners in March, Sofay travelled down from Glasgow with a bag full of evocative experimental records—perfect for a cosy night in the East London hi-fi bar.
- Objekt
  RA Podcast 650
  
  Having successfully conquered tempo, TJ Hertz set his sights on techno's other main structural limitation: kick drums. RA.650 has none of them, and when it breaks through the clouds with Surgeon's all-time classic "Radiance," you'll wonder if techno ever needed them at all.
- Josey Rebelle
  Live: Rainbow Disco Club 2018
  
  Close your eyes and picture the scene: you're in a leafy valley with the sun on your back, and Josey Rebelle, one of the world's best DJs, is throwing down party slammers. Sounds pretty great, right?
- Nightwave
  RA Podcast 638
  
  62 minutes of rowdy, acid-flecked, neon-tinted party rockers from one of Glasgow's finest.
- Donato Dozzy
  Live: Alternate Cuts
  
  Donato Dozzy closed last year's Terraforma Festival with a set that bypassed his deep techno sound for half-time drum & bass and gabber. He tried this tempo-spanning, mind-bending approach at Manchester's Soup Kitchen, and the results were similarly spectacular.