Online mixes became a lifeline last year, and will continue to be as we stare down new restrictions across the world. The best offerings of 2021 were conduits not only for self-expression but reflection and personal growth, too. Much like our year-end album round up, they contained earnest expositions on weighty subject matter—like Theo Parrish's "Eargoggles" mix, a six-hour celebration of Black music—or signaled a new period of change and upheaval, like Tim Sweeney's Beats In Space farewell after 15 years on the air. Others outlined the joie de vivre you feel from someone blending a few records together, like OSSX's show-stopping hour of all-originals and CCL's ambient-not-ambient alchemy.

These are soundtracks that function as political statements, conceptual art pieces or straight-up, old-school mixtapes (we're looking at you, Josey Rebelle). Below are the ten standout mixes that sprint the emotional mile with technical finesse, proving that well-trodden formats do remarkably well in unexpected terrain.

Mix of the Year

- Theo Parrish
  Presents: Eargoggles
  
  "There are no genres. Nope, there's none. It's all tune for tune," Theo Parrish said outside the familiar NTS stall in Dalston's Gillett Square. And he doesn't just talk to talk. Many DJs claim to play across genres, but there are "many DJs" and then there is Theo Parrish. Over the past few years, the historically private artist has given fans a near-unprecedented view into his creative mind, first with the lengthy and unclassifiable sonic essay-meets-radio drama We Are All Georgeous Monsterss, and then this year with a six-and-a-half hour mix for NTS called "Eargoggles." (Parrish also dropped another six-hour mix close to press time.)
  
  Eargoggles is a marathon celebration of the infinite diversity of Black music, spanning from hard bop to hip-hop, searing psych rock to roots reggae. No random grab bag, this is a grand narrative and the revelation of a modern canon of soul with appearances by James Brown, The Congos and D'Angelo. The mix is an education unto itself—around hour five Parrish drops "Jazz Cats Part 1," a cut consisting of Madlib breathlessly laying out his key jazz influences—yet it's also a generous statement of purpose bursting with joy and urgency.
  
  25 years into his career, Parrish gives us an exhaustive guide to the music that makes him tick, that has informed his own enduring classics. But why now? He explains the gravity of his convictions in the final moment of the magisterial "Eargoggles" mix:
  
  I'm hoping that at some point during this... After you've had a ride, a musical ride with me, that you take a moment to consider the troubles that you have, and consider that you're lucky to have them.
  
  Even if it doesn't affect you demographically, you should seriously consider the fact that there's an urgency that should be lived, in respect for those that get taken from us early under the guise of 'serve and protect.'
  
  So let's survive together. But let's remember them together as well. Let's not forget how we treat each other when the music's playing and how things change when the lights go on and we all go back to the rest of our lives.
  
  Let's go back with a little more urgency and care for the fellow man. Let's give a damn a little bit. And if we can do that, we got a better place.—Matt McDermott

- Tim Sweeney
  BIS Radio Show #1085
  
  Over the past 21 years, Tim Sweeney never missed a week on the WNYU airwaves, hosting generations of DJs in the college station's basement studios. Beats In Space became iconic over this decades-long stretch, with Sweeney joining a grand tradition of New York radio DJs that also includes Shep Pettibone, Tony Humphries, Stretch and Bobbito, who held sway and influence far beyond the five boroughs. Though Sweeney has since brought Beats In Space back via Apple Music, last March he unexpectedly wrapped up his term on WNYU with episode #1085. Listeners flooded the comment section on a YouTube livestream after the news broke, thanking him for his illustrious tenure. For the finale, Sweeney played Beats In Space classics that highlighted the show's connection to the history of New York City dance music, dropping in an eclectic selection from Alicia Myers, Chaz Jankel and Arnold Jarvis. Full of hope, the two-and-a-half hours imparts a heartfelt message of gratitude to dedicated listeners and guests alike.—M.M.
- Crystallmess
  borshch mix 26
  
  We're in the age of the polymath musician, and Crystallmess is the epitome. The French-born Ivorian and Guadeloupean DJ, producer and mixed media artist (who has shown her work at the Centre Pompidou and the Geneva Biennale, as well as playing at hallowed institutions like Berghain), has steadily made her way into the art and electronic music vanguards simultaneously. For her entry in the Borshch Magazine series, Crystallmess uses the mix format to express the social whiplash of lockdowns and reopenings, all the while showing off her agile genre-agnosticism. She includes edits of beloved Lil Wayne and Aaliyah tracks, blown-out jungle sampling "Ready or Not" by The Fugees, swirled with a heavy-handed dose of otherworldly ambient to evoke the expansive solitude of pandemic isolation.—Whitney Wei
- Irini
  Lost In Dreams
  
  Lost In Dreams was another entry in the growing SoundCloud archive of Traumprinz's resplendent multiverse. Irini, one of the elusive artist's many pseudonyms, trots out over three hours worth of new material, charting a comprehensive course in sensitive dance music from someone who creates at a relentless pace. Unlike some of his other aliases, irini doesn't have a unique sound in the way that DJ Healer or the Prince Of Denmark do, but that's also what makes this mix so rewarding. The dub techno, UK garage, even minimal house productions spring forth from an enigmatic source, keeping the intrigue of listening alive. Now it's just a matter of waiting for the inevitable vinyl releases.—Henry Ivry
- Wata Igarashi
  ETCHED 003 (Live Set)
  
  A live set from techno's undisputed master of arpeggios, Wata Igarashi, is a special thing no matter where it takes place: dark basements or—why not—the Nobeyama Radio Observatory. Located in Yatsugatake, Japan, the observatory has been a hub for radio astronomy research since 1982. Its imposing rows of satellites and telescopes, set against a beautiful landscape, provide an almost too-good-to-be-true backdrop for Igarashi's cosmic, otherworldly sound. Beautifully shot on video by ETCHED (an audiovisual project showcasing domestic artists), the set plunges into the outer reaches of Igarashi's unmistakable productions, reworking previous records and some unreleased material into an hour-long trip that remains one of 2021's most memorable techno sets.—Richard Akingbehin
- OSSX
  100% UNRELEASED OSSX MIX
  
  For many of us, New Jersey group OSSX's "Split Wig" on Allergy Season was one of the year's indisputable anthems. And the only thing better than just one track is a whole hour of exclusive material. 100% UNRELEASED OSSX is a goldmine for anyone into big drums and even bigger melodies (with a "Split Wig" appearance early on). There's a light-footed touch to breakbeats, plus some nimble choppage and a parade of brazen, uplifting edits that sample a tongue-in-cheek gamut: Modjo to Janet Jackson to September's Eurodance hit "Cry For You." It's that "Are they really doing this? Sampling that?" swagger that cinches this mix as one of our endlessly replayable favorites this past year.—Andrew Ryce
- Josey Rebelle
  TTT Mixtape
  
  Josey Rebelle could—and probably will, honestly—make this list every year for the foreseeable future, and it would be nothing short of deserved. The UK DJ is one of the best selectors on the planet, with a record digger's taste but a party-rocker's ear. She'll play obscure records, sure, but they'll never feel obscure. Her mix, first released as a very limited tape on The Trilogy Tapes in April, is a perfect example of this, stitching together slow jams, weirdo techno and even snippets of radio play, with a darker edge than what we're used to from some of Rebelle's recent mixes. The eventual streaming upload of the mix was greeted with the fervor of an album drop, and for good reason: this TTT Mix strums the eclectic but intuitive thread that’s tied through all of her sets. The only flaw is that it isn't twice as long.—A.R.
- DESYN
  GHOSTCAST 014
  
  In certain circles, the name Desyn Masielo commands a kind of reverence, and the London lifer has been blending the finest never-on-YouTube Discogs gems for the past two decades. Here, Masiello flaunts those deep-digging DJ tendencies with wild abandon. Ghostcast14, recorded live at Hoppetosse, is a good intro to what he can achieve when he goes for the jugular from the very beginning. We start in medias res with UK garage basslines, but his masterful pacing and mixing means that before we know it, we're zipping through starry rave, acidic electro, '90s house and just about everything else under the sun. For us mortal trainspotters, the only thing worse than having missed this party is that we'll likely never know what any of these records are.—H.I.
- DJ Fart In The Club
  Daisychain 154
  
  DJ Fart In The Club (AKA Soyoon Choi) certainly has an offbeat sense of humor, but when it comes to their DJ sets, they're entirely straight-faced. Even though this set came in at the tail end of last year, it still banged all the way through into 2021. The Berlin artist unleashes a sticky hour-and-a-half of acid-tinged wobblers, prog house and freaky trance for the Chicago-based, women and non-binary focused podcast series Daisychain. In the knottier sections, Choi takes listeners on a jaunt full of vertiginous peaks and deep valleys by roving into spiraling wormholes of techno, garage and preternatural club music.—Kiana Mickles
- CCL
  sit on my interface (1/2)
  
  In the weeds of the first 20 minutes of CCL's sit on my interface mix, it's easy to presume that this is a fully ambient offering. But that would be a hasty judgement, as once it approaches the one-hour mark, the energy intensifies with such careful, gradual restraint that even the active listener might wonder how they even got to this point. Sure enough, the mix ultimately reaches a dark, slinky plateau with a bubbling, percussive roller and then rockets off from there. "sit on my interface (2/2)" can't arrive soon enough.—K.M.