If you are like me it feels like about a good 2 to 3 years since the Essential mix was living up to the name. It’s not disparaging the people who have obviously worked hard enough and achieved enough to get there it’s just a difference in sound appreciation. Sometimes i can be buried beneath a big pile of Dubstep, Jungle and (recently) Grime. Add in the fact that the side of Dubstep that would rise up and scratch at the matted hide of the mainstream is the side of it i appreciate the least and you’ve got a good recipe for me having mostly ignored it over the last number of years.

As such Kode 9 stepping up the platters for it kind of reminded my that the whole thing even existed and was still lumbering along as an odd paradoxical celebration of success and innovation. Kode 9 pretty much got to where he is right now by taking risks on talent who take risks on sound, his DJ sets spanning styles and genres with ease. It’s easy to sit here and say Hyperdub are clearly one of the biggest and most innovative dance labels on the go right now but i imagine in the early days it often didn’t look like that from the inside.

Watching Dubstep get as big as it did and expand into the definition flipping off mega amalgamation of sounds that it has done can make sense now, but sitting back in 2005  and risking your paychecks on it is a different kettle of fish. Largely the reasons why Kode 9 as a producer, DJ and label head has been such a success are all on display in the mix, sliding deftly from track to track with that odd blend of clinical technical skill and soothsayer like predictions as to what the listener is feeling.

Long story short, the mix is definitely worth a listen and if you are anything like me you will find this 2 hour effort by one of the innovators of the unsound to be intoxicating and beguiling. If only all Essential Mixes could be this essential.

You can listen to the mix here.