The mix album is no longer the pillar of culture it was in the 1990s — how could it be, when Soundcloud, Mixcloud and YouTube are flooded with DJ mixes? But sometimes one comes along that exemplifies something very special in modern culture — and so it is here. This mix shows Londoner Josey Rebelle’s breathtaking scholarship of many, many genre strands, but also her laser focus. Its key rhythmic touchstones are Hot Mix 5 style Chicago house, Underground Resistance inflected electro, raging Belgian style 1991 hardcore, and turn of the millennium broken beat — but as often as not versions of these forms made by contemporary Londoners. She circles these styles, weaves back and forth between them, finds records that are perfect midpoints between them, moves elegantly from elemental fury to the ultra-refined and back, and in so doing, reveals the deeper currents of soul, cosmic thought and technology that underly all these styles. This is not eclecticism for eclectism’s sake: there’s a golden thread to follow all the way through, and the finale - of skyward jungle from Rogue Unit (aka Nookie) into Lex Amor’s neo soul then pure abstraction by Dutch outsider’s outsider DJ Marcelle / Another Fine Mess collaborating with Rebelle herself - extends the narrative logic outwards in ways that will take your breath away. A masterclass in harnessing the mass availability of the past and using it to make a distinct cultural and personal statement.

– Joe Muggs