48 of the best 90s techno mixes you can listen to online

DJ-Kicks provided a platform for Detroit techno early on in its history by releasing groundbreaking mixes from Carl Craig, Claude Young and Stacey Pullen in quick succession in 1996. Craig’s submission to the long-running series was DJ-Kicks’ second-ever release and provides a smorgasbord of techno delights, running the gamut from minimalism to deep soul to frenetic bangers. Essential stuff indeed.

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Claude Young is a Detroit local who school himself in the city’s techno scene before travelling abroad to live in Australia and the UK. A resolutely anti-establishment artist, his entry into the DJ-Kicks series is an uncompromising display of tough techno and hands-on DJ techniques, with plenty of cuts, beat juggling and spinbacks making for an exhilarating ride. “I think Detroit, Berlin, New York, Chicago and other cities are places where you have to be really good. You can't be a marketer type DJ and make it,” he told RA in 2011. “You're not going to market your way past Derrick May or Kevin Saunderson or Jeff Mills. You've got to come with some skill. I always try to keep that part with me. I take that idea of the competition and the push to be different with me everywhere I go.” It’s that energy that makes this DJ mix still stand up today.

There’s a reason why there’s a long debate on the Discogs entry for this mix about whether it’s the greatest commercial DJ mix of all time: it’s quite simply phenomenal. Pullen fuses together fast, soulful techno with incredible skill, rarely letting tracks go for more than three minutes and coming up with some ingenious blends. The tracklist ping pongs between Detroit and Chicago and Europe but the end result is resolutely afrofuturist, a mission statement from Pullen who, having been mentored by Derrick May, was a key figure in Detroit’s “second wave” of techno artists who were continuing to construct a Blackutopia in dance music.

K-Hand was on fire between ‘95 and ‘01, releasing seven LPs and countless 12”s in a run of form that made her one of the most productive Detroit producers on the time. So it’s weird that there are very few recordings of her DJ sets from that time, especially when she was gigging so much to promote her relentless release schedule (at the start of this radio show she says it’s her 20th time in Germany). Her tracks were widely played by the likes of Mike Huckaby, Stacey Pullen, Pete Tong and Dave Lee back in the day but this is pretty much the only live recording of her we could find (happy to stand corrected though!) and it’s a total treat: she plays soulful, upbeat techno injected with big moments of Chicago house and ghetto house – just wait ‘til you hear Glenn Underground and a brilliant Green Velvet remix jump out of the rich flow of techno heat that she lays down.

There’s some really interesting Kenny Larkin recordings online – this mix of rave and techno from ‘92 is near overwhelming in its velocity, while this live set from ‘95 is a time capsule back to mind-blowing second wave Detroit techno – and this session taken from a set in Dortmund is no exception. Here, Larkin journeys through Detroit and UK techno and Chicago and New York house, moving seamlessly between both in what’s a joyous snapshot of everything good about dance music at that time. After releasing two albums in as many years – ‘Azimuth’ on Warp in ‘94 and ‘Metaphor’ on R&S in ‘95 – Larkin had become one of Detroit’s main protagonists and the quality speaks for itself here.

Chicago’s Mike Dearborn is beloved of 90s techno fans. Indeed, the producer, DJ and Majesty label boss was super active through the decade, releasing two LPs and a slew of 12”s. This tape recording doesn’t have a date but judging by the tracklist – which slams its way through fast, pounding techno from North America – it came out around 96. Recorded in Germany, it’s an uncompromising blend of hard beats and bleeps and makes for a good, if slightly more minimal, accompaniment to fellow Windy City DJ Robert Armani’s ‘Techno Mania’ from the year before.

Recorded a couple years on from the release of his influential ‘Minimal Nation’ album, this mix carries a similar sense of warmth and soul through its exploration of stripped-back sounds. ‘Minimal’ became a bit of a dirty word in some corners of the dance music community during the 00s when it became defined by soulless loops where the main thing stripped from the music seemed to be its sense of life. Hood, on the other, was all about putting more life in, as this mix makes clear. ‘Minimal Nation’ opener ‘One Touch’ features, which he once described as “about putting the humanistic dimension back in techno music. The rave thing was becoming so sample-driven and so machine-driven that I wanted to put the human element back in.”

Monika Kruse was the first DJ to turn in a mix for German label Fine Audio Recordings' mix series in 1997 and she made sure she set a soaring precedent. It's an electrifying hour-plus ride featuring rocket-fuelled tracks by the likes of Marco Carola, DJ Rush, Basic Channel and, as many techno mixes and sets do, Jeff Mills' classic 'The Bells'. Monika does not mess about in this and we absolutely love it.

Despite tasting the sweet champagne associated with pop stardom as part of Inner City in the late '80s, Kevin Saunderson didn't discard his techno roots. The Detroit icon followed the likes of Richie Hawtin & John Acquaviva, Laurent Garnier, DJ Hell and Dave Angel to deliver for the famed X-Mix series in 1997. The result is a pulsating, battering ram of a session featuring classics like Plastikman's 'Spastik', tunes from fellow Detroit producers Octave One ('Night Illusions' and 'Siege') and the scything 'Velocity Funk' under his E-Dancer alias. You'll be puffing at the end of this one.

It would be remiss not to include something from the brothers Burden in this list, but although Lenny and Lawrence’s Octave One and Random Noise Generation projects were fully active in the 90s (and still are today, with continued input from their bros Lorne, Lynell and Lance Burden), it’s difficult to track down recordings of them DJing. This set comes from Lawrence at the controls of the Rave Satellite show on Berlin’s Radio Fritz, which also still exists today. Having been releasing since the early 90s, the Burden bros were a Detroit staple by this point and Lawrence takes the opportunity to power through fast, funky techno from all of the big players as well as plenty of Octave One productions.

This DJ Pierre set for Evosonic Radio (which is still going) should be marked “handle with caution”. Broadcast during Alex Beeb’s Cosmium radio show and used to promote a megarave featuring the biggest and baddest of 90s techno DJs, Pierre’s session is non-stop monochrome acid techno that’s designed for dark basements illuminated by one red light. Things get rough and nasty, the aural equivalent of the smiling devil emoji.

Heather Heart goes hard. The New York DJ has played a pivotal role in the city’s techno scene, both as a force in the club scene and as co-founder of Manhattan’s all-techno Sonic Groove Records shop in 1995. Her influence is etched into rave history, and sets like this are a prime example of why. Released as the first volume of East Music Group’s ‘Eastbound Underground’ mixtape series, it’s an entrancing journey through pounding and hypnotic sounds.

This radio show from Kenny Larkin gets off to a disorientating start, opening with Negativland’s ‘Time Zones’, an experimental track with sampled voices locked in conversation about how many time zones there are in the Soviet Union. It’s an intriguingly offbeat introduction that immediately grabs your attention, pulling you into the irresistible techno flow that follows.

Underworld's live sets sure are something. The group had a slew of hits in the '90s, but they made sure they were still ingrained in the underground and their set at I Love Techno in '98 is proof of that. There's something quite dark and haunting about it, mainly down to Karl Hyde's inimitable vocal presence combined with some incredible, suspense-filled intros. It's also lively - as techno should be - and rowdy. The latter probably down to 'Born Slippy' and those classic 'LAGER LAGER LAGER' vocals.

Tapes are synonymous with rave nostalgia and were of course a huge part of 80s and 90s dance music culture as fans bought tape packs or recorded mixes and tracks themselves direct from the radio. StarsX2 was a bootleg tape series that ran from ‘96-’00 which offered up live recordings from the great names of house, techno, trance and garage. While the tapes are banned for sale from Discogs because they’re not official, a perusal of the StarsX2 back catalogue reveals what a time it was to be alive as a dance music lover in the 90s. This recording of Jeff Mills came backed with a set from Sven Väth, a combo that’s hard to resist even now. Mills’ set goes full throttle and at times it’s hard to keep up with the sheer landslide of drums.

Techno is an afrofuturist artform and ‘Live Sabotage: Live In Belgium’ is a pure expression of that. It features a host of faces from The D as well as disciples from elsewhere in North America and Europe. DJ T-1000 allows each blend of minimal, bass-heavy heavy techno to unfurl slowly, with miniscule changes in the detail of each track amplified to brilliant effect – before you know it you’re being carried away on subtle increases in low-end or mutoid melodies that appear as if out of nowhere. The precision of each mix characterises DJ T-1000 as a scientist or astronaut, each neon bleep bubbling up like a test tube or appearing like a new star formation in space. Sublime.

Frankie Bones is a legend of the American rave scene and this mix proves why: fierce, uncompromising and utterly addictive, this’ll have you transported to a Californian warehouse in no time. The techno here is big, bold and raw, a monster blend of Bones’ own cuts that features little in the way of vocal or melody, just rolling percussion that has a mesmerising, entrancing quality. Suddenly the sun’s coming up and you’re covered in sweat....

Flash back to ‘98 to catch DJ Bone spinning at his weekly residency at Motor in Detroit. Bone had cut his teeth with residencies at other clubs in the Motor City but was now commanding a regular audience of 1000 people with his name drawing techno tourists from all over the world. This was only two years after Laurent Garnier had booked Bone in Paris and you can hear just why the uncompromising artist was picking up fans outside of his hometown: the DJ Bone blueprint is right here, with its pacey beats, chopped-up chords and splice ‘n dice mixing style, making for a very distinct brand of techno which Bone still rocks clubs with to this day.

Many DJs need at least two or three hours to take you on “a journey” but here Juan Atkins does it in just over 80 minutes and it’s an absolute treat. The recording begins with old-skool electro and Kraftwerk, nodding at some of Detroit techno’s early influences, before gliding into smooth minimalism, hi-tech soul and, as the tempo increases, some roof-raising bangers. It’s as if Mr Atkins decided to bless Vienna with the whole range of Detroit energy that night.

You can feel the sunny, vocal-heavy vibe of the late 90s/early 00s dance music explosion come into focus during this expanside double-disc mix by Dave Angel. The London techno veteran had paid his dues on the underground circuit earlier in the 90s and was now synthesising techno and funk at breakneck speeds, a full-colour fusion he called ‘tech funk’ that is impossible not to like. He was lashing vocal hooks and piano riffs to barnstorming kick drums long before ‘techno disco’ was a thing and this mix will have soundtracked many lost weekends back in the day. What an absolute joy.

Mark Broom’s been putting out records since the early 90s and has literally released more wax than you’ve had hot dinners. He’s a UK mainstay who’s released his fair share of face-melters, but this session at Fuse sees him draw for plenty of mid-tempo techno full of swing and groove, a nice tonic to go with the harder liquor available elsewhere on this list. That’ll come as no surprise to fans of Broom, as he released an LP of deep, driving, ambient techno in ‘96 that’s well worth revisiting now.

Before Noncompliant was Noncompliant, she was DJ Shiva. It's under this alias the Indiana-raised DJ released 'Scenes From Dystopia' on mixtape label Untranslatable Concept in 1999. Rugged, pumping and outright relentless, Shiva draws for tunes by Jeff Mills, Chris Liebing, Adam Beyer, Surgeon, Ben Sims and Robert Hood. With those names involved, you just know it's going to slap as techno should. Shiva brings it all together for a timeless techno mix. It's one to look back on with pride for a DJ who's at the top of her game over 20 years later.

This mix from ‘99 for Brussel’s legendary Fuse club (which still exists today) sees The Baron in full flight, dominating the turntables with agile mixing, some nifty fader work and a track selection that blazes through stomping, electro-tinged techno. This one pulls you in and keeps you locked in for the duration…

Joey Beltram is a name that is synonymous with 90s rave culture and ‘The Sound Of 2AM’ came at the end of a decade that he thoroughly owned. As the millennium loomed he’d released a slew of albums, DJ mixes and 12”s, found home on the likes of Tresor, Trax, Warp and R&S and was behind all-time classics ‘Mentasm’ and ‘Energy Flash’. This DJ mix, which careens along at around 140 BPM, sees him mixing uplifting, trance-y techno that comes spliced with vocal snips and rave stabs, a glorious glimpse of the energy he was emitting at the time.

James Ruskin is a name that’s synonymous with UK techno and this recording showcases him hitting his stride on the international scene. Having taken up DJing in ‘91, production in ‘94 and running a label (Blueprint) in ‘96, by ‘99 Ruskin was a fully-fledged artist who’d also just released his debut album, ‘Further Design’. It’s little wonder that Belgian club Fuse – where so many of the best techno recordings are taken from (let alone the club’s legendary mix series) – booked him to play a thunderstorm of banging, squiggly techno. Ruskin draws for plenty of Detroit ammo while bigging up UK heads like Surgeon and Ben Sims. There’s also an appearance from a young Adam Beyer as the roots of ‘00s techno begin to take root.

Want to hear Ellen Allien go hell for leather at legendary Leipzig spot 1040? Here’s your chance. The Berliner cut her teeth as a young DJ with a residency at Tresor, the Bunker and E-Werk in the 90s and was a regular at infamous clubs like UFO and later Ostgut and Casino. Having been a disciple of techno for the best part of a decade, in 1999 she founded BPitch Control, released her first album in 2001 and the rest is history. She’s now a certified techno legend and this session from 1040 is the sound of a DJ coming into their own and setting the blueprint for rowdy German techno as we know it today.

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