Since this is the tenth edition of “Five Mixes Are Better Than One“, we ought to start it off with something special, right? Our first item is a proper gem… Midland sums up how we feel about Ben UFO mixes really well in his interview with LWE: “This sounds like such a kiss-ass compliment, but I find the prospect of a new mix from him is almost the same level of excitement as a new Radiohead or Actress album, you know? It’s like, ‘I have no idea what’s going to be in here, but I’m so looking forward to it, and I need to give it some time.'” We too have come to trust that with or without a tracklist, we’ll get good vibes from anything he sends our way. This past December, Ben tweeted that while he’d never celebrate his own follower count, he would make a mixtape when flute don Jeff reached 1000 – and so he did when it finally happened this June. By now we all know how spotless his mixes for LWE and the Rinse series were (and if you’re not familiar, get listening) along with being regular devotees to the Hessle show on Rinse FM (every other Thursday, 11pm-1am GMT/6-8pm EST), so it’s surprising that this sparkling little just-over-an-hour mix has gone relatively unnoticed – download it below and join us in celebrating Jeff alongside disco on disco on disco.

Download: Ben UFO – Celebrate Jeff Mix

Next comes a mix we’ve picked up and left off from countless times in the last week. No matter at what point you tune in, this hour-and-a-half mix from Surgeon features relentlessly pounding techno vibes that go hard as a Berghain bouncer until the tail end. Though his DJing career reaches back to 1991, it’s a huge blunder to assume that holding a pioneering role in the UK-and-beyond techno scene limits Mr. Child to an antiquated outlook – his Humanity Test mix is one of the most on-point aggregations of recent and forthcoming releases that we’ve seen in some time, and to build on its own hype it also subtly confirms the rumours that the new Blawan on our minds (you know the one) is indeed a forthcoming Hinge Finger release. Surgeon invites listeners to “see if you can spot the odd one out,” so you can download the mix yourself and get speculating (tracklist is after the jump).

Stream: Surgeon – Humanity Test [DJ mix]

“If you by any chance you are reading this, it’s probable you have at least 4 other browser windows open, perhaps a beeping Twitter application, two conversations on Facebook, a YouTube video paused and a song playing on Spotify all whilst checking your emails for the second time in as many minutes, to try and avoid whatever it is you are supposed to be doing on Excel/Word/Illustrator, etc.” Fort Romeau hit the nail on the head and caught us Guilty As Charged in his recent piece for Fact Magazine wherein he explores the value of ‘Slow Listening,’ the process of digesting music in analogue format versus the disjointed, distracted way we take in digital media. A sentiment we definitely can sympathize with, but at the same time we wonder how having “VERY limited quantities” available of his own highly-recommended “Kingdoms” LP (released on 100% Silk this Spring) in physical formats helps make vinyl listening any more accessible. His half-hour “Homwerk Vol. 1” mix included with his editorial is available to download alongside his words: to counteract the internet-age attention habits he frowns upon in the article, we’d suggest dimming the computer screen for this live-recorded, home-made, vinyl-only mix and grabbing a cup of tea instead.

Stream: Fort Romeau – Homwerk Vol. 1

Oh, Mister Saturday Night – from bringing us the debut EP of 48th Truancy Volume contributor Anthony Naples (and, in turn, one of our favourite jams of 2012), to throwing what are generally agreed on as some of NYC’s best parties, the name keeps showing up more and more for us. As a celebration of their upcoming 100th party this Sunday in Brooklyn, the party founders Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin give us even more reasons to love them with a podcast recorded for Resident Advisor. The mix itself encapsulates the spirit of the party and showcases a majority of New York artists, though the roster in the tracklist wasn’t necessarily purposely skewed this way – Carter comments “I like that it happened that way, because it says something about how the city we live in inspires us to do what we do. We really love New York.” Definitely take a listen to their podcast and if you can, head to Mister 99 or Mister 100 this Saturday or Sunday – if you can’t, stay tuned for more from the Mister Saturday Night imprint, whose next scheduled release comes from NYC trio Archie Pelago.

Download: RA Podcast 321 – Mister Saturday Night

R.I.P. mnml ssgs, may you continue putting all new flavour-of-the-week blogs to shame even from beyond the grave. It’s impossible to pick a best-of mix from one of the most thoughtful blogs that’s graced the electronic music scene, and you can spend days getting lost in their mix archive here. We decided that maybe a chapter of their final set of mixes would be an appropriate inclusion, and so we tip our hat to their penultimate mix from Bill Kouligas, head of the Berlin label Pan. There’s a handful of artists we love in there, from Elgato to Kassem Mosse to Kowton to Levon Vincent to Actress, mixed in with a whole lot more that we definitely need to learn about. It’s a mix that twists and turns in ways that make you rethink what you’re listening to and forces you to connect your brain to your ears, which is something at the core of mnml ssgs that we loved from the start.

Download: Bill Kouligas mnml ssgs mix

1. Ben UFO

Tracklisting unavailable

2. Surgeon

Death Abyss – Seek Happiness In Victory, But Never In Peace (Inigo Kennedy remix) – MAK035
Woo York – Void (Truncate Remix) – MUX006
Samuli Kemppi – Hostile – KOMISCH012
Midland and Pariah – SHEWORKS03B
The Exaltics – Node#2 (Delta Funktionen Remix) – MA02
Midland and Pariah – SHEWORKS03A
Untold – Kane – HEK016V
The Fear Ratio – Dirty Paws – BP035
Kazuya Kawakami – Haunt – HHX08
Blawan – Untitled – HINF8674
Oris Jay – Said The Spider (Surgeon remix) – Texture Records
Roberto – Going Nowhere Fast – AFFIN114
Truncate – Diffraction (Jonas Kopp remix) – Modularz 8.1
Planetary Assault Systems – Function 4 (Lucy Remix 1) – Mote030
RdF – Doubt pt.2
Grenier – Uncertain – TEC062
Phase – Binary Opposition (Inigo Kennedy Process) – TOKEN20RD
Surgeon – As You Breathe Here Now – Semantica 50
Svreca – Vilna (Orphx Remix) – Semantica33A
Lory D – Acidattak – NMBRS23
Randomer – Search It Out – Unreleased
OM Unit – Preshah – TECCD013
Diversion Group – Shirts And Skins – LINO22
Blawan – Why They Hide There Bodies Under My Garage – HINF8674
Midland – What We Know (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix) – AUS1238
Jacques Greene – Prism – 3024 019
Oneohtrix Point Never – Remember (Surgeon remix) – SFT015

3. Fort Romeau

NDF – since we last met
MCDE – love (small people remix)
FORT ROMEAU – Kingdoms
FOUR TET – Ocoras
LOWTEC – Chord Memory
FORT ROMEAU – I Need U
GLENN ASTRO – Coloured Sands
BURIAL&FT&TY – Ego
MCDE – love (wolfgang voit remix)

4. Mister Saturday Night

Roland Kirk – Here Comes The Whistleman – Atlantic
Dag – Even So – Columbia
Tim Dog and KRS One – I Get Wrecked (Samoo Version) – Gamm
Akwaaba – Velvet Vouchers – Disfunction Records
Bim Marx – Bim On The Floor – Unreleased
!!! – Hello? Is This Thing On? (Thomas N’ Eric’s Rub N Tug Throwdown) – Touch & Go
Gino Bomino – For Sharon – Studio Barnhus
Eleanore Mills – Be Here Dub – West End
Anthony Shake Shakir – Piper – Frictional
The Fog – Been A Long Time – Miami Soul
Eamon Harkin & Steve Raney – Workin’ & Steamin’ – Throne of Blood
Linkwood & House of Traps – Barely Eagle – Firecracker Recordings
Anthony Naples – Moscato – Mister Saturday Night
Jill Scott – Hate On Me (Quentin Harris Shelter Dub) – Restricted Access
Jacob Korn – She – Uncanny Valley
Alex Burkat – Shower Scene (Justin & Eamon’s Version) – Mister Saturday Night

5. Bill Kouligas

Lawrence Weiner ‘Nothing to Lose’ (Van Abbemuseum)
John Sangster ‘First Light /Sunrise/The Birds’ (Cherry Pie)
Frieder Butzmann ‘Wie Zeit Vergeht’ (PAN)
Instant House ‘Lost Horizons’ (Jungle Sounds Records)
Pépé Bradock ‘Attaque De Boulangerie’ (Atavisme)
Robert Hood ‘Behind This Door’ (Cheap)
Lee Gamble ‘PLOS 97′ (PAN)
Étant Donnés ‎’Plutôt L’Exil Du Cinq Doré’  (Vita Nova)
Kassem Mosse ‘578’ (Mikrodisko Recordings)
Trevor Wishart ‘Imago’ (PAN)
Leron Carson ‘Red Lightbulb’ (Sound Signature)
Master C & J ‘Face It’ (State Street Records)
Aybee ‘Nigg#z And Space Machines’ (Deepblak)
Driphouse ‘Slow Sum Part One’ (Spectrum Spools)
Magic Mountain High ‘XX B’ (Workshop)
Aaron Dilloway ‘Labyrinths & Jokes’ (Hanson)
Kowton ‘Des Bisous’ (Pale Fire)
NHK’Koyxen ‘101’ (PAN)
NHK’Koyxen ‘629’ (PAN)
Convextion ‘Untitled’ (Matrix Records)
Levon Vincent ‘1000 Miles From Home’ (Novel Sound)
Eli Keszler ‘Catching Net’ (PAN)
Flux of Pink Indians ‘The Value of Nothing’ (One Little Indian)
Fred P ‘No Looking Back’ (Soul People Music)
Moodymanc ‘Coleman’ (20:20 Vision)
DJ Qu ‘Secret Place’ (Strength Music Recordings)
Togashi Masahiko ‘Spritual Nature’ (Inner City Records)
Gallifré ‘117 (House Beats)’ (Danica Records)
Maximillion Dunbar ‘Cassette Arabic’ (L.I.E.S.)
Risque III ‘Essence of a dream’ (Stride Records Inc)
R/S ‘Chicago II’ (PAN)
Dreesvn ‘Untitled’ (Acido)
Elgato ‘Blue’ (Hessle Audio)
Jeanne Lee ‘Angel Chile’ (Earthform)
Bernard Parmegiani ‘Pop’eclectic’ (INA-GRM)
DJ Sotofett ‘Untitled’ (Sex Tags / Wania)
‘Shake’ Shakir ‘Indagoo’ (Morphine)
Rhythim Is Rhythim ‎’Beyond The Dance’ Cult Mix (Transmat)
Actress ‘Shadow From Tartarus’ (Honest Jons)
Jacques Lejeune ‘Final À La Cour Du Prince’ (SFP)
Ed Barger ‘E Coli’ (LAFMS)

Five Mixes Are Better Than One Archive