For this installment of the Essential Mix I took the opportunity of doing a 2 hour long mix and fit in music I normally don't get to play in a club. Tracks by Oneohtrix Point Never, Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland (aka Hype Williams) and The Names are among my favourite tunes of the last few months, so I thought I'd share. There are a few club tracks that I've been playing out a lot, most notably by some of the guys on my label such as Redshape, Trevino, Jon Convex and a brand new Jacques Greene track! The mix was recorded in my studio in a single take (!) on a nice Sunday afternoon using Serato vinyl, two effect pedals and a Korg Monotron Delay. Hope you enjoy it!

To all the inspiring musicians out there - Martyn

:: Hear Martyn's Essential Mix

R1’s Kutski picked up Best UK DJ for the third year in a row, long live King Kutski!

Between 1st January and middle of Feb over 15,000 fans of hard dance music and culture made their voices heard by voting in the 9th Annual Hard Dance awards. This is more than ever before and the truly global spread of voters made the results ceremony particularly exciting (and nerve wracking for some)!

Last year the awards were held at Storm@The Emporium in Coalville, Leicestershire. But after 8 years in the UK we thought it was time to take the Awards global. Our hosts on the night of 9th March were the professional team at Matrixx in The Netherlands.

Never before have we witnessed so many lasers and LED screens which gave the whole presentation the feel of the Oscars goes Star Trek!!

On the night some of the usual suspects picked up their awards for their incredible work, but we took particular pleasure in awarding some surprise winners such as the ferocious Angerfist who came from no-where to win Best Worldwide DJ. He came on stage wearing his trademark ski mask and then proceeded to rip up the rave with blistering 200 mile an hour hard beats. Anyone left standing on the dancefloor at the end deserves an award themselves!

Photos by Davy Huijgens

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