DJ-Kicks at 30: The Series That Gave DJs a Permanent Archive

Horst Weidenmüller’s mix series didn’t just showcase DJs. It cemented their place in dance music history.

The late Horst Weidenmüller, founder of DJ-Kicks and the driving force behind Berlin’s !K7 Records, left behind one of electronic music’s most enduring mix series. Launched in 1995, DJ-Kicks quickly became a proving ground for selectors, elevating producers and DJs onto the global stage. Kruder & Dorfmeister’s expertly curated mix, for example, didn’t just showcase their taste. It established them as in-demand artists, a feat the series has pulled off repeatedly over the past three decades.

Weidenmüller founded !K7 in the late 1980s, initially as a video production company before evolving it into a full-fledged electronic music label. With early projects like the X-Mix series, he saw the potential of the DJ mix as something more than just a club souvenir. It could be a statement, a time capsule, an album-length narrative. DJ-Kicks became the definitive realization of that vision. The series debuted in 1995 with a mix from C.J. Bolland, quickly followed by sessions from Carl Craig and Claude Young, both emblematic of the long-standing musical exchange between Berlin and Detroit. Those early editions set the tone: these weren’t just party mixes, they were documents of a DJ’s particular vision at a particular moment.

Then came DJ-Kicks: Kruder & Dorfmeister in 1996, and the game changed. A deep, immersive set of dub, trip-hop, and jazz-inflected electronica, the mix became a breakout hit, selling over 250,000 copies and putting both the Austrian duo and DJ-Kicks on the global map. It proved that the series wasn’t just a vanity project for clubland’s finest. It was a launchpad, a proving ground, a way to introduce underground sounds to a wider audience. More classics followed: Nicolette’s 1997 mix wove jungle and neo-soul; Kemistry & Storm’s 1999 session captured drum & bass at its late-’90s peak; Thievery Corporation’s 2002 edition locked in the global appeal of downtempo.

As the series expanded, so did its scope. By the 2000s, DJ-Kicks had moved beyond its techno and house roots, embracing artists who approached DJing from unexpected angles. Erlend Øye’s 2004 mix was one of the first to merge indie vocals with deep house; Four Tet’s 2006 set turned folktronica and leftfield jazz into something that flowed like an after-hours club set. By the late 2000s, getting tapped for DJ-Kicks had become a badge of honor. This wasn’t just another mix CD but a career milestone, a chance to define a moment in sound.

Through it all, DJ-Kicks stayed committed to physical releases, even as the mix CD became a relic of a different era. Licensing remained a nightmare — Motor City Drum Ensemble’s 2011 mix, for instance, required clearance for 22 individual tracks — but !K7 did the work, making sure these albums remained intact. Many editions saw vinyl pressings as well, though unmixed, giving fans another way to engage with the selections. That said, the CDs sound fantastic, and most early editions can still be found on Discogs for under ten bucks.

In addition to those mentioned above, the series has featured a ridiculous range of selectors, including Carl Craig, Stacey Pullen, Kemistry & Storm, Nightmares on Wax, Smith & Mighty, Andrea Parker, Thievery Corporation, Kid Loco, Brandt Brauer Frick, Will Saul, Nina Kraviz, Bonobo, DJ Koze, Peggy Gou and Daniel Avery. In 2024, DJ BORING, Honey Dijon, and Steven Julien added to the list of stellar mixes.

Below, a few standout DJ-Kicks sessions, each a portal into a different dimension of electronic music.

Carl Craig

Considered by many to be one of the great DJ mixes of the 1990s, Craig’s session was the second-ever DJ Kicks, and captures the vibe that made the second-wave Detroit legend and Planet E Records founder one of the most in-demand DJs and remixers on earth. “I could only think of a compilation in the way of what I’d been influenced by, so I was slashing Derrick May on the floor with a tape machine, a turntable, and a razor blade, and cutting tape and doing this mix by hand,” Craig told Apple Music. “My DJ-Kicks was more about what the technical possibilities were. It was a true musical production. It really felt like a Carl Craig album in comparison to a Carl Craig mix.” Highlights include Craig’s opening track, his remix of UK team Hot Lizard’s Theme, Planet E producer Gemini’s Crossing Mars, and Dimetri and Eric Nouhan’s massive percussive breakdown Folkloric Acid.

Andrea Parker

That Parker’s set opens with a sample of San Francisco sound artists Negativland (and becomes a recurring theme) should be one indicator that British producer Parker’s mix will be headed in weird directions, especially after it morphs into a deep, cavernous remix of Depeche Mode’s It’s No Good, which in turn Parker blends with Dr. Octagon’s Earth People. At raves, Parker’s sets were captivating excursions though house, techno, and various unclassifiable beat works. Listen to this set at full volume and prepare to be floored by tracks from Man Parrish, Autechre offshoot Gescom, Renegade Soundwave, and Afrika Bambaata. The final 30 minutes, which moves from Model 500 to Dopplereffekt to Drexciya and beyond, will transform your living room into a warehouse party circa 1995.

Motor City Drum Ensemble

Any set that commences with Sun Ra (Door of the Cosmos) and also features Mr. Fingers, Tony Allen, Arthur Russell/Loose Joints, Rhythm & Sound, Detroit producer Robert Hood, and Recloose remixed by Isolee is kind of a no-brainer for us. Motor City Drum Ensemble is the stage name of Stuttgart DJ and producer Danilo Plessow, whose crates are deep with lesser known masterpieces.

Moodymann

As if to remind the house and techno scene that the series still packed power, in 2016 DJ Kicks dropped a mix by Detroit legend Moodymann that, if you haven’t heard, should be a required part of your next house party or home-alone exorcism. Opening with dusty funk and gradually picking up tempo, Moodymann gets literally deeper as the set progresses, with the bottom-end bass humming with bolt-loosening low frequencies. Along the way he moves through rap, soul, and techno; best, Moodymann selects tracks that, lyrically, are connected through themes including alienation, racism, classism and heartbreak. Included in this masterful mix: Flying Lotus, Nightmares on Wax, Little Dragon, and friend-of-ISC Rich Medina.

Peggy Gou

Gou’s DJ Kicks confirmed her place as one of the most tasteful beat curators, one whose aesthetic draws from the entirety of electronic music. That she opens with Spacetime Continuum is one hint at what’s to come, but like all great DJ Kicks installments, what makes it great is its unpredictability. She cherry-picks a bunch of gems and then arranges them just so, as if the order was preordained and the tracks created for the mix alone. Jams: Gou’s Hungboo, Andrew Weatherall’s remix of Sly & Lovechild, DMX Krew’s acid-drenched track EPR Phenomena and Kode9’s Magnetic City.