Electronica! Big Beat! IDM! Do any of these terms mean anything to you? If so, you might have experienced the mid-to-late 1990s, when the worlds of rave, hip hop, and alternative rock collided. As a young kid, I was really into dance music before I even knew what the term “house music” meant. Shortly thereafter, I got really into alternative rock and punk music for a while, before rediscovering new wave, which eventually brought me back to dance music. How did that re-connection happen? Well, it’s kinda hard to explain if you didn’t live through it. But the short story was that there were clubs and radio stations that started mixing alternative rock with new electronic music that had a really fresh sound. Club DJs started mixing industrial music with that electronic rave sound, and mixed in contemporary alternative rock and hip hop (In Boston, there were a few clubs that had nights like this. My favorite was Saturdays at Axis — a party called X-Night at Axis with WFNX DJ, Mike Gioscia). The result was something of a hybrid that got marketed to the masses as “Electronica,” but really was a catch-all term used to describe anything that relied on sampling and programmed drums. Trip-hop, acid house, jungle, and UK big beat music are just a few genres that all got thrown into the melting pot of Electronica. While a lot of the music from that era has since been frowned upon for a very long time, recently it has become looked upon more favorably than before.

So behold — two hours from my super authentic “electronica” collection! Fun fact: the motivating factor for making this mix was my recent acquisition of the 1996 Junkie XL album “Saturday Teenage Kick,” which like many albums from the mid- and late 90’s, was only available on CD in the United States. Lucky for me, I discovered that the Junkie XL album just had a 2026 RSD re-release, so I snagged one while I could. This was one of those albums that I heard on alternative radio and eventually tracked down, and went on to play out (on CD) at the first high school dances I ever DJed. The fun part of being an adult is that I now get to own all of this stuff on vinyl.

Tracklist for May 20, 2026

01 :: DJ Rap – Good To Be Alive (Album Version)
02 :: Fatboy Slim – Going Out Of My Head
03 :: Freestylers feat. Tenor Fly – B-Boy Stance (Dub Pistols Club Mix)
04 :: Philip Steir feat. Steppenwolf– Magic Carpet Ride (Steir’s Mix)
05 :: Cut La Roc – Hip Hop Bippedy Bop Bop
06 :: Shades of Rhythm – Psycho Base (Ceasefire Mix)
07 :: Propellerheads – Spybreak
08 :: Bentley Rhythm Ace – Whoosh!
09 :: Junkie XL – Billy Club
10 :: Chemical Brothers – Life Is Sweet
11 :: Sneaker Pimps – Spin Spin Sugar
12 :: Supreme Beings of Leisure – Strangelove Addiction
13 :: Death In Vegas – Dirt
14 :: Lo-Fidelity Allstars feat. Pigeonhed – Battle Flag
15 :: DJ Spooky feat. Kool Keith – Object Unknown
16 :: Groove Armada – If Everybody Looked The Same
17 :: BT feat. Tori Amos – Blue Skies (Radio Edit)
18 :: Underworld – Push Upstairs
19 :: Prodigy – Firestarter
20 :: Junkie XL – Dealing With The Roster
21 :: Apollo 440 – Stop The Rock
22 :: Moby – Honey
23 :: God Lives Underwater – From Your Mouth
24 :: Luscious Jackson – Roses Fade (Mojo Mix)
25 :: Tranquility Bass – La La La
26 :: Leftfield – Storm 3000
27 :: Dreadzone – A Dream Within A Dream