It`s been a busy year for Max Essa. As well as manning the decks week-in-week-out all over Japan he produced Sekko Mekko for Is It Balearic?, and one of Moonboots` tunes of the year in Themes From The Hood, The Cad & The Lovely  for Hell Yeah! He remixed The Wawawiwas for Uber, Dawn Again & Rothmans for El Diablo’s Social Club, Afterlife, Faze Action`s Vamos Pintar, and Okinawa Delays for Claremont 56`s Tenth Anniversary Box Set. He discovered the playful Ambient of Karel Arbus & Eiji Takamatsu, and relaunched his label, Jansen Jardin. All of this while fielding my luddite questions about how to work a CDJ, and pulling me out of fist fights.

Three Tracks for Dancing

Black Spuma – Presdential (International Feel)

Voilaa – On Te L’Avait Dit / Dimitri’s Super Disco Dub (Favorite) 

Cantoma – Noche Española (Highwood)

Three Tracks For Chilling

Zee Erf – Southern Freeze / ‘Mudd’s Mix For Emma’ (Claremont 56)

Nordsø & Theill – Sun Fo Ni (Music For Dreams)

Kenji Kawai – Night Stalker from the Ghost In The Shell OST (WRWTFWW)

Three Long Players

Tornado Wallace – Lonely Planet (Running Back)

Garrett – Private Life (Music From Memory)

Kito Jempre – Sea Monster (Hell Yeah!)

Three Re-issues

Midori Takeda – Through The Looking Glass (WRWTFWW)

Jorge Reyes & Antonio Zepeda – A L Izquierda Del Colibrí (Emotional Rescue)

Roberto Aglieri – Ragapadani (Archeo Recordings)

Three Compilations

Phil Mison – Out Of The Blue (Leng)

Bill Brewster – Tribal Rites (Eskimo)

Jan Schulte – Tropical Drums of Deutschland (Music For Dreams)