The Goa Mix

Paul Oakenfold recorded this as his second Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1, broadcast in the early hours of 18 December 1994 — the 59th edition of the show. He’d already done one Goa trance set for the program that March; this was him pushing the sound further after producer Eddie Gordon asked him back.

The two hours split into two unequal halves, later nicknamed the Silver Mix (54 minutes) and the Gold Mix (64 minutes). Oakenfold built it around what he’d picked up on the beaches of Goa, but layered in film-score samples — Vangelis’ Blade Runner theme, a Dracula soundtrack cue — under vocal parts and studio production. Two hours as one arc, not a club set: peaks, drops, quiet stretches, meant for people listening at home, some taping it on cassette.

Cream nightclub pressed a strictly limited CD in late 1995, sold only from the club’s own shop, because none of the samples were cleared for a real release — the sleeve even warned buyers that bootlegs would follow. They did. Radio 1 listeners later voted it the best Essential Mix ever, in a 2000 poll, and it took a Silver Award at the 1997 Sony Radio Awards.

Sixteen years on, in 2010, Oakenfold rebuilt it as a double album — The Goa Mix 2011 — with modern production, some tracks re-recorded with his Perfecto Symphony Orchestra, others swapped out. It reached number 33 on the UK Compilation Chart, the first time the mix was legally available in shops.

The Goa Mix — Essential Mix, 18 December 1994

The Goa Mix 2011

Tracklist

Original 1994 broadcast / 1995 Cream Records CD.

Disc 1: Silver Mix

1. “Give Me Life” — Mr. V
2. “Skin on Skin” (Orange Mix) — Grace
3. “Point Zero” — Li Kwan
4. “De Niro” (Spaceflight Mix) — The Disco Evangelists
5. “The V.S.” — Virtual Symmetry
6. “Tears in Rain” — Vangelis
7. “Eugina (Pacific Diva)” — Salt Tank
8. “LSD” — Hallucinogen (featuring Ben Kempton)
9. “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” (A Mix of Two Halves) — Saint Etienne (featuring Moira Lambert)
10. “Vampire Hunters” — Wojciech Kilar
11. “Alcatraz” — Electrotete
12. “Bladerunner Main Titles” — Vangelis
13. “Floor Essence” — Man With No Name
14. “Dubcatcher” — Scorpio Rising
15. “Evolution” — Man With No Name

Disc 2: Gold Mix

1. “Inner City Life” — Goldie (Metalheadz)
2. “Love Remembered” — Wojciech Kilar
3. “Co-Incidence” — Voodoo People
4. “Stimuli” — The Infinity Project
5. “Wake Up!” (Trance Mix) — Trance Team
6. “Heretic Voices” — V-Tracks
7. “Schöneberg” (Marmion Remix) — Marmion
8. “Hierophone” — Karl Biscuit
9. “Rachel’s Song” — Vangelis
10. “Sun” (Oakenfold & Osborne Mix) — Virus
11. “Deliverance” — Man With No Name
12. “Reach Up!” (Indian Summer Mix) — Perfecto Allstarz
13. “Song Of Liberation” — Para-Dizer
14. “Sanvean” — Dead Can Dance
15. “Eternal Spirit” (Northern Mix) — 4Voice
16. “Sugar Rush” — Man With No Name