Legendary DJ Axwell turns 40, celebrate with his 2006 Essential Mix

“Ladies and Gentleman…my name is Axwell…”

Axel Hedfors, better known by his stage name Axwell, celebrates his 40th birthday today. As he enters another chapter into his life and career we can only thank him, his teams and management. and all those people that helped support him to become one of the world’s most renowned producer/DJ’s today.

Axwell continues to be a frontline pioneer of house music, pushing the boundaries of musical intuition further and further every year. We have so many things to thank him for, for instance his “remodes”. In Swedish, “mode” means fashionable or cool. The many remodes Axwell has pumped out over time have cemented his position of one of the godfathers of progressive house. It is hard to narrow them down, but we have the nostalgic “Teenage Crime (Axwell & Henrik B Remode)”, the electrifying “Nothing But Love (Axwell Remode)”, the galvanizing “Centre of the Universe (Axwell Remode)”, and of course the majestic “Belong (Axwell and Years Remode)”. Honourable mentions would be his remode of “Hometown Glory” from Adele, “Dark River (Axwell Remode)”, and the recent Make Your Mind Up (Axwell & New_ID Remode).

Today we want to experience another huge milestone for the Swedish artist, jumping back in time to relive his Essential Mix on BBC Radio One back in 2006. At this point in time, the Swede was a remixing machine, and this essential mix is chock-a-bloc full of them. In August of 2006, Ax jumped on BBC Radio 1 to deliver an essential mix to the world. At this time, a possible Swedish House Mafia would have only been a thought. A total of 9 works from Ax make an appearance on the mix, some that fans might have not even known about. Who would have thought that he would have done an edit for Justin Timberlake and Madonna all in one mix? Well in 2006, that’s what he was up to. Listeners are also treated to “I Found You“, a rather fabled single from the man himself.

The unique blend of house that the Swedish DJ produces is rather hard to pinpoint, in an interview with Resident Advisor in 2005 when asked the question, “A few of us were finding it difficult to say what type of house music your style falls under, so I thought I’d give you this opportunity to tell us what you would call it?” Ax responded,

“Well I’m not really sure what to call it because I have the same problem you know, but you could call it ‘diverse house’ because I like to explore different sounds in music all the time, I don’t like to be stuck in one formula, so most of my tracks sound different to each other all the time so I can understand its really hard to define.”

Even back then, the Swedish maestro was conjuring up unique sounds and appeal. A year after Axwell had started Axtone, the essential mix is a piece of dance music history no fan should miss!

Please do yourself a favour and explore Axwell’s discography, there is usually something for everyone!

You can listen to the mix here:

You can find the track-list here.