Sasha has scooped the award for Essential Mix of the Year 2005. Originally broadcast live in May last year, it was voted the top mix over the last 12 months. Uniquely, Sasha played soley from his laptop and his custom built Maven mixer, the first Essential Mix to feature a DJ set not completed on the traditional CD and vinyl setup.

Since 1993, the Essential Mix (broadcast Saturday nights into Sundays mornings on the UK's BBC Radio One station) has featured established names alongside up and coming talent. The show was the brainchild of former Neo Records founder Eddie Gordon and has delivered some of dance music's finest sets and showcased some of the world's hottest electronic music artists. Hosted by the Essential Selection's Pete Tong, it has also gone on the road, broadcasting for ten consecutive summers in Ibiza, appearing at the WMC in Miami and Love Parades in Berlin and UK and has also embarked on extensive club tours around the UK.

For his set, Sasha remixed and re-edited tracks from his extensive library 'on the fly' using Ableton Live, creating two hours of improvised and effects heavy music. In a recent interview he admitted that a radio mix allowed the space for deeper and perhaps more obscure music than could normally be played in a club environment.

The Sasha mix beat other shortlisted efforts including 10 Years in Ibiza, Deep Dish, King Unique and Tom Middleton. Sasha has featured on a total of 20 Essential mixes over the years.

Click the link to hear Sasha's Award winning set (with track-listing). You can catch Sasha back in the clubs in the US on January 27th at Crowbar in New York and Club Glow in Washington DC on 4th February.