Listen to 5 Standouts From Resident Advisor's Monumental Mix Series

There's been more than enough new music to be excited about this holiday season, with the electronic world sharing rounds upon rounds of freebies, special mixes, and gift .zips from all angles. One of these offerings stood out a little more than the others, though, because it signals an accomplishment that simply stands alone: the 500th podcast from the folks over at Resident Advisor, a five-part behemoth featuring mixes from the superstar cast of Dixon, Steffi, Nicolas Jaar, Ben UFO, and Omar-S.

It's startling to remember that back in 2006, RA was the first online dance magazine with a podcast. Every electronic music publication does them now, and over the years, RA and all the wonderful artists they've enlisted have helped develop the podcast mix into one of the most central kinds of dance music listening today.

To celebrate this very special occasion, we couldn't think of a better way than by picking our five all-time favorites—a task that was by no means easy—which you can find them streaming in their entirety below, ordered without any rank. Once you've done that, you should definitely hop over to RA's microsite dedicated to streaming every mix they've ever released, which is something to be thrilled about in itself.

Scott Grooves is one of the most chronically underrated musicians in the history of Detroit dance music, and RA.225 highlights the longevity he's had in the scene—it's a rip of a killer house set recorded to cassette back in 1993, rescued from the annals of history and showcasing a goldmine of the era's hits in his truly inimitable style.

British artist Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points wasn't new to the dance music world back in 2012, but his stature back then certainly doesn't compare to what he's achieved this year. RA.301 was an important step for the artist showcasing just how voraciously eclectic and mind-bendingly artful he could be behind the decks.

London producer Joy Orbison has never put out more music than he's wanted to, so it really felt like some kind of a revelation when he came out with his spectacular, chilled-out RA mix a few years ago—for fans it was and remains a hard-earned 66 minutes of glory, delivered by one of today's unequivocal masters.

In the interview accompanying RA.470, UK artist Andrew Weatherall states simply that "[the] idea was to sequence some records together without the joins being too apparent." There's something special about one of dance music's most mythologized DJs talking about his craft in such simple terms, and this mix proves that sheer brilliance doesn't always need fancy packaging.

Over the last couple years, Galcher Lustwerk has established himself as one of house music's most intriguing and mysterious artists, thanks in no small part to the wonder of his RA podcast. Skipping out on the usual of beatmatched narrative—not that there's anything wrong with that, of course—the mix finds him using a much more experimental, and ultimately more personal approach, and the results are really quite special.