Jeff Mills reissues his 'i9' for the 30th anniversary of the Liquid Room set

Jeff Mills has put out a new 2025 version of "i9" on his own Axis Records label, the Detroit techno figure's first move in a 30th anniversary program built around one of the most studied DJ recordings of the last three decades.

The track ties back to "Jeff Mills: Live at Liquid Room," the mix recorded at the Liquid Room club in Tokyo on October 28, 1995 and released the following year. Per Axis, "i9" was a piece Mills had not yet pressed to vinyl at the time, so during that set he played it off a 10-inch reel-to-reel tape machine. The 2025 version is a new remix of that material and, in the label's words, "the first element from a forthcoming re-release of the Mix CD as well as more anniversary facets."

The original Liquid Room mix is roughly a 67-minute set built on two turntables and reel-to-reel tape, and it became a reference point for a fast, tightly cut style of techno mixing that a generation of DJs went on to copy. Axis describes the recording as "one of the greatest DJ mixes of all time."

Mills has framed "i9" as a deliberate marker rather than a nostalgia exercise. "I wanted to have something that marked the end and the beginning of something else. A new way to think about dance music. That something was called 'i9'," he said in the release notes published by Axis. In a separate statement carried by DJ Mag, he added, "Nothing marks the mid-1990s more than this track 'i9'. Not because it was very popular, but mainly because of why the track was created in the first place."

The 2025 release came out July 18, 2025 as a 12-inch picture disc limited to 500 copies worldwide, paired with a short audio commentary from Mills. It sets up the rest of the anniversary slate, including a planned re-release of the full Live at Liquid Room mix.