TRENCH Radio: 10 Of The Best Mixes This Week

Photography: Lizzy Nicholson

Another week closer to oblivion, but at least the music’s good. Having expanded our sources to include Mixcloud and YouTube, we’ve scoured the internet once again to bring you the latest and greatest DJ mixes and radio shows (providing they meet the criteria). As ever, we’ve gone through a range of sounds and styles, including rap, jungle, grime, house music, Jersey Club, Amapiano, gqom, bassline, Afro-tech, acid and beyond, it’ll just be more inclusive from now on. This week’s highlights include Bomberman jungle classics, Amapiano-UK funky hybrids and a rowdy love letter to rave.

So, without further ado, here are this week’s best mixes.

Om Unit

Image via Publicist

Earlier today, Om Unit dropped the stunning Flux EP, six new tracks of dancefloor meditations that range from warming atmospherics to techy rollers and bubbly steppers. A few days ago, to get us all primed for the new release, Om Unit took to his SWU FM show for a hypnotising deep dive into his record bag. Aside from going out in the run-up to the new EP, it also marked the first anniversary of his radio show. Like a lot of his radio shows, it’s pretty different from his productions, but between the heavy dose of dub techno and skippy dubstep, there are definitely some common threads between the two. From post-punk outfit Killing Joke to 130 explorers Spektralsound, it’s eclectic to say the least.

Ikonika

Photography: Lizzy Nicholson

The bumpy, infectious sound of Amapiano is quite possibly the best thing to happen to this country, certainly this year. From viral TikTok videos to underground club culture, its influence is undeniable. One ever-reliable source of the latest and greatest piano thumpers is Hyperdub stalwart Ikonika, who’s also been creating some of her own contributions to the scene. Here, she gives a deft demonstration of how well it fits in with Afro-house, UK funky, tribal house and beyond as she stirs together the likes of Tribal Brothers, Cooly G, Hagan, Bok Bok, and one or two of her own creations.

DJ Argue w/ Crafty 893, Rolla, Duppy, Renz & Squintz

Image via Instagram

Mob Set have putting in graft for years now and it’s been paying off in major ways recently. This year alone they’ve been working nonstop on radio sets and between them they’ve put out some major projects. This week, Squintz and Renz joined Duppy, Crafty 893 and Rolla for a special set with DJ Argue broadcast all the way from the Strong Arm Steady barbershop in Deptford. Backed by classic grime instrumentals old and new, it’s non-stop energy from beginning to end. To those who still hold the baffling belief that grime is dead, this is surely all the proof you need that you just need to pay more attention.

Scratcha DVA

Photography: Pola Sieverding

Back in the late 2000s, Scratcha DVA—or simply DJ Scratcha as he was back then—made the switch from Friday nights on Rinse to helming the station’s breakfast show, dubbed The Grimey Breakfast Show. Although Scratcha’s hosted plenty of radio shows since, that show in particular was a treasured outpost for fans of all things 140, so when he took to Twitter to announce that he was ”loadin up my usb w all dem fings i aint herd in ages,” for a one-off breakfast show on NTS, people were pretty excited. Armed with two USBs and a baga chat, Scratch slipped through the BPMs, from jazzy numbers to grime to R&B and a whole bunch of sounds from way beyond any genre classification. Oh, and the Vengaboys.

Strict Face

Photography: Nick Astanei

Adelaide DJ and producer Strict Face, although based quite literally on the other side of the world, has always been on our wavelength. Between speaker-throttling bass lines and wall-shaking drums, his music’s best-suited for only the biggest sound systems. His latest DJ mix arrives hot on the heels of his new EP Pulsers, which just dropped via Nina Las Vegas’ NLV Records, and it’s stern stuff. It’s thumping, it’s heavy, but it’s not toughness for toughness’ sake; the grooves run deep and there are huge splashes of colour throughout. Thanks to heaters from Mina & Bryte, Jubilee, DJ Technics and a few of his own gems, this one should keep you raving well into the small hours.

Lone

Photography: Magda Kuczmik

Whether you’ve thrown yourself in head first or just gingerly dipped your toe in the water, readjusting to The Outside, specifically raving, has been an interesting experience. It’s been nearly two years out the game for most of us, so naturally it’s going to take a minute to get reacquainted. Luckily, Lone has offered a guiding hand with his new mix of celebratory, exhilarating and at times straight-up euphoric hour of rave bangers. The new mix covers the full length and breadth of what you might hope for—a little acid, a little breakbeat, some hardcore, and just about everything else besides—all seamlessly blended into one long love letter to rave.

The Slopes

Photography: @khaliphotography

Joel Jackson doesn’t do a lot of DJ mixes. His output as The Slopes, whether on record or not, is usually more of a live performance, so this new session was a surprise outing from the Margate native. The younger brother of Tommy from My Nu Peng, his music as The Slopes is essentially drum & bass, and it gets pretty dark sometimes, but approached from the perspective of a band, employing live instruments like the guitar, and the effect is heavier, fuller somehow. Even though this is a DJ mix in the traditional sense (his first ever, apparently), his own maximalist sound still comes across—although he’s kept the tracklist under wraps.

Dedeco

The intersection between video games and raving is a well-documented one—coming home after an all-nighter to settle into a marathon session on Tekken, or pretty much any game, is one of life’s great pleasures. Everyone knows about the time producer Dylan Beale accidentally invented grime in 1994 on the soundtrack to Wolverine: Adamantium Rage, but another perfect meeting of vidya and rave was the soundtrack to Bomberman Hero in 1998, composed by longtime Bomberman composer Jun Chikuma. Here, A/V DJ and gaming enthusiast Dedeco takes us on a white-knuckle ride through the game’s sludgy acid techno squelches and rugged jungle breakbeats for an ever-welcome reminder of just how beautifully the two mediums go together.

Walton

Photography: @guillaume.tnl

With just over a decade of grimey, hardcore-leaning experiments under his belt and a stack of releases on Hyperdub, Keysound, Kaizen and Tectonic, Manchester’s Sam Walton is still sounding as fired up as he did when he first emerged. Stepping up with a new one for Mothers Finest, the 0161 DJ and producer threads the needle between various strains of late night club darkness. Blawan, Karenn, SOPHIE, Simo Cell, Slikback and more all get a look in here and it’s punishing stuff, but between the chest-crushing kick drums and towering walls of bass, there are grooves so deep they threaten to swallow you whole.

Ship Sket

Image via SZNS7N

Originally aired on the SZNS7N Balamii show earlier this year, this production mix from Ship Sket pulls no punches. Brutal, noisy, but intricately detailed, don’t think this is chaos for the sake of chaos. Instead, the North Dorset producer takes us right to the brink and back again, balancing the most challenging moments with plenty of dancefloor fuel, sci-fi melancholia and a glitchy, grizzled take on drill.


Posted on October 22, 2021