TRENCH Radio: 10 Of The Best Mixes This Week

Photography: Keiran Davies

Another week closer to oblivion, but at least the music’s good. 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 a load of vintage garage deep cuts, sweaty techno slammers, capped off with some uplifting, euphoric jungle.

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

Ronnie Loko

Photography: @i.rom6

With deep grooves and bouncy drum lines in higher demand than ever, people like Ronnie Loko are in high demand. As a resident at Croydon Boxpark and a regular fixture on radio and nights like Looney Choonz, Ronnie also runs his own ongoing series of live-streamed mixes called The Loko Effect. While those are definitely worth checking out, it’s his recent DJ set for Looney Choonz’s Trust The Drum night we’re spotlighting. Recorded live at Peckham Audio last weekend, it slips between Amapiano, tribal house, UK funky and more, including a few timeless classics flipped on their heads to keep them fresh.

Ayy Den

Photography: Alba Rupérez

We’ve written about Canada-born, Manchester based Ayy Den for a minute now, both as a selector and as a producer cranking out sound system scorchers in the UK funky/garage realm. While still a resident of British Columbia, Ayy Den was a keen fan of garage, funky and dubstep and did her upmost to convert the locals. Still, Canada’s loss is our gain and this new guest mix for The Beatriarchy’s Foundation FM takeover is a stern reminder of what they’re missing. UK funky’s the backbone, but in just 30 short minutes she whips in garage, Jersey Club, grime, half-time, and an ever-welcome appearance of TNGHT’s woozy, head-melting “Goooo”.

Eliza Rose B2B Jossy Mitsu

Image via Balamii

When it comes to the DJ sets of Jossy Mitsu and Eliza Rose, there’s not a lot that can be ruled out in either case. Eliza Rose is a passionate, life-long vinyl head (an obsession she picked up working at Flashback Records in Islington) and Birmingham-born Astral Black family member Jossy Mitsu has made a name for her voyages from acid to rap to Detroit techno and beyond. This week, the pair narrowed their focus onto garage, going B2B for two solid hours of 2-step sizzlers from across the years. There’s tonnes you’ll recognise—including gems from MJ Cole, Marco V, and The Wideboys—and even more you won’t. But that’s okay, your bank balance will thank you when you can’t hit up discogs later.

​Grandmixxer

Photography: Callum Robbins

Grandmixxer’s SLSA label has been moving at a dizzying pace lately. Just recently the label head teamed up with Brazilian singer Aurea Semiseria for the cosmic, kinetic grime bouncer “Tipo a Noise”, the video for Lyrical Strally’s “The Medicine” dropped the week after, and his ever-popular “Screaming” instrumental from 2019 has been been vocalled by Mez and Faultsz for a Halloween release. And that’s all just this month. Between it all, he’s still maintained regular radio appearances, and this month’s NTS show was a beauty. Riding solo for this one, he packs it with nothing but pure grime from right across the spectrum; everything from sludgy rollers to skippy riddims and the occasional touch of atmospherics.

DJ Jedah w/ Roachee, Manga Saint Hilare, Scratchy, Riko Dan, Breeze, Swarvo, Durrty Skanx & Subten

Jedah’s been putting on some serious radio line-ups for some time now, but they’ve only gotten bigger since he returned to Pyro Radio in August. This week, to celebrate Roachee’s birthday, Jedah called on Scratchy, Manga, Riko, Breeze, Subten, Durrty Skanx and Swarvo to help mark the occasion with a bang. Heavy duty business right from the get go, it’s good to see the old guard are still as fired up and radio-ready as ever.

Benteki w/ Alexisitry

Image via Instagram

Kicking off with a cocktail of garage and grime, with a few bits of funky and bassline thrown in for extra bounce, Benteki was this week joined by SWU regular and rave specialist Alexisitry. Stepping in for the final half hour, the Bristol selector goes straight into over drive, kicking things into unexpected but entirely welcome territory. Techno-focused and quite a bit heavier than you might normally expect from Benteki’s show, you can practically feel your rib cage shaking and the sweat dripping from the ceiling.

Terpsichore

Image via West Exit

A real mixed bag of tempos and genres here. Terpsichore—who was apparently the Ancient Greek goddess of dancing—is a fitting name for a DJ whose mixes go this hard. Here the Hastings native takes us from the gentle swell of Floating Points’ “Falaise” through the grimey, dubby pressure of Drone’s “M416” and into the frantic D&B artillery fire from Chimpo, Sully, Machinedrum and Sub Focus in the final section of the mix. Purpose built for taking you from 0-100 while you wait for the pre-club session to hit you like a tonne of bricks.

Sabrina

Photography: George Hansen

For avid jungle and D&B heads, Sabrina’s nascent career has been quite something to witness. Hard as it is to believe, she’s only actually been Doing since September 2020, but in just a year and a half she’s shot to the top with bookings from Hospital Records, Hit & Run, Fabric, Printworks and more. Her sets are usually pretty heavy going, rarely letting you catch your breath, but it’s still plenty varied. Frequent splashes of jazzy flourishes and dancehall melodies keep things bright and colourful and here, as she makes her second appearance on Rinse FM, she delivers one of her heaviest and most fun sets yet. Get yourself caught up.

DJ Sofa

Photography: Iiro Palva-aho

Much has been written about the fantastic health of D&B and jungle in 2021. Both sides of the coin have been thriving thanks to the likes of Rupture, Future Retro London and a tidal wave of new gen creatives taking the sound into new and fresh places. One such newcomer (relatively speaking) is Finland’s DJ Sofa. Productions like “Digital Evolution”, released back in May, proved they knew the rules and tropes of D&B inside out, but crucially that they knew how to flip those rules on their head. Just like that chunky slab of breaks, their latest mix for the Arctical show on legendary D&B/jungle outlet Weekend Rush FM.

Nia Archives

There’s a lot going on in jungle right now and it’s so much more than any sort of revivalism. People like Nia Archives are injecting new influences, new sounds and new approaches to the scene and it’s sounding fresher than ever. For her own productions—and if you’re still unfamiliar, your first port of call absolutely has to be the Heads Gone West EP—approach jungle from the soulful, almost liquid end of the spectrum, but fuse it with a modern R&B side, all of which she vocals herself. This new recent set for Keep Hush gets pretty heavy at times, but she does pick up the mic to balance out the heavier moments with some blissed-out live vocals. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.


Posted on October 29, 2021