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 grime-drill hybrids, lo-fi R&B jams, knuckle-whitening club experiments and some “chunkers”.

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

Photography: Joshua C. Rille

Montreal-based Mind Bath makes the kind of music that could only loosely be described as pop… maybe? His vocals are delicate but somehow never fragile, just absolutely feather-light in the way they’re layered across the often minimal productions. Away from the studio, Mind Bath also has a very well-informed record collection and this latest mix gives us a look at the lo-fi R&B, soul and Neo-soul that informs a lot of Michael Brock’s music, but leans into the more upbeat side of things. It’s not quite club territory, but there’s more than enough rhythm and groove to keep the post-club afterglow running hot.

Photography: Geraldo Malaval

Much is being at the moment of the ‘Afro-electronic’ scene, but the truth is it’s not really a ‘sound’ per se, rather a collection of a whole host of genres and subgenres all bubbling up and cross-pollinating, from gqom to Congeles rumba, mixing the traditional with the contemporary and anything with a good rhythm, really. Based in Cote d'Ivoire, multi-disciplinary artist Asna is often named as one of the leading lights of Afro-electronic music who goes to great lengths to use her live shows, productions, music videos and DJ sets to celebrate and document the myriad sounds bubbling up across the continent.

Photography: Fabrice Bourgelle

Between her 1Xtra and 6Music shows (which bagger her an ARIA award this year), her DIY Handbook podcast, the Future Bounce label, the club sets, and welcoming her first child into the world, it’s been a hectic one for Jamz this year. So, while she puts a brief pause on work, this mix will be her last for a while, but she’s made it count with heaters from Bakongo, Murder He Wrote, Cooly G and a decent stack of label exclusives, including a couple of tastes of an upcoming Scratcha DVA release—all of which she mixed together mere hours before she was due to give birth.

Photography: @medismarley

Purveyor of all things weighty and bassy, Bristol’s Sir Hiss usually runs solo dolo, but this week he brought in London DJ and producer Gemi for a guest mix and then, for the final hour of the show, local sheller Emz stepped in for a rowdy barring session. A mostly garage affair, Emz and co stomped their way through 2-step, 4x4, keeping it mostly in the darker, harder-edged realm—but still with plenty of bounce and energy—building their way up to some rugged grime bumpers at the end. Only for the sturdiest of bass bins.

Image via Instagram

The overlap between grime and drill continues to be ripe for the dancefloor with more and more producers finding harmony between the chugging mid-range and slippery 808 bass patterns. Having just as much fun as the beat-makers are DJs like Slick whose monthly Subtle show continues to push both sounds and the sweet spot in between right to the outer limits. This one in particular takes things to some pretty far out vistas, blending ethereal moments with a few abrasive bits that’ll seriously test the resolve of your speakers.

If were talking genres or subgenres, Belfast-born, Berlin-based Sally C’s sets zip through countless different strains of house and techno; but whether she’s drawing on jackin house, acid, electro, Chicago house or anything else, there’s always that unmistakable ‘chunky’ sound that inspired the name of her label Big Saldo’s Chunkers. She kicked the label off in June last year with a 12” of three of her own tracks, which quickly sold out. Sadly, a follow-up hasn’t materialised just yet, but this new mix packs a few unreleased creations that might hopefully end up forming the next edition.

Image via Instagram

Object Blue’s wanton disregard for genre boundaries and any supposed rule that relates to them is well-documented by this point, and the same can be said of Yaeji, whose regular NTS show puts experimentalism and knuckle-whitening fun right at the top of its priorities. Finding kindred spirits in each other, the two went B2B for an adrenaline burst of club thrills that includes ear-scorchers from Martyn Bootyspoon, Slikback, Shygirl and more. A partnership that will hopefully be repeated sooner rather than later.

Image via Instagram

This year marks 15 whole years of Mantra and Double O’s Rupture outfit. They’ve weathered industry fickleness and even made it out the other side of the pandemic. They’ve been celebrating throughout the year, putting on some belting raves recently, but they also brought the party to the airwaves. The latest outing saw them call in Stand Firm founder Rumbleton, Panka, and Soulpride for neck-snapping breaks, pummelling bass and absolutely no let-up.