TRENCH Radio: 10 Of The Best Mixes This Week

Photography: @cloudgem

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 South Asian club excellence, piano-driven hardcore, and a three-hour mega session.

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

Chanel Kadir

Image via Instagram

Focusing on the slow and low end of the BPM spectrum Untitled 909 editor Chanel Kadir keeps it to 120. According to Caroline William’s ‘Move! The New Science Of Body Over Mind’, it’s the ideal walking pace for boosting blood flow to the brain and generally get you firing on all cylinders. Whether or not that’s something you care about it, it also happens to be the ideal tempo to get your pre-gaming started.

Swing Ting w/ Samrai f/ Chandé, Provhat, Suchi, Qwirk (Daytimers)

Photography: Yushy

The end of an era to put it mildly. Swing Ting—the Manny-based crew run by Platt and Samrai with Fox, Murlo and Joey B—have been putting on nights since 2008 before they cemented the label in ’14. Pedallers of all manner of soundsystem fodder, from grime to dancehall to soca, reggaeton, it’s been a long road for the ST family and this week they called time on the project with a somewhat emotional show. In a sort of passing-of-the-torch, Samrai was joined by Daytimers family members Chandé, Provhat, Suchi, and Qwirk.

R.O.V

Photography: Chris I'Anson

Just a couple of weeks ago we highlighted a mix by Leeds selector Tañ and now we’re spotlighting a session from one of her Spin City co-conspirators R.O.V. More 2-step slammers all the way from West Yorkshire. That corner of the world has been a hub for garage, baseline and so on for as long as those sounds have existed and thanks to new gen talents like these lot, it’s got a long future ahead of it.

Oneman

Photography: Rob Jones

Last month, one of the country’s finest ever selectors, Oneman made his return to Rinse FM after five years away. It’s a timely return as well. He hit the ground running this year, smashing it up and down the country the second the clubs reopened. Now back at his rightful home on Rinse’s airwaves, every flavour of club music is back on the menu, from piano house to grime to funky to a particularly hypnotising edit of disco queen Loretta Holloway (aka the most sampled woman in house music).

DJ Haram

Photography: @cloudgem

A few years ago, DJ Haram made the leap from DJ to producer effortlessly, but thankfully she hasn’t let the former fall by the wayside. With roots in Jersey and Philadelphia, those club sounds will always be at the heart of her selections, but with each new mix she throws more and more surprises at us. For her latest set on The Lot, for example, she slips in everything from acid techno to R&B to hyperpop to footwork and several other dozen sounds along the way. More impressive still, it actually works.

West Norwood Cassette Library w/ Mincy

Photography: Benjamin Weser

West Norwood Cassette Library—the label and alias of London-based producer Bob Bhamra—has been central to UK club music for over a decade now and it’s still untouchable on dance floors and airwaves alike. Kicking off with a run of percussive bits, distorted house, and noisy, bassy badness from across the underground dance spectrum, it’s then the turn of Extra Spicy top don Mincy to step in at the 45-minute mark with a subtle gear-shift into some selections from her label and some threads connecting the UK to her own home turf in Sydney, Australia.

DJ ADHD

Image via Instagram

Taking a break from the glistening, Eastern-influenced dubstep he puts out via the likes of DEEP MEDi and Scotch Bonnet, US DJ and producer ALXZNDR assumes his DJ ADHD alias for a tornado of perc-focused heaters. Taking us from Skepta, Mez, Commodo and Youngster, right the way through to Skee Mask, Brenner and Perverlist, there’s also a few of his own productions, including a collaboration with Chloe Robinson, both of whom you might be lucky enough to catch at the Keep Hush, Wavey Garms and EQ50 takeover at Fabric next Friday, December 10.

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Sinistarr

Photography: Michael Benz

Nowadays, mixing footwork and D&B or jungle is a well-mined source of inspiration for DJs and producers—and quite right too—but someone who doesn’t get quite enough credit for flying that flag early is Detroit’s Sinistarr. He’s been pushing all things 160 for over a decade now, injecting his love of fast and heavy drum patterns with everything from acid to hip-hop to electro. Today, he’s got that genre-splicing down to a fine art as he skips nimbly from Metalheadz to the midwest and back again, and always with the utmost grace.

Ejeca

Image via Instagram

Speaking of Fabric, also on the bill for next Friday's rave is Belfast DJ and producer Ejeca who's served up this little primer to get us all in the mood. Earlier in the year, Ejeca put together a little mixtape of his own productions inspired by the ‘90s rave and hardcore tapes he used to devour back in the day. This new mix is filled with euphoric piano riffs, whipcrack breaks and the kind of sweat-drenched, heart-racing beauties you can expect next Friday.

Midland

Photography: Timothy Torzsok

The 400th and sadly final mix in Honey Soundsystem’s legendary Honeypotcast mix series and it’s one for the history books. Seeing the series off in style, Midland has put together a three-hour beauty that touches on quite literally everything from every tempo and every genre, all beautifully sewn together. Grace Jones, Tems, Orbital, Djrum, Frank Ocean, Royksopp, Outkast, Skee Mask and so, so so much more. It’s a bit of a cliche, but this one’s a true journey as all good mixes should be.


Posted on December 03, 2021