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 some amapiano hybrids, some funky house pick-me-ups, and an expected appearance from Australia’s finest export.

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

Photography: Rob Jones

Jazz-minded selector Tarzsa kicks things off this week with a slow-burning 45-minute session of silky smooth soul, R&B, jazz, broken beats and hip-hop from across the generations, including tracks from Kareem Ali, Atjazz, FKJ, and even finding space for an unexpected Kylie Minogue remix. Blending pre-party jams and post-club afterglow chillers has become something of a calling card for Tarzsa, and that’s more potent and effective here than ever.

Photography: Tasha Hylton

Like a lot of people in the music game, North London-born, Bristol-based selector and Club Djembe co-founder Josephine Gyasi has a lot of plates spinning—including a skincare brand called ABENA—but this week she jumped on deck for a quick session of hybrids. From ‘funkyama’ to ‘ama house’, this one put amapiano’s versatility front and centre. A balance of its soulful and its dancefloor sides, putting KG and Mista Silva’s stellar “Koko” and Juls’ “Like Tu Dan” up against gems from Donae’O, Razzlerman, Omar S and an Aaliyah rework.

Since founding his Ghost Notes label with O-Dessa in 2018, Impey’s spent much of the past few years repping the label on a monthly NTS slot. Aside from that, and a handful of his own releases, he’s also been working on a partnership with producer and DJ Sleepier under the name Spirit Blue. This week, the latter pair hit the Kindred shop front to mine the deepest, most cavernous dubstep, broken beat and a whole stack of weighty bass music that defies categorisation.

Photography: Fred Mate

Last Friday, DJ Lag released his long-awaited debut album Meeting With The King. It was a long time coming given his near-decade of work as one of gqom’s most determined champions (he’s quick to name Okmalumkoolkat the sound’s true champion and earliest proponent). Still, it’s here now and to celebrate he’s been doing a victory lap of studio mixes and radio sessions, including this beauty for Resident Advisor. Whipping up a storm of low, percussive throbs, including a good chunk of his own tunes, many of them from the album.

Photography: Fred Conybeare

Despite having an older brother making moves as a grime MC (no word on what his alias was/is before you ask), Tailor pretty much found her own way as a fan and later a DJ and producer. Led by her own instincts, she hoovered up what Channel U and MTV’s dance pop output had to offer, and that unabashed disregard for genre boundaries has been pretty much the basis of her artistic identity. It’s made her an exciting new(-ish) talent in UK clubs as well. Here, for example, jungle, grime, garage, funky and all sorts are threaded together, drawing on big beefy numbers from Denham Audio, Coco Bryce, K-Lone, Notion, Arma, A Fruit, and a new one from DJ Polo and NKC.

Photography: Kunal Lodhia

Without putting too fine a point on it, Raj Chaudhuri—aka Raji Rags—has had a pretty tumultuous time of it lately. Lesser souls would have been left bitter and twisted, but thankfully his boundless enthusiasm remains and his monthly NTS spot continues to be infinite well of the very best, from techno to rap and quite literally everything in between. The Roots are mixed flawlessly into Babyfather, which in turn leads directly into Babyfather, and there’s still plenty of room left over for Juls, Scratcha DVA, Photek, Black Milk, and a pretty sizeable dose of Dilla and Dilla-related goodies.

Photography: @zrkldn

Roughly six months ago, Just Geo released his latest album, End Of Days But Make It Vibes, which has turned out to be a grimly prescient title. Without being glib, it was a great album that offered a frankly underappreciated snapshot of London’s nexus of club sounds, from garage to rap to funky and so on. It also turned out to be a pretty accurate representation of what his record collection looks like. For his latest Balamii show he switched up from the usual grime and garage for a very welcome hour of bright and breezy funky house pick-me-ups.

Photography: Alba Ruperez

Although born and raised in Canada, Ayy Den’s found herself right at home in her current stomping ground of Manchester. She’s always had an affinity for UK club sounds, even when separated from them by the Atlantic Ocean. Now, after kicking off the year with a pretty relentless radio schedule, she’s put together this 30-minute set for Italian platform Fuck The Glory Days. As is her signature, UK funky, grime, dubstep, rap and more bleed seamlessly into one another, tied together by an emphasis on colour, fun, and big, weighty bass lines.

The past couple of years have been pretty damn good to Bristol’s Dr. Dubplate. Not through chance, but rather sheer hard graft and a good idea. Growing up, his father was manager at Plastic People and the good Dr. spent much of his teen years working the cloakroom and getting probably the best possible musical education you could hope for. In 2020 he set up his EC2A label—his second venture after cutting his teeth on his Piff imprint—and it all exploded pretty quickly after that. After making a well-received Keep Hush debut going B2B with PJ Bridger, Doc brought the KH team back to Bristol to showcase his label and wreck the bassbins with a stack of reloadables including a particularly wild PJ refix of “Superstylin’”.

Another stacked week of grime sets over at Pyro, but this one from Trudos who invited Logan in for solo barring celebration and victory lap after making a stellar appearance on Manga Saint Hilare’s “Activated” remix alongside Snowy and Roachee. Grime, garage and some chunky bassline all get a look-in from the Sidewinder resident, including joints from Hamdi, TC4, MPH, Matt Jam Lamont, Echelon, Tuff Culture. A nifty little primer if you’re lucky enough to have secured a ticket for Sidewinder fest in May.