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 history lesson on the art of grime and rap mixtapes, a salute to South Asian club music, and some high-intensity breaks from the future.

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

Photography: Fabrice Bourgelle

The early mixtape era of both rap and grime was a pretty special one, some of the production values were pretty raw, but it also saw artists at their most creative, sketching out ideas and taking huge risks. But the format also had a pretty major pitfall: unless you had the physical copy or backed up your hard drive, much of that stuff is lost to the ether. Thankfully we have archivists like Shy One who this week put together a show of solid gold, foundational tracks from the very earliest days. Included in this mixtape special are gems from Giggs, Scorcher, Lady Sovereign, Crunch and a track from Youngs Teflon so old it was passed to her via a mutual friend in college.

Photography: Nita Aviance

Up until recently, New York-hailing quest?onmarq’s name was almost always put in close proximity with the word ‘ballroom’. They have, of course, made invaluable contributions to the scene as both producer and DJ, but keener ears will know them for so much more besides that. A recent jungle history mix was one pretty resounding example, and so is this amapiano-meets-gqom set with QUENCH party founder and multi-genre DJ Run P. Among Run’s many different roles, he also curates the music and audio programming at The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), giving this pair a particularly formidable level of expertise.

Image via Instagram

Although labeled amapiano, there’s much more to his latest mix than that. Here, Lixo—founder of club night-turned-record labelGETME! Founder and producer Lixo takes the blanketing warm grooves of the South African club sounds and stirs in some warming low-end, hypnotising arpeggios, occasional glitchy flourishes and a decent dose of breaks and UK funky to give us a varied mix that’s as energetic and invigorating as it is soothing and mesmerising.

Photography: Trey Chainzz

Paris, like London, is home to first and second-generation immigrants whose backgrounds stretch right around the globe and, also like London, it’s given the city a world class club scene built on the ingenuity of creatives from multiple generations. Rising up as part of the new school is Paris-based Tysha Cee, a French DJ of Congolese origin, whose record bag spans everything from Baile funk to electro to R&B to deep house. For her latest Rinse France show, however, it’s all things SA as she delivers a hot and heavy hour that includes one or two familiar tunes that have been given an Amapiano upgrade, as well as a few other club sounds spliced in as a bonus.

Photography: Alexander Polis

For years now, Sir Hiss has been a consistently invigorating force in the worlds of grime and dubstep. His own productions are always worth grabbing—and that goes double if you’re a DJ in need of some surefire joints to bolster your sets—and the same goes for his radio shows and DJ mixes. This week he was tapped by Innamind Recordings, a US-based outfit who have just dropped a collab EP from Boofy and Ago on Friday. He’ll be joining the Innamind team out in Canada for some July shows, but this mix of grime, garage and dubstep grooves (with the occasional jazzy moment thrown in) should tide you over for that and whet your appetite for some of the label’s upcoming releases.

Photography: Ed Smith

One of the most inspiring and joyous success stories this past couple years (granted, there haven’t been many) are the overlapping Daytimers and Dialled In teams. Although they’re only just getting the credit they deserve, most of them have been working thanklessly for years now, including Oslo-born, London-raised SUCHI. With only one or two exception, SUCHI hasn’t really ventured out into live settings since things opened up, but that’s set to change over the next few weeks and months as she takes a fresh batch of soon-to-be-released new productions out on the road. Ahead of that, her latest mix takes us from 111 BPM to 140 BPM with an emphasis on some of the South Asian producers and other artists who have been inspiring her lately.

Photography: David Brimmacombe

From funky to hard drum to breaks, garage, gqom and the rest, if there’s one thing Noire knows its drums—and he’s managed to account for pretty much every flavour of club percussion right her in this monster two-hour session. It’s as varied as they come, but flows seamlessly between moments that might have seemed disparate to the untrained ear. We kick off with a woozy, breaks-tinted bit of house music from Leon Vynehall, moving through some unbelievably dreamy, almost euphoric, breaks from Bristol-based duo Disaffected, and finishing on some slow-burning jungle from Coco Bryce, and a Nosaj Thing remix of Badbadnotgood.

Nia Archives really can’t miss right now. A standard-bearer for the DIY foundations of jungle and rave music, she’s at once the perfect summation of the scene’s roots and a shining beacon of where it’s headed. Sticking firmly with the dirtiest, gnarliest Amen breaks, this session for Mixmag is Nia at her heaviest. Thankfully, as is her strength, she also gets the mic out to temper that grit with her silky, silky vocals. Consider this a welcome reminder of the magic and dynamism that made her debut EP Headz Gone West an instant classic—and a primer for its imminent follow-up Forbidden Feelingz, which is due March 11.

Image via Instagram

Alongside partner in crime Piri, 23-year-old Tommy Villiers is one of TikTok’s latest success stories, counting everyone from PinkPantheress to Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch hosts as supporters. Known in the main for their D&B and jungle output, their palette’s quite a bit broader than that, combining ultra-catchy pop hooks with speed garage, house music, disco, and more. On a solo tip this time round, here Tommy keeps the energy sky high with a bracing hour that includes everything from old school greats like Ganja Crew and SL2 to newer, harder-to-define stuff from names like Spongebob Squarewave and Selector Spinach, bookended by two of his own creations.

Champion of the ultra-heavy end of dance music, Mixtress recently gathered together some of the best and brightest in that world for a proper sweaty UK Hardcore special. Alongside sets from Hardcore Energy founders Origin8a & Propa, ‘90s hardcore/jungle pioneer Nookie, Threads resident Ohmydais, and Denmark-based Solumn Records co-founder N.E.Girl, was this adrenaline overdose from Josie Bee and Dwarde. Delivered with nimble-fingered blends, they supplied a tonne of knuckle-whitening jungle and helter-skelter rave goodness with lots of breaks, hoover sounds and dizzying super sped-up vocals—including a particularly manic treatment of Eric B & Rakim’s “Microphone Fiend”. And yes, you heard correctly, that is a hardcore bootleg of Fleetwood Mac.