TRENCH Radio 149: The Best Mixes Of The Week

Words: James Keith
Photography: Lucie Hugary

Between SoundCloud, YouTube, Mixcloud and everything else, it can feel like we’re being overwhelmed by an impenetrable, almost infinite stream of music, often of varying quality. You need a soundtrack to start your weekend right, but you don’t have the requisite lifetime to trawl through the week’s new DJ mixes. To help you out, we’ve done the busy work for you. We’ll be running this series every single Friday of every single week to bring you the very finest house music, grime, techno, bashment, R&B, trap, D&B, Amapiano, and no doubt a bunch of stuff that doesn’t have a name yet.

Dive into TRENCH Radio’s best mixes of the week below.

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Schwa La for Balamii

Often building her Club Swei shows around a theme (recent subjects include the power of resistance and the healing nature of harmonies), for her latest show Schwa La delves into the sugary world of pitched-up vocals. An all-hits session, highlights include, but are far from limited to: Knxwledge, James Blake, Burial, LCY, Ruff Squad, Jessy Lanza, and KwolleM’s iconic mellow grime flip of Skepta’s “Bad Boy”. The vocals might be squeaky but there’s no shortage of sub.

Roska for Rinse FM

It’s been eight years since Roska’s star-studded farewell show on Rinse. Since then, while still maintaining a healthy presence on the airwaves—including the occasional guest spot on other people’s shows over the years—he’s used the time to work on his own music, kickstart the Bakonga alias, run his label and tour the world. After a soft launch with a Christmas show, Roska made his long-awaited return to the station with a fresh batch of UK funky bouncers and groovers (plus a decent serving of garage).

Neffa-T for Kiosk Radio

The master of the four-deck sets, Neffa-T made his way Brussels for a session in The Kiosk this week. His first show of the year, this one slides between garage, grime, dubstep, 4x4, and there’s even a surprise jazzy moment to cool things down. A lovely primer if you’re planning to catch him on his headline European tour next month (details on his Instagram) and another stunning feat of turntablism even if you aren’t.

Scary Things w/ JK & DJ Bempah for NTS

Broadcast live from the launch party for Daniel Kaluuya’s directorial debut film, The Kitchen, it’s largely business as usual from JK and Bempah, minus the chat. Featuring a stack of new and recent rap and drill from Unknown T, Blanco, DA, Headie One, K-Trap and Len, plus a few stateside heaters from Future, Playboi Carti and others.

Madam X for The Lot Radio

Rattling through the low-end frequencies, Madam X takes us from techno to grime to 2-step to house with all sorts of left turns and switch-ups. There’s lots to enjoy as always, but some of the biggest moments come from two upcoming collaborations of hers. The first is a tune with Nervous Horizon’s DJ JM and the second packs a stomach-churning wall of bass she’s cooked up with Deep Medi’s newest signee, Cartridge. A hard and heavy mix from the outset, it promises a big year of releases for her Kaizen label.


Posted on January 19, 2024