Each week, FACT trawls through the untamed world of free mixes, radio specials and live blends so you don’t have to.
This week Demdike Stare delivered a blinding mix filled with unreleased tracks from their Wonderland sessions, Helena Hauff proved once again she’s one of the world’s greatest DJs and Swing Ting’s Samrai gave us vintage dancefloor sounds from his enviable record collection. Meanwhile, PC Music’s Spinee caught our attention with an hour of frantic club sounds and Sporting Life blended hip-hop and house. Dive in.
Demdike Stare
FADER mix
Demdike Stare gave us one of FACT’s 50 best albums of the year, and on this FADER session they’re making a play for mix of the year as well. Covering vintage dubstep from Skream & Benga, broken beat from Seiji and percussive techno from DJ Rush, it’s a “collection of sketches, ideas and inspirations” behind Wonderland along with some unreleased cuts from the duo that are as good as anything on the album.
Helena Hauff
Dekmantel Podcast 100
Helena Hauff’s mixes are always brilliant, there’s no question about it. For Dekmantel’s 100th podcast, she steps up to the plate with 90 minutes of “elastic electro, popping techno and slithering electronics that are shiny and metallic, crisp and futuristic.” All seamlessly pieced together by her “infectious sense of slick robo-funk,” it’s an absolute dazzler.
Samrai
TTM:027
Manchester’s Swing Ting party is most commonly associated with the sound of dancehall, but on this mix for Tobago Tracks, co-founder Samrai digs deep into his record collection for a mix of US garage, 2-step and early grime. Including tracks by Masters At Work, The Rhythm Construction Co and Ramsay & Fen, it’s 42 minutes of vintage dancefloor sounds done right.
Spinee
NTS Radio, December 12
PC Music’s Spinee has a monthly NTS show which, unsurprisingly, dabbles in the brain-melting side of the dance music spectrum: breakcore, hardstyle and assorted speaker-blowing fare. No track IDs for this one but it goes in hard on the bass, launching an assault of compression, smiley face emojis and blog house vibes aplenty – 53 minutes of pure fun.
Sporting Life
i-DJ mix
Fresh from the release of his Slam Dunk collection on R&S, RATKING producer Sporting Life delivers a hazy mix for i-D that mirrors the rich texture of his own music. Moving from Galcher Lustwerk and Larry Heard’s deep house through vaporwave from 2814, Sporting Life’s own beats find their way among, bizarrely, an edit of soccer commentator Ray Hudson.
