It’s almost impossible to keep on top of everything that SoundCloud, Mixcloud and online radio has to offer. In our monthly column, FACT guides you through the must-hear mixes of the last 30 days, whether you want a club session to warm you up for the weekend, ambient soothers or a set of vinyl-only obscurities.
Some conspicuous absences from the Big Seven this month, as we skip over one or two excellent mixes by well-established names in favor of spotlighting some lesser known talent. So while we’re here: don’t miss out on the latest instalment from The King of Blends, The Parisian Pace-setter, The Streetwear Superior, Monsieur Teki Latex. ‘Tardigrade’ is the least conceptual of his recent mixes, but no less enjoyable for that; listen out for Latex’s blend of Ploy’s ‘Ramos’ – a frontrunner for this year’s greatest club 12” – into the ‘Fossil Falls’ theme from Super Mario Odyssey, and marvel at the ease with which he pulls off such ridiculous power moves. Extra points, too, for a valiant attempt at rehabilitating Madison Avenue’s ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’.
We also tuned into Martha’s NTS Radio show for a Gemini Mix from Sines, one half of Texas DJ duo Santa Muerte, who unloaded a stack of slick solo productions and edits across reggaeton, rap and R&B territory featuring Dej Loaf, Kelela and more. On Reprezent Radio, meanwhile, cross-continental selector Emily Dust dropped in on Shay Sade’s show for a guest mix (from 1:13:52) following her trip to Nyege Nyege Festival in Uganda, mixing UK material with tracks from Lisbon and Congo.
And for something completely different, Bristol oddsods Beak>> celebrated their new album with a Bleep mix full of their favourite music: ELO, Laurie Anderson and the Theme from M.A.S.H. await you. Good shit!
Onto the real ones, then: look out for in-the-red rave silliness from Nightwave, a taste of Lisbon’s next generation, a killer blend of 160 BPM heaters and a bleep ‘n’ bass history lesson.
Jasmine Infiniti for The FADER
Reconstructed ruckus from a Club Chai party-starter
Now that the slapdash deconstructionism of recent years has died down, the stage is set for DJs like New York City-based Jasmine Infiniti – a wildly creative artist who delivers maximum energy without sacrificing groove. Her Fader mix, celebrating her new SiS EP on Oakland’s Club Chai label, leans heavily on wild breaks and distorted ballroom beats – but there’s a backbone of seriously solid techno in there too, acting like a guide rope through rockier rhythmic territory. Most of all, this is just ridiculous amounts of fun, as you’d expect from a tracklist that includes a ‘Bxtch Slap’, a ‘TeleKuntx’ and a ‘Ryde of Your Lyfe’.
Nightwave for HMT
Redlining rave silliness from an honorary Scot
There’s little point trying to express it better than HMT themselves, the UK rave crew bring some much-needed prankster humor to the table through their travelling HMT parties and occasional mixes. This time they’ve roped in “Maya, Queen of Scots,” AKA Glasgow DJ Nightwave, for a totally in-the-red mix that celebrates the ragged edges of rave. For everyone whose life in techno really began in a Nissan Micra, white-knuckling it to the nearest small town where the bouncers didn’t check IDs, this is an audio experience to give you the full Proustian jolt. Hear your favourites from DJ Hooligan, Basshunter, Scooter and the Crazy Frog clipped and shredded into utter shrapnel.
Odete for Discwoman
Queering the dancefloor with Lisbon’s new generation
We already know about Lisbon’s kuduro futurists like DJ Marfox and DJ Lycox, but the Portuguese capital is also home to a small but fascinating cadre of producers and DJs drawing on diverse cultures and scenes. Odete is a writer, visual artist and DJ whose music often acts as an exploration of her experiences as a trans woman, deploying vogue, R&B and techno alongside snippets of speech and YouTube audio to create a thought-provoking narrative. She offers her debut mix for the Discwoman collective as a truly queered club experience, “a manifesto for a counter-mixing mode that creates a world apart from technically achieved transitions,” with glossy pop vocals crashing into filthy techno and thrash metal. Fans of Juliana Huxtable and TOTAL FREEDOM will find much to savor.
Birol – Oroblanco Mix
Relentless edits energy from the Paradoxe Club kid
For ultra-fresh club edits with a certain French touch, you can always count on the Paradoxe Club frères. With Teki Latex as their spiritual guide, the Parisian DJs affiliated with the Bérite Club sound are all about nimble fingers and light bulb moments in the booth, and this set by Birol is no exception. Featuring a ton of edits and remixes by the Paradoxe family and their friends (De Grandi, Sunareht, Le Dom, Sylvere), his Oroblanco mix has a relentless, clapaholic energy, veering from classic French house (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke) to shoulder-barging grime (Spooky) to footwork primitivism (DJ Spaldin’s hilarious ‘Bald Head Skittle Dittle’) with ease. Side note: Birol’s got a really sweet website.
Pete Swanson for The Astral Plane
Hardcore energy from a punk legend’s record crates
Pete Swanson is a veritable Kevin Bacon of the global punk underground. Whether you know him from his influential work in Yellow Swans, from noisy black metal unit Violent Magic Orchestra, as the host of a wildly eclectic show on NTS Los Angeles, or even as a co-founder of the delightfully barmy reissue label Freedom To Spend, you will perhaps already understand his ear for the eternally weird and ineffable. On this mix for The Astral Plane, the blog and label founded by FACT contributor Gabe Meier, Swanson digs deep into his vast record collection to show off his multi-dimensional tastes. From concrete poetry with Jay Glass Dubs and Leslie Winer to ‘90s blackout jungle by Christoph De Babalon; from Nine Inch Nails in embryonic form to the dizzying rhythms of Jlin’s ‘Kyanite’ – there’s a thread marked EXTREME that runs through all of this, but it’s also got an emotional heft to it. Pick of the month for the record collectors out there.
Sinistarr for DJ Mag
Worldwide breaks and bass from a Detroit master
The links between Detroit’s fast-paced ghettotech sound and the sped-up breaks of drum and bass are obvious – though back in the ‘90s, it took a little while for those styles to start cross-breeding over the Atlantic. Sinistarr was a kid then, and he’s been a key player in Detroit’s D&B scene for years already, but mixes like this one – a rollercoaster of breaks, footwork and bass in the 160-170 BPM ballpark – should mark him out as one of the most creative minds in the increasingly global scene. Listen out for Southern hip-hop from Juvenile, half-time soul from Zed Bias, and screwface weight from Strategy, all blended with precision and creativity. Sinistarr has just released a record on Chinese label Unchained, too – world domination seems imminent.
Matt Anniss – Join The Future
The origins of bleep and bass from a techno historian
And finally, a slice of history from UK dance music scribe Matt Anniss, who’s just kicked off a series of mixes celebrating the origins and influence of bleep and bass, the UK’s first homegrown strand of rave. Anniss’s Join The Future project will eventually include a website and book documenting the sometimes obscured history of the Sheffield-based movement, but for now we get a mix placing some of the Yorkshire scene’s early pioneers (LFO, Sweet Exorcist) alongside other rave scientists operating on the same wavelength elsewhere in the UK. For hardcore fans, listen out for lesser-known tracks and new edits of Unique 3 and Brothers Grimm, among others.
Chal Ravens is a freelance journalist. Find her on Twitter
Read next: Deep Inside – September 2018’s must-hear house and techno playlist