030: April's best music 🔥
Proof that The Club is good for you
Anyone else bored by post-pandemic lifestyle optimisation culture? Cold plunge or quits. As a sober club music lifer who’s quite partial to the sauna, it’s been nice to see some discourse that kicks back against the theory that wellness and hedonism can’t co-exist. Kikelomo has been using science to link raving to physical, social and mental health benefits and I’ve noticed similar conversations going viral on Reels. The latest episode of the excellent No Tags podcast also riffs on the ways that ‘avin it is good for the soul, including this completely banging quote from Nietzsche: “But of course such poor wretches have no idea how corpselike and ghostly their so-called ‘Healthy-mindedness’ looks when the glowing life of the Dionysian revelers roars past them.”
So what would soundtrack a Dionysian rave? SHERELLE’s new album, Pura Pura’s crucial club edits, DJ Travella’s breakneck singeli, Nanoos intercontinental fusions… with Vegyn’s ‘Blue Moon Safari’ to ease the comedown, perhaps? All are reviewed below, and much more good stuff to help you unwind.
Out to everyone who made it to 160 Unity last month. We had at least three different generations in the rave, proof that music is for life and we can all meet in front of a system to celebrate, have our minds blown and – crucially – dance. Extra shouts to the crew who came to our footwork dance workshop and Traxman Q+A with After Werks and Moveltraxx. What a day. All the recaps here.
Hope you enjoy the music. Happy digging <3
Photo: Traxman shouts out Big Dope P at 160 Unity, April ‘25
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Tracks & EPs 🔌
Black Rave Culture ‘Blowin O’s’ (Anna Morgan’s 164bpm remix) Anna Morgan splices electro, ghettotech and UK breakbeat rave on this punchy remix. The whole remix package bangs too Listen
Daviaa & Overkissed ‘Aguardo’ Trance is for the lovers! Lisbon meets Istanbul front left in the club as Daviaa and Overkissed unfurl total ecstasy at 160bpm. Stay hydrated, kids! Listen
dru-1 ‘preshuh’ Deconstructed club newcomer dru-1 gets straight to the point with this powerful EP of hard, rhythmic workouts made during Carnival season in Trinidad and featuring percussion from collaborator Marta Rosa Listen
Entrañas ‘Yapa’ Entrañas out of Ecuador is a prolific producer who approaches electronic music with a wide range, from dangerous club cuts through to towering, heavy ambient. This outing on your favourite tastemaker’s favourite label TraTraTrax is full of galloping, spring-loaded club music and should hopefully get Entrañas in front of more DJs and dancers out here in Europe Listen
RAWFILA ‘BANG WORK TWERK’ Japanese footwork producer RAWFILA has a relentless release schedule that showcases a raw, minimalist approach to the sound, with remixes that always highlight what’s happening in Chicago right now. In this case, T-Rell and King Agee provide reinforcements for RAWFILA’s 160bpm machinations Listen
styn & Dj Rtje ‘Bobblesaus’ New school bubbling from two Dutch producers pushing the scene forward. Out on Tash LC’s excellent Club Yeke Listen
The Era ‘Let The Record Reflect’ The Era footwork dance crew are doubling down on their recorded output, releasing multi-MC rap trax produced by the don DJ Spinn. The output is smooth and inflected with soul and jazz, like a Chicago footwork version of Jazzmatazz Listen
Trim ‘No Caller ID’ Tectonic is a foundational dubstep label but its other heyday was the mid 2010s when it pumped out countless heavyweight bass mutations at around 130-140bpm. North American and European ‘bass music’ has swung back round to dubstep and its breaksy, bassy offshoots, setting the scene perfectly for the label’s 20th anniversary and this collab EP from founder Pinch and OG East London grime MC Trim. The pair offload dark, dank, bassbin-obliterating grime tracks with nonchalant ease Listen
v1fro ‘Amnesia’ Miami producer v1fro steps out on Manchester label Club Romantico with a flurry of club tracks inspired by Venezuela. Three originals let the raptor out of the bag with big, bold kicks and electrocuted synths stabs, while heavyweight remixes come from Bok Bok, Coffintexts and DJ Babatr himself Listen
VXRGO ‘Borough Breaks EP’ VXRGO’s been mashing up the UK jungle scene with killer DJ sets for the last few years and now drops this debut EP of raw, overblown breakbeat jungle. Strictly no BS on these soundsystem damagers Listen
Albums & Compilations 💿
Lila Tirando a Violeta ‘Dream Of Snakes’ The Uruguayan producer, who has previously released with Hyperdub and N.A.A.F.I, steps out on Berlin’s Unguarded with a short, sharp, visceral album of experimental club that runs up and down the tempo spectrum. While some deconstructions are difficult to dance to, this record fizzes with the ideas, energy and movement Listen
Los Thuthanaka ‘Los Thuthanaka’ Transcendental walls of sound summoned by sibling duo Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton. Spiritual shoegaze (like, the proper stuff, not the TikTok stuff) that’ll provide a swaddle against the ills of the world, for a short time at least Listen
Pura Pura ‘Club Edit Vol.6’ Pura Pura is mad smooth with the production. Here the French producer goes to work on a pack of edits that give his laid back style some peak-time energy, honing in on 90s UKG and organ house, with a killer dubstep rework of Jamie xx and Gill Scott Heron’s ‘NY Is Killing Me’ and an essential juke reboot of Groove Chronicles too Listen
SHERELLE ‘WITH A VENGEANCE’ SHERELLE’s debut album has, rightly, been applauded across the music press for its fusion of jungle, techno and footwork. Perhaps missing from the discourse is the physicality of this LP of club tracks: the sound of ‘WITH A VENGEANCE’ has been forged in the heat of SHERELLE’s DJ sets, where she’s been honing her own style of hard, fast, utilitarian dance music in real time and across countless dancefloors for the last few years. Her sound, which also references music from her Hooversound imprint and likeminded movements like Fracture’s Turbo sound, has now crystalised and she emerges from the studio with her a set of her own explosive DJ tools Listen
Traxman ‘THANK U ROY’ The founders of Chicago footwork music grew up on soul, funk and disco so it’s no surprise that Roy Ayers is in the genre’s DNA. His virtuosic vibraphone playing shows up in the ecstatic synths that often appear in the latter half of tracks by DJ Rashad and DJ Phil and he’s been sampled by Rashad, DJ Spinn and DJ Earl, to name a few (Spinn’s still playing Rashad’s coveted ‘Everybody Loves The Sunshine’ dub). Now Traxman gets to work on a tribute album full of Roy Ayers edits, smoothing out footwork’s jagged percussion with unending, sunny grooves. Given the sample material, these tracks also have the feel of lush and melodic Chicago house, which is of course another not-so-distant relative of footwork Listen
Vegyn ‘Blue Moon Safari’ One of the badges of honour that I’ve earned from my silly little life putting on silly little parties is that Vegyn played the first Tropical Waste clubnight back in 2014. In the time since he’s gone on to redefine modern electronic music and has now been commissioned to completely rework Air’s classic chillout album ‘Moon Safari’ (which makes sense given Vegyn’s most recent 2024 LP was indebted to smooth ‘n cinematic 90s chill). I was never an Air stan but it’s cool hearing their omnipresent hits filtered thru the mind of Vegyn and his ever expanding sonic universe Listen
The Waste List 🚨
The Waste List playlist includes all of the artists that are featured here and is updated every month alongside each new issue of Waste Mail
DJ Mixes 🎧
BJF b2b gboi - Rinse France Two leaders of the current, and essential, French club music wave go toe-to-toe in the Rinse France studio, sparring each other with cutting-edge, bass-heavy tracks from the international network of low-end genres and niches Listen
DJ Travella - RA.984 Singeli is futuristic folk music out of Tanzania, traditional percussion fed into modern software to create a dizzying, hyper local sound. The genre has a lineage dating back to the early ‘00s and DJ Travella is currently one of its leading protagonists, a young producer affiliated with Nyege Nyege who calls his style ‘cyber-singeli’. This session for RA is a brilliant showcase and as life-affirming as it gets, as blistering rhythms, ecstatic melodies and rib-crushing bass combine Listen
Hipsters Don’t Dance - Pound & Yam Carnival is for life, not just for summer, but it does help when a Hipsters Don’t Dance mix lands in time for Bank Holiday season here in the UK. The long-serving, party-starting duo drop tracks representing the global soundsystem diaspora in their inimitable style Listen
Nanoos - Elevator Music Nanoos is a Palestinian-Armenian DJ from Detroit and currently based in Chicago who mixes sounds from the Levant and North Africa with North American club music. This set for Elevator Music is an excellent intro and comes packed with fierce blends, party-starting edits and plenty of crucial track IDs for the club kids Listen
Rough Version w/ R.I.P. Germaine R.I.P. Germaine’s contemporary sculpture and site-specific installations explore the socio-politics of the city, racism, underworlds, drill music and surveillance and the police state. He steps up to Rough Version to share his favourite tracks and insights into his art and practice Listen
Sarra Wild invites Fatema Zainab Rajwani Sarra Wild dedicates an episode of their Rinse FM show to the poetry and musical selections of Fatema Zainab Rajwani, a political prisoner who is being detained after attending a direct action protest at Elbit Systems UK, which creates military technology used against Palestine. As the electronic music scene continues to define its relationship with radical politics and grapple with dirty VC money, this is a very real reminder of the human sacrifice of genocide and protest Listen
secret luvvr w/ Cucha - Vocalism secret luvvr kicks off a new show dedicated to female and queer MCs, providing a treasure trove for those looking for sharp lyricism and the newest beatmaking. Cucha also joins to voice a fire freestyle in the studio Listen
Scar - TOHA Radio Against a backdrop of big drops and DJs doing literal backflips on live streams, there’s a wave of young DJs pushing on into deep, dubby, wriggly, dissociative territory. This feels like a reaction to TikTok Techno, as well as wider societal meltdown, and one of the places where its practised is record shop and broadcast platform Kindred, whose co-founder Scar has fine taste in tripped-out, cocooning tunes. This session for TOHA in Taipei begins with stoned dub modulations before unfurling into dub techno, the darkest of garage, monochrome dubstep and other subtle, dimly-lit rhythmic formations Listen
SKETCH - Durian Radio Rising DJ/producer SKETCH goes in on broken techno, rough rhythms, deep bubbles of bass and leftfield club. Lock in if you’re a fan of weirdo, “meet you front left” dance music Listen
Tash LC Bubbling Special w/ Styn & DJ RTJE Tash LC presents a primer to Dutch bubbling, the sound that was invented by DJ Moortje in Amsterdam in the late 80s when the selector from the Caribbean island of Curaçao accidentally played a dancehall record at 45 rather than 33. Tash runs the roots of bubbling before getting into some scene classics and a guest mix from Styn and Dj Rtje, the new school bubbling producers who have just released an EP on her Club Yeke label Listen
Trae Joly - GIMIC I saw Trae Joly mash up the last Club Soft so I thought hell yeah I’m gonna give this guy a follow. This set for GIMIC in Brussels contains many screwface moments, heavyweight gqom leading to clean, low-end club and some brilliant 2020s-sounding grime mutations. Tap in! Listen
With Love from Tropical Waste ✌️
Tropical Waste takes a break from throwing raves for the summer… But will return with 160 Unity late Sept and mid Dec. Hold tight!
160 Unity radio with Jana Rush, Big Dope P and Seb ready to listen back - lock in
Seb b2b LDN footwork stan Craic David. An hour of killer footwork here