Waste Mail 005: April's best music 🔥
The best cutting-edge club music released this month
Welcome to the fifth issue of Waste Mail, the newsletter that’s dedicated to cutting-edge club music and is curated by Tropical Waste.
Following last month’s footwork / 160bpm special, normal service resumes as we round up the best tracks, albums and mixes of the month. 2023 has properly kicked in to gear and there’s plenty of good stuff to be heard across club music.
We’re also getting ready for the next Tropical Waste party on Saturday May 6 in LDN. We’re linking up with our heroes Unsound Festival to present the UK debuts of Safety Trance (!) and ABADIR (!!), two artists who have featured heavily in Waste Mail thanks to their unique takes on electronic music.
The party coincides with the Kings Coronation and the extra Bank Holiday – so take advantage of an extra day off by getting sweaty in a dark room along to all of this brilliant new music. Check our satanic crown artwork and grab tickets here.
Happy digging! Waste List playlist fully updated and ready to rumble ‘n all.
Dedicated to anyone who loves dancing to weird shit ❤️🔥
Tracks & EPs 🔌
Agostino ‘Ziona Sisri’ Technopizzica is an electronic take on Italian folk music that originates from the southern regions of the country and dates back to the 90s. Here, Agostino uses Technopizzica and its rhythmic and percussive elements as inspiration for his own form of dance music. The results are thrilling, tapping into the current slow/fast dance music movement in a totally original way Listen
Bitter Gold ‘Absent EP’ Ambient/club sonics from the shadows of the internet, for anyone who digs static, crackle and big forlorn synths that appear like lighthouse beacons in the dead of night. And then out of nowhere comes a warehouse beat… Listen
Doctor Jeep ‘Push The Body’ Doctor Jeep’s been on a hot streak recently and on-point Latin dance music label TraTraTrax has been a welcome home for his recent hits. This is an immense EP that blasts across the tempo scale, making it perfect for dancers and DJs who like it slow, fast and then a little faster again 😈 Baile funk, samba and dembow are whizzed up with bashy techno and the wobble of dubstep to create exhilarating new forms – the remixes add an extra layer of beautiful chaos too Listen
Florentino ‘Excuse Me / Loka’ Florentino has been raising the tempo of his DJ sets recently, tapping into the irresistible freneticism of Latin house as well as fun, big room moments. This two-tracker reflects that approach, as well as an injection of fresh production ideas, with textures, rhythms and samples chopping and changing for ultimate dancefloor ecstasy Listen
Ice_Eyes & Locre ‘Dreamless Shadow’ Been waiting for something like this to come around! Twisted metal workouts at 100/130/150bpm meaning no tempo is safe from destruction – out on Fixed Abode with some killer remixes too Listen
INVT ‘LATIN BASS EDIT PACK’ Latin YouTube hits get the club treatment from the Miami duo who are causing a right ruckus on the regular. These three bangerz are quick, weighty and an absolute no-brainer for DJs Listen
JSPORT ‘Out Of Bounds’ Stripped-back drum tracks that are crying out to be played on a loud system late at night. Taking inspiration from the Caribbean, South America and elsewhere in the African Diaspora, JSPORT is aiming straight at the hip here Listen
LCY ‘Bad Blood’ LCY’s new drop for fabric was made as a form of creative healing and explores how movement and dance can act as a form of therapy. ‘Bad Blood’ hones in on a pristine, bubbly rhythm and lets it werk until you inevitably start to dance Listen
Mia Koden ‘Hot Take / I Did’ Mia Koden has had a large part to play in the latest dubstep resurgence and this double-A side single shows the new gen exactly how it’s done. ‘Hot Take’ chucks a techno kick into a low-end wind tunnel whole ‘I Did’ is a meditation on bass weight. Classy Listen
Martyn x Om Unit ‘Basilisk’ Two top boys decide to go low and slow, and you can hear what each brings to the table as the track simmers away: Martyn’s classic melodic swing is in full play, while Om Unit fires up the devilish, dubwise elements. Brilliant Listen
Mr Taffa ‘DIABLO EP’ Heavy, driving UK ama from the LDN stalwart. ‘LOMBADA’ is especially punchy, where you can clearly hear the force of UK soundsystem culture go toe-to-toe with South African production aesthetics. Caps lock very much necessary Listen
Scratchclart ‘IC3’ (Menzi remix) The London/Durban connection continues. Here’s full power Gqom from Menzi, taken from the collab EP where he goes toe-to-toe on tracks with don Scratcha Listen
Sister Zo ‘The Hanged One’ There’s currently a 135-140bpm sweet spot that’s emitting a load of slinky, rhythmic, low-end bangers. This one comes straight out of NYC from a producer-to-watch – TIP! Listen
Soltura ‘Riddim Tools - 0.1’ Rap instrumentals and dancehall riddims are the inspiration for this five-track pack from Soltura, who uses those blueprints to build weighty, chromatic club tracks with sleek surfaces and neon melodies that’ll appeal to fans of Fade To Mind and Precious Metals Listen
yourboykiran ‘Time To Stop Gatekeeping’ London Pound Shop bandit Kiran contextualises dancing as personal liberation on this bashy two-tracker, which he’s filing under South Asian Funky Listen
Zora Jones feat Golin ‘Miau’ NEW ZORA 🚨The Fractal Fantasist links with Japanese vocalist Golin to forge a sparkling mutant grime gem, hopefully one of many beats to come from Zora’s JP artist residency Listen
Albums 💿
Dinamarca ‘soñao’ An absolute gift from the Chilean-Swedish producer, who lets us into a dreamstate where dembow lullabies and angelic trance mini-anthems create a constant state of lush, gorgeous ecstasy Listen
Kahn & Neek ‘Lupus et Ursus’ Heavy, murky, abstracted grime from the long-serving Bristol duo. Comes with some brilliant vocal turns from the likes of Mez, Riko Dan and Franco Franco, among others, and features a big dub influence, as you’d expect from these two Listen
MC Yallah ‘Yallah Beibe’ Yallah’s back with another album that’s full of big, bold beats and her life affirming lyrical flow. No holds barred, it’s Yallah season – again! Listen
MoMA Ready ‘Faith In Us’ Deep, soulful techno from the New Yorker, who’s made an album that meditates on relationships, intimacy and the passing of time. A hi-tech love letter, if you will Listen
MoonDoctoR & Surly ‘10 Days In San Antonio’ Super smooth ‘n soulfull footwork that features some sweet samples, dank breakdowns and a couple banging collabs with DJ Earl. Essential new 160 Listen
Qeei ‘Luminous’ Next level reconstructed club music from the Infinite Machine label, which really should be getting more flowers for weathering the ebb and flow of hype and focusing on releasing mind-bending music. Qeei’s production is super fun and beautifully abstract, the sound of an ingenious mind at work Listen
Zoë Mc Pherson ‘Pitch Blender’ Here’s a riot of skittering beats and rubberised textures, a welcome blast of pure energy Listen
The Waste List 🚨
The Waste List includes all of the artists that are featured here and is updated every month alongside each new issue of Waste Mail
DJ Mixes 🎧
DJ Babatr - NTS The Raptor House godfather knocks 60 minutes out of the park. Things start quickly, with the Venezuelan producer’s percussive workouts rumbling along with juicy vigor, before things reach a turbo climax that’s charged with mind-warping trance stabs Listen
Fiyahdred - Untitled 909 podcast 151 Real house music is a much richer kaleidoscope than the Ibiza jet set will ever admit (or even realise), and Fiyahdred proves it by connecting Chicago, West London, South Africa, South Asia and New York. Gatekeepers, your time is up Listen
Goldman - Footwork Jungle Series 099 The Bristol 160 champ steps up to throwdown a slick blend of footwork, jungle and UK rave styles for a mix series that’s full of gold – looking fwd to seeing what they curate for number 100! Listen
Meg Woof - Kindred A beautifully-weighted selection that lures you in with lush ambient and earthy, textural eclecticism before slowly but surely letting go of slow-mo bump ‘n blown-out grind. Shazam’d the whole thing, basically Listen
MO3RPHIOUS B2B MALT BEVERAGE: FOOTWORK SET Did you enjoy last month’s footwork special? Well here’s more, mixed at high speed, featuring a ton of raw and immediate Chicago sounds, as well as a few fusion-y bits sprinkled in here and there Listen
Precious Metals w/ Endgame & Safety Trance I’ve been nicking track IDs off Endgame for years now (dw, I’ve admitted it to him on more than one occasion) Dude is always two steps ahead and this latest radio show is particularly explosive, showcasing his ongoing status as one of experimental club music’s key selectors. Safety Trance joins to add even more blistering catharsis Listen
Public Affair w/ iona & Monika Taneska Full co-sign for this two-hour investigation of wriggly rhythms and pumpin’ low-end. Immaculate selections throughout Listen
SOFTI - Kindred Travel into the eye of the storm, guided thru electrical crackle by intricate, high speed rhythms. Dance music from the outer edges for heads who are brave enough to accept the mission Listen
Unity Sound - Give Dem An Update Dancehall Mix – April 2023 I’ve been looking for reliable sources of brand new dancehall and Unity Sound’s ‘Give Dem An Update’ seems a good place to start. Two hours of riddim juggling that’ll bring you up to speed with what’s going on in JA Listen
Vanessa Maria - HÖR Vanessa’s become known as a DJ who pumps high energy club music and this latest mix shows where her USB is at right now. Full energy for the whole hour, skillfully havin’ it across Baile Funk, US club music, jungle and grime, with a bunch of killer edits that’ll have you DM’ing her for the tracklist (just like I did) Listen
With Love From Tropical Waste ✌️
Our graphic designer, Lawrence Abbott, recently helmed the Chunk show on Rinse FM. Plenty of abstract club in the mix – check it here
Lawrence also made the artwork for the Tropical Waste x Unsound Festival party. Here’s the ticket link and the art in all it’s majestic, heretical glory 😈 See you down the front!
