Waste Mail 015: February's best music 🔥
Exhilarating Batida, Deep Juke and Mutant Club 🔊
Welcome to Waste Mail, the newsletter that’s dedicated to cutting-edge club music and is written by Seb Wheeler on behalf of Tropical Waste 🔥
Sending this as I head out the door to tonight’s Tropical Waste party at Ormside. It’s a nice feeling to be representing this music online as well as in an IRL space – despite the trials and tribulations of promoting!
You may have seen the Tinnitus Awareness Week content I did with Mixmag earlier this month. I suffered sudden hearing loss and tinnitus back in 2016 and was forced to put Tropical Waste on hiatus (health is wealth!) It took a while to rehabilitate myself and to want to come back to club music, but the urge to platform and curate these sounds, as well as create moments where they can be heard and enjoyed properly, never really went away. Grateful to be sending newsletters and throwing raves – here’s my guide to dealing with tinnitus and please, PLEASE, wear earplugs.
This is going out a little earlier than normal as it’s a short month so best believe the next issue will be packed with stuff from late Feb and the whole of March. Plenty of good music to tide you over ‘til then though!
And thanks to my small but loyal crew of paying supporters. It takes a little while to put this all together, so it’s really appreciated. And to everyone showing love for Waste Mail in general – your kind words help keep it all on the road too.
I’m also writing about music and digital marketing/media over on Digital Waste, as I wanted to start a platform to celebrate all the cool things that underground musicians and labels are doing to promote their music/art. Check out the new issue spotlighting CASISDEAD and Amy Becker here.
Dedicated to anyone who likes dancing to weird shit 💖
Photo: Vxrgo at the controls, Carpet Shop, Peckham
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Tracks & EPs 🔌
Async Figure ‘Exiles’ Async Figure return with their trademark synth sound that makes you feel like a lightning bolt of ecstasy is coursing through your body. A little lighter than previous work, this reconfiguring of trance, club music and god-like synths arrives just in time for spring and a move toward British Summer Time Listen
DJ Manny ‘Feel The Love’ Manny’s been hitting home runs for months now and this lead track from his new EP on Moveltraxx puts scores on the board yet again. Manages to reference Larry Heard, Kraftwerk and Stardust in a totally new way that only a footwork producer could manage to do. You know label boss Big Dope P is feelin’ that French Touch sample too! Listen
DJ Nigga Fox ‘Má Rotina’ Príncipe has consistently put out brilliant music from the Lisbon underground but it feels like the label is enjoying a particularly purple patch at the moment. Batida lynchpin N Fox has a new full length on the way and this is the lead single, opening up a chasm of emotion that points the way to an expansive body of work out down the line in March Listen
Dj Weed ‘Panteonera EP’ Fast, abrasive, mutant club machinations from Dj Weed out of Mexico City, who is described by the press release as “the original whipping machine”. Out on the Rebote label which is one to follow if you want (genuinely) experimental club music Listen
eye measure ‘Why do people vomit?’ (Rian Trenor remix) eye measure’s computer-generated poetry asks the question “Why do people..?” and is met with Rian Trenor’s slinky avant dance music. Algorave at its best Listen
Grifter160 x Scarlett Star ‘Serahs Wish’ Juke joints from this duo keep getting better and better. They’re carving out a pretty unique niche: uptempo trax that have a hazy, dreamlike quality. There’s plenty of melody and the adrenaline throb of 160bpm, but in a really ethereal way. Could call it Deep Juke or forget categorisation and just glide with it… Listen
L-VIS 1990 ‘Thursday Club’ Mutant UK funky from the re-activated producer. A proper club groove, check out all of L-VIS’ new dubs in the mix below! Listen
Pura Pura & Gipsyan ‘Nocto Vea’ RONI’s Nehza label is one to watch for forward-thinking club music that blends and fuses genre definition. This one’s a split EP of ravey, trancey, fast mutations that would sound amazing at a free party in a field on a June morning at about 4 or 5am as the midsummer sun rises and wispy clouds turn from pink to orange Listen
RAWFILA ‘PUMP DAT’ There is a minimalist Japanese footwork banger with remixes from DJ Earl, Jlin and EQ Why that was released in December and no one told me?! Instant cop Listen
SHERELLE ‘HENRY’S REVENGE’ Our high speed general lets the hoover fly in this old-skool junglist cut. Pure gunfinger hype, let the basslines roll Listen
Albums & Compilations 💿
DJ Earl & King Agee ‘Stepbrothers’ When I was watching DJ Earl play Tropical Waste in December, he was blending tracks like a dub scientist and always seemed to have a soul melody on the go. It was a masterclass in the manipulation of bass frequencies and layering of instrumental and vocal ecstacy. It’d take you years to even come close to mixing tracks like him but that soulful vibe is distilled in ‘Stepbrothers’, his collab LP with King Agee, another producer who’s been doing the most for Chicago footwork. Here’s 24 tracks of sublime sampling and beat programming, with guest appearances from DJ Manny, DJ Phil, DJ Chad, Cuenique and more Listen
DJ TWAN ‘THE RISE OF A UNDERDOG II’ Was super into ‘THE RISE… I’ as well as TWAN’s recent album with Traxman, so I’ll take even more OG Chicago footwork. This one’s worth it for the Eddie Kendricks rework alone! Listen
Gremio ‘Grem. 1.0’ The debut compilation from Mexico’s Gremio label, which showcases a range of experimental dance music. If you’re seeking twisted metal and broken beats, this one’s you Listen
Kelela ‘RAVE:N, The Remixes’ Kelela’s remix comps are always new albums in themselves and also manage to document the energies moving through club music at the time of their release. This one’s now different, with producers and guest vocalists teaming up to rework tracks into new, standalone forms. It’s a gorgeous ride from start to finish and is a rare contemporary example of remix album as art in its own right Listen
Normal Nada the Krakmaxter ‘Tubo de Ensaio’ Normal Nada’s album from last year, ‘Tribal Progressive Heavy Metal’ was kind of slept on, given it crackled with energy and injected Lisbon dance music with a sci-fi edge. Now the producer is back and honing in on hard, fast, unpolished batida beats, each an unfiltered and exhilarating joyride Listen
Sirr TMO ‘Footworking Through My Music Vol. 7’ Another Tropical Waste club night alumni, Chicago’s Sirr TMO drops a weighty collection of footwork with hones in on the acid-y, spacious side of the genre Listen
TraTraTrax ‘no pare, sigue sigue 2’ The TraTra lads obliterate Difficult Second Compilation Syndrome by putting together a compilation of cutting-edge bangers that’s even more genre busting than the first. Sparks fly, flames ignite, CDJs combust in the club 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 🎧
3WA + Pantile - XXIII Blends #9 As you can probably tell there’s a few record labels in this newsletter (and other issues) that I’m keen on pushing and Porto’s XXIII. Here’s the latest episode of their radio show with 3WA and Pantile and it goes hard on the good stuff that you want to hear in the dead of night Listen
Conducta - 100% Conducta Mix ‘The Kiwi Sound’ is one of my favourite mixes of all time so I’ve always got time for a Conducta session. This fresh sesh clocks in at 30 mins and it’s ripe with new ones and remixes, mixed with Conducta’s casual flow (just check the way he’s chilling and selecting tunes). Need the CASISDEAD remix to drop asap Listen
DJ Nigga Fox - Sharp Type Co. The batida kingpin turns out a session of unreleased tracks for global design agency (!) Sharp Type. It’s a mesmerising trip into the beatmaker’s hard drive and his hypnotic grooves Listen
Hudson Mohawke b2b Nikki Nair - Boiler Room A fizzy, boingy sesh of flubberised club music from the geezers who made The Choon Of 2023. Nice to hear dance music’s current obsession with linearity disrupted in such a fun way Listen
L-VIS 1990 - The Lot Radio I got the ‘Night Slugs EP’ on 12” back in 2009. I was in my Juno era and spending all of my student loan on vinyl. I vividly remember unpacking the mailer, staring at the retro-futuristic art and having my mind blown by the rhythmic squiggles on the wax. 15 years later L-VIS is back in the building and throwing it back / pushing it forward with his next-level style Listen
Ma Sha - Rinse France The New York artist’s taste in club music ripples with energy and this radio set goes from fast to even faster, with much of it sounding like it was concocted in a subterranean science lab by a professor hell bent on pushing the limits Listen
SHE Spells Doom - Kulture Lab A driving mix of percussion ‘n low end, reeling in UK funky, gqom, bass-heavy techno and other forms of darkside rollage that’s aimed straight at the hips Listen
WAAW - Pound & Yam I feel like this duo are going to continue to cut their teeth on the LDN underground before blowing up in 2025/6. Trust me. Their party-starting blend of amapiano, gqom, baile funk, dancehall and well-timed edits is too good to go unnoticed Listen
With Love From Tropical Waste ✌️
Next rave is tonight at Ormside Projects, South London. Tickets here
