Waste Mail 021: August's best music 🔥
Summer's done! Let's hit the club
Welcome to Waste Mail, the newsletter that’s dedicated to cutting-edge club music and is written by Seb Wheeler for Tropical Waste 🔥
Anyone craving an All Tomorrow’s Parties festival? I’d pay good money to throw it back to a holiday park weekender where we could dance on carpet to alt rock, noise and various strains of electronic music. Perhaps this isn’t actually so far off; on August Bank Holiday weekend I went to the Rally all-dayer in South London, where the New Indie of Chanel Beads, Nourished By Time and ML Buch gave way to the fwd sounds of DJ Marcelle, HiTech, Tash LC and Two Shell. This folding in of scenes has been brewing – just look at how many producers have picked up an axe over the past several years – and it’s cool to see the boundaries between bands and laptops blurring once again. It’s moments like this when exciting things happen.
Thanks to everyone who shared the last issue on social and txt/DM’d me about the music they’d been picking out. Word-of-mouth recommends are really helpful and, of course, getting hype in my inbox keeps me stoked to do it all again next month. If you’re proper feeling it, a lil reminder that you can pledge your support for the price of a coffee per month.
Shout out all the new subscribers too. Especially the head who hit me up asking for 160 recommends – you’re in the right place (Check out the Cakedog, King AGee, Heavee, Kode9, medea mad, Ma Sha, Princess Xixi, DJ Spinn, Bancal and Tim Reaper x Kloke tips below!)
Extremely excited to say that our quarterly IRL party Tropical Waste is hosting the UK debut of footwork pioneer Heavee on Sept 27 in LDN. It’ll be our second UK/LDN debut of the year (!) and goes down at my favourite club, with support from the Moveltraxx, Hyperdub and Hoover Sound label bosses. If you’re a footwork stan or just want to hear cutting-edge club music all night long, you know what to do.
Happy digging <3
Photo: Friends blissing out to Musclecars in the Love Dancing tent at We Out Here festival, Aug 2024
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Tracks & EPs 🔌
Bancal ‘Slide’ French producer and new Teklife signing Bancal comes through with a cinematic piece of footwork, splicing a choral melody with an angular, rib-snapping, grimey bassline. Strong! Listen
DJ Spinn ‘Bounce N Break Yo Back’ Teklife digs into the vaults to re-release a juke anthem from DJ Spinn. This one was originally released in ‘07 but sounds primed for the ‘24 dancefloor, given its supple, high speed rhythm and hot, horny vocal Listen
DJ Travella, Rosa Pistola & Freebot ‘Wave It’ Cool concept from Nyege Nyege whereby Rosa Pistola has A&R’d a collab between singelli don DJ Travella and tribal maestro Freebot. Travella’s itchy, incessant melodies are turbo charged by Freebot’s tuff drum programming; hopefully this meeting of Tanzania and Mexico appears at a club night or on a festival stage soon too Listen
HiTech ‘I Still Swear It’s A Bop’ HiTech have signed to Loma Vista, which means their excellent two albums are back on DSPs and a new one is on the way. A couple lead singles have appeared, including this collab with John FM and Ziggy Waters. Imagine a low-lit deep house record with a particularly fat bassline running at 140bpm and you’re pretty much there. Looking fwd to seeing what else they’ve been cooking Listen
Ila Brugal - Vienna Blend Earful Of Wax has a new compilation on the way and this is one of the tracks being used to tease the whole drop. Ila Brugel turns out a fat slab of soundsystem dance music, skittering percussion and buzzsaw bassline reminiscent of early dubstep mutations by the likes of Vex’d and Planet Mu’s ‘10 Ton Heavy’ comp. But there’s an urgency to ‘Vienna Blend’ that makes it sound fresh and exciting Listen
Jetty ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me Now’ New York’s Jetty comes through with the backflipped club music. Three tracks for All Centre, fusing the DNA of Jersey Club, footwork, jungle, dancehall and baile funk into new forms, landing somewhere between early Hemlock records and the current output of AYA and BFTT. Super fun, avant garde club that’ll get kids dancing Listen
Nick León x Erika de Casier - Bikini Contender for crossover club record of the year. Nick León puts a neon gloss on his propulsive, drum-focused sound before handing over to Erika de Casier for an expertly delivered bubblegum r’n’b vocal. Great work from TraTraTrax, who’ll also release the Nick León album (!) down the line Listen
Noise Casino ‘Pa’ Percussive, bass-heavy, broken techno from Colombian producer Noise Casino on Artificio out of Medellín. Big shout for anyone into banging warehouse music, rhythmic DJ tools and the current conversation between Colombian and UK electronic music Listen
Sangre Nueva ‘Toka’ The new Sangre Nueva EP features three solo tracks from each of its members. Kelman Duran summons cavernous dub on ‘Laine’, Florentino creates a steamy, afterhours vibe on ‘Toka’ and DJ Python contributes one of his sublime ambient rollers. Mad levels on this tbh Listen
Tim Reaper & Kloke ‘Alienation’ Fully rude first single from the forthcoming Reaper & Kloke collab album on Hyperdub. You know this one’s gonna be a mean ride! ‘Alienation’ comes kitted out with a purring bassline that guides you through a storm of razor-sharp breakbeats, before increasing the intensity at the second drop Listen
Albums & Compilations 💿
Cakedog ‘Night Shift’ Cakedog is a cult producer whose Bandcamp drops are a reliable source of juke and footwork that pops off. ‘Night Shift’ contains a stack of club workouts that are powered by the drum machine bang of ghetto house and crafted by someone who’s clearly having fun splicing elements of filter house, juke, footwork and electro. This’ll move the subs at the club and will appeal to fans of Swisha, Kush Jones, RP Boo and UNIIQU3 Listen
DJ GAWAD ‘DJ GAWAD presents: Volume 1’ Anonymous producer DJ GAWAD draws together MCs from the Jordanian and Palestinian underground to create a mixtape that pays homage to the art of Memphis rap. Vocalists involved include Tony Bleng, Fara7, rknddn, Julmud, Movenwomen, MrF13, Twinkie and Jurum, with some ice cold artwork from 3YN. The beats are low ‘n slow and the bass fully overblown, with a cult cassette deck used in the mastering process to get that dusty purple feel. This is loads of fun, basically Listen
Kamixlo ‘Deathwork’ Is the club kid who started the UK’s love affair with industrial perreo starting to grow up? Juggernaught grooves dominate Kamixlo’s second album, monster kicks doing the hard work of initiating head banging / waist winding (‘… Pitch Black’ and ‘One More Night At The Line’ are great examples.) He also expands his vision beyond straight-up distorted club tracks, inviting vocalists Isabella Lovestory, Bladee and Puzzle to collaborate on proper, scuzzy songs. But noisy catharsis remains at the heart of Kami’s work, his devilish melodies dancing across tekno explosion ‘Combe’ and the strobe-lit intensity of ‘Godless’ Listen
King AGee ‘We Are Chicago Footwork Vol. 2’ In 2011 the ‘Bangs & Works’ compilation on Planet Mu curated a who’s who of footwork and acted as the sound’s year zero for a European audience who had yet to be turned on to this frenetic music and dance style coming out of Chicago. I’m gonna argue that King AGee’s ‘We Are Chicago Footwork’ comps are the 2020s equivalent, charting this decade’s surge in Chicago footwork output, and have – shamefully – gone overlooked by an electronic music press who’ll salute Rashad but fail to dig any deeper into what’s going on right now. On Vol. 2, 27 tracks (!) are offered as a free download (!!) with notable hits coming from Cuenique, one of few women producers on the Chicago scene and an artist who also deserves flowers from the international footwork community; C-Lo, one of several names on the comp I’ve not come across yet, whose contribution ‘Hornz & Werkz’ is a certified banger and a previously unreleased remix of Jill Scott by Rashad himself that was made in 2004 but obviously sounds as fresh as ever Listen
Muakk ‘WORLD WIDE WUARACHA’ Muakk is the Colombian label founded in 2022 by 2AT, ALEROJ and CRRDR and here they’ve assembled an extensive compilation that channels their taste in high speed, high velocity, highly fun rave music. This is a kaleidoscope of local dance styles (both modern and traditional), hardcore rave music and the fluorescent hyperactivity of netcore – a wonderful rabbit hole for anyone who likes to have it large Listen
Princess Xixi ‘a dolls house’ London rapper Princess Xixi’s USP is spitting sharp bars across cutting-edge club sounds, including footwork, jungle, grime, Jersey and drill. It’s hard not to be impressed by her ear for fwd-thinking sonics and ability to adapt her flows accordingly Listen
Toxe ‘Toxe 2’ It’s been a decade since Toxe dropped the ‘Muscle Memory’ EP on Staycore and became one of the leading lights of experimental club music, pushing the envelope alongside peers like Mechatok, Kamixlo and Dinamarca. Her work has been quietly influential ever since and now her debut album contains what feels like a new form of contemporary electronic music, which is rooted in club music while moving into the realms of headphone listening, mood music and outright pop. Toxe’s dayglo synths and playful kicks are joined by her own lyrics for the first time, marking an exciting new chapter in her career 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 🎧
Antonina Nowacka - NTS Last month’s Waste Mail featured Antonina Nowacka’s beautiful album ‘Sylphine Soporifera’ and this mix is the perfect accompaniment, a collage of esoteric ambient music from across the world Listen
Amor Satyr & Siu Mata - RA.948 Amor Satyr and Siu Mata have been supplying DJs with bouncy, high speed techno bangers for a hot minute, turbocharging Bandcamp with original productions, collabs and a ton of edits. This mix shows where they’re at in terms of their own sets, unleashing a lithe, syncopated, bass-loaded type of techno that’s super fun and adaptable across club music sub genres. Expect to see them climbing the ranks of the club and festival circuit over the next few years Listen
Faheezy - Live From Tropical Waste The recording of Faheezy’s warm-up set at our party back in May. He got the low-end at Ormside going properly with a journey into dub, dubstep and dub techno. Pure sub - thank you Faheezy Listen
Heavee - Boiler Room Chicago footwork pioneer Heavee shows Primavera what he’s working with. Cuts from his killer album on Hyperdub, a slew of party-starting edits (footwork Tyla - yes pls!) and tracks from contemporaries like DJ Manny are all thrown down Listen
Ma Sha & Tatyana Jane - Rinse Sweet double bill of DJ mixes from two DJs who bring their own styles of fierce energy to club music. This is one of those ‘radio shows’ where there’s no hosting or context, but I’m pretty sure Ma Sha’s mutant bangers turbo charge through the first hour with Tatyana Jane’s roof-raising, drum-heavy anthems powering the second (watch out for the Ice Orbison blend!) Listen
medea mad - Radio 80000 Many DJs reference juke and footwork but few go all the way and dedicate themselves to the art of 160. This episode of medea mad’s 160 More Or Less show mixes up cutting-edge strains of those genres as well as some crucial mutations and party-starting edits. Blends are impeccable too - tip! Listen
Mia Koden - My Analogue Journal A beautifully shot live stream of Mia Koden digging into her vinyl crates for some deep, percussive and sometimes pretty spiritual dubstep. The genre has been crossing over again (about time too!) and this is a timely reminder that it’s all about meditating on bass weight Listen
Kode9 - Lot Radio The big boss is currently celebrating 20 years of Hyperdub and has begun to play out ‘History Of Hyperdub’ sets to mark the occasion. It’s a nice (and rare!) chance to hear Kode spin his favourites from the label’s back cat and this Lot Radio session is a 60 min snapshot of what he’s been playing on the road during the label’s 20th anniversary showcases. He moves through tempos and draws for some brilliant deep cuts as well as forthcoming releases too Listen
Nala Brown - Rinse I love how this kind of breaksy, bassy, wriggly techno is part of UK dance music canon now. You can hear Swamp 81, Livity Sound and Timedance at the foundations of this mix, as Nala Brown channels the new school of whompy, rhythmic rave music. Love that this lands during summer, as there’s a wonderful looseness to the tracks themselves that would sound particularly good beneath the stars at a woodland party Listen
SIM - Keep Hush Now that most everyone’s gone high speed, 100bpm tech-hall stuff sounds groovier than ever. A few pioneers of mutant waist winding are still out here delivering slo-mo, robotic soundsystem music and this set from SIM is full of low-slung, low-end club constructions that feel proper crucial Listen
With Love from Tropical Waste ✌️
The next Tropical Waste party is on Fri Sept 27 and we’re proudly presenting Heavee’s UK debut, with Big Dope P also announced. We also have very special guests from Hyperdub, Hooversound and Beautiful! Tix are out now