Waste Mail: Issue 003
Welcome to the third issue of Waste Mail, the music mailer curated by Tropical Waste.
This one’s going out on the day of our first party for several (!) years so we’re using it as an excuse to get Really Really Hyped – below you’ll find recommendations from our special guest DJs Hermeneia, k means and Sarra Wild, as well as the usual rundown of the tracks, albums and mixes that have been doing bits this month.
You’ll also find some cute shout outs to Dotwav, De Schuurman, Rainy Miller, Iceboy Violet and Queer Rave Soundsystem at the bottom, as well as our Waste List and Jamaica Shazams playlists, so keep scrolling!
Last month’s JA special was really fun to put together and really well received – thanks for reading and expect some more full-length scene reports in the near future.
See you in the dance!
Tracks & EPs 🔌
Ehua ‘Clouds’ Big ‘n bad darkside rhythms from a producer/DJ who is increasingly exhilarating on the buttons and in the booth Listen
Ikonika & 45Diboss ‘Supernova’ These two fire up their impeccable partnership for the first time since 2019, presenting eight tracks of Afrofuturistic dancehall full of astral synths, tuff low-end and killer vocal hooks Listen
Masicka feat Jahshii ‘Pieces’ Emosh dancehall storytelling from the cream of JA’s current crop Listen
Maui & Taleko ‘Absurda’ Brazilian R ‘N’ Drill… What else do you need to know?! Listen
Nymity ‘like a rose’ In love with this courageous blend of sound design, field recordings and messy club beats. Does the hard/soft thing really well Listen
Oxhy feat Ssaliva ‘inner lies’ Really gorgeous ambient from the heart of the internet’s avant garde Listen
Sobolik ‘Packet Loss’ Bonkers neo club music that zooms around the tempo scale. Slick, fun, sweaty Listen
Surusinghe ‘Likshot’ Proper rude breakbeat business – will make you feel like you’re wearing an MA1 bomber at a warehouse rave with both sets of gunfingers raised Listen
Teraphonique & DNZL444 ‘Mob Ties’ Screwface amapiano with a dank bassline that’ll fully test your speaker system Listen
Tomás Urquieta ‘32 Balas’ Two tracks from the Chilean producer that are sliced right down the middle: ‘32 Balas’ is a beautifully-weighted techno-y stomper while ‘vaya pues’ is jagged like barbed wire – some brilliant remixes too Listen
10 heaters from Hermeneia 🔥
Hermeneia is rising out of the Polish underground as a serious (JME voice) DJ to watch. She holds down a regular slot on the Newonce radio station and has been doing the rounds of your fave online platforms, showcasing her love of low-end hitters that move from slow to fast with some of that new-school halftime business chucked in for good measure. She also runs the FURDA club night in Warsaw and is the type of promoter to fill a room with smoke and huge bass bins (the FURDA link up with RAIZA soundsystem looked lethal) and is cultivating her work as a lyricist too – check out this collab with fellow Polish don 1988, which is out now on Def Jam
SeekersInternational ‘TroubleRoundDiCorner’ Listen
Alter Echo, E3 ‘No Fire’ (Dub Fyah Remix) Listen
Feel Free Hi Fi, Eddie Hill, Manic Times ‘Hyena’ Listen
IJahbar ‘Weed Patrol’ (Blazer Sound remix) Listen
Barrington Levy ‘Looking My Love’ Listen
Alley Cat ‘Hot Gal’ Listen
Hey-O-Hansen ‘Zulu’ Listen
Ramses ‘Hoover Hugs’ Listen
Kevin Murf ‘Last Minute’ Listen
Krenz ‘Radziu’ Listen
Tapes ‘Spirit World’ 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
Albums & Compilations 💿
Gavsborg ‘1 Hour Service’ 15 pieces of abstracted dancehall drawn from the funky imagination of the Equinoxx member Listen
Kelela ‘Raven’ Another instant classic from Kelela, who battled through writer’s block to arrive at majestic, ambient r’n’b Listen
King Vision Ultra ‘SHOOK WORLD’ Emotive rap concrète from based New Yorker KVU, who always seems to be two steps ahead Listen
Popcaan ‘Great Is He’ Can’t ignore Poppy’s 5th full length – it continues to explore his easy, spacious style with some nods to classic dancehall and the evolving relationship between Jamaica and afrobeats. Can’t wait to hear ‘Skeleton Cartier’ on a system too Listen
Rian Trenor & Ocen James ‘Saccades’ Trenor’s computer music meets Ocen James’ rigi rigi. The results are predictably wriggly, James’ organic instrumentation offering a fresh counterpoint to Trenor’s software hyperactivity Listen
10 crucial albums & EPs from k means 🐸
k means is the Bristol-based rhythm scientist who has a forensic command of turntables and a mixer. She makes seamless journeys through dub experiments, broken bass, slo-mo steppers, elastic half-time workouts, pumpin’ juke and footwork and devastatingly rude jungle, leaving your head-spinning as to how she took you from A to B and all the places in-between. k means delivers this ravey time travel via Rinse and Noods and is resident at Bristol’s Psychotherapy Sessions though it won’t be long ‘til she’s tearing a hole in the cosmic fabric of your local dancefloor
Matteo Coffetti ‘Embryo FuraFura’ Listen
Lostsoundbytes ‘Paralell Intrusion’ Listen
XMARXDASP0T ‘TAKE IT EAZY’ Listen
memotone ‘Clever Dog’ Listen
Cakedog ‘War Room’ Listen
Aa Sudd ‘Pushedd’ Listen
Conrad Pack ‘Receptor’ Listen
Maral ‘Mahur Club’ Listen
DJ ojo ‘Coiled Up’ Listen
DJ BEVERLY HILL$ ‘LSD_1’ Listen
Three Weeks In Jamaica 🇯🇲
In case you missed it: Eight hours of music Shazam-ed during a recent trip to Jamaica
Mixes 🎧
Almass Badat presents Amapiano Amapiano has gone global and here Almass plots its journey from South Africa to Nigeria, Ghana, the USA and the UK, including tracks from South Asian producers spinning their own take on the sound in crews like No Nazar, Daytimers and DJMattz Listen
Always w/ Crash Tracy, Jawnino, Chamber45 Fully into with Jawnino’s low-key spoken rap style at the moment and the way he’ll ride out on an ice cold beat or some skittering lofi breakbeats. Here he drops some brand new dubs for the heads before going DJ mode with Crash Tracy and Chamber45 on a session that spans rap from both sides of the Atlantic, grime and some curveball oddities Listen
Cold: Greatest Hits 2020-22 (Live At The ICA) Really great live recording of Cold’s recent performance at the legendary London venue, a medley of introspective bedroom pop bangers that could deffo lead to future crossover hits Listen
Diaki: Kiosk Radio Unmissable session of balani dance music from Diaki as well as a front-row view of how the Malinese artist sculpts his breakneck sets Watch
DJ Winggold: HÖR Get you a DJ who can do triple: overblown 140bpm bass, raucous full-bodied techno and souped-up kuduro and provide a different look for each one Watch
Florentino b2b Nick León Florentino’s recent club sets have been super fun 4/4 affairs and here he links with scene star Nick León to deliver a b2b that pings between ‘10s UK funky and Latin house, with some classics that wouldn’t sound out of place at a pool party in Nick’s hometown of Miami Listen
Ojoo Gyal: SYSTEM MIX 084 Go down the rabbit hole with the rising Moroccan DJ who’s more than comfortable presenting a psychedelic kaleidoscope of broken beats, heavy dub, half-time workouts and naughty jungle – sick! Listen
Sara Persico w/ Eleftheria The Italian sound artist and vocalist uses her Radio Alhara slot to showcase a set of spinny ambient from Eleftheria Listen
The Nammy Wams Show – Latin Drill Takeover Brilliant two-hour session of grime, drill and rap beats that crescendos with an interview and live studio performance from Big Tega and friends. This is what radio is all about Listen
Toumba B2B Abadir: HÖR A heavyweight bout made in heaven as two fiercely innovative club producers, from Jordan and Egypt respectively, go toe-to-toe for a session that will hopefully play out in an IRL club soon Listen
10 bits from Sarra Wild’s Bandcamp 💰
Sarra Wild is Glasgow’s baddest. They’re the brains behind the pioneering OH141 club night and have consistently represented for real club culture and now, after years of honing their selection as a resident and on the local scene, are bringing the rudeness to dancefloors well beyond the Scottish border. A typical DJ set will include proper underground bump ‘n grind with plenty of left turns to keep your feet/waistline guessing. A recent mix for the Nervous Horizon Rinse show shows you just where Sarra is at right now and you should definitely delve into the recent catalogue of sessions they’ve done for HÖR, Kiosk, Kindred and Somerset House
Klein ‘Cave In The Wind’ Listen
Kouslin ‘Patterns’ Listen
NPLGNN ‘Sonico’ Listen
NVST ‘Drum In The Bass Of Attention’ Listen
Various Artists ‘AMF&003’ (Accidental Meetings) Listen
Deena Abdelwahed ‘Flagranti (OST)’ Listen
Grim Lusk ‘Diving Pool’ Listen
I Jahbar & Friends ‘Inna Duppy SKRS Soundclash’ Listen
Katatonic Silentio ‘Emotional Gun’ Listen
Kelela ‘Raven’ Listen
Notes from A Scene 👀
One of the beautiful things about club culture is how regenerative it is. There’s always a new wave surfing through any town or city’s mucky little club spaces and right now, in London, things are simmering around Dotwav. Helmed by the fearless Kieran Dotwav, the project’s parties host burgeoning local DJs like ELLADHC and Chey Selecta (who both play at another buzzin’ party Free Yard) as well as talent like Papo2oo4 and Subjxt 5, the New Jersey rappers who just released a collab album of scuzzy, sample-heavy hip hop. Kieran met them on a recent trip to NYC and flew them back over to make their UK debut and it’s this kind of bold, DIY enthusiasm (Don’t let them tell you that it can’t be done!) and disregard for gatekeepers (check out SERGE RADIO, which Kieran uploads direct to SoundCloud) that makes this little movement so exciting. Get on the Dotwav wavelength and see where it takes you…
Been meaning to write about De Schuurman, the Dutch bubbling artist who completely rinsed his peak-time set at Jyoty’s Homegrown late last year. He was so inside the music he was playing that he totally embodied it, delivering an electrifying performance (and even despite a USB meltdown moments before his set). Bubbling, an Afro-Dutch dance music inspired by dancehall, has been around since the ‘90s and De Schuurman is one of the artists taking it into the future. Check his incendiary album from 2021 or either of his recent Boiler Room sessions – pure fire
A dark basement with the subs turned all the way up. 100 people maybe. Waiting for Rainy Miller, whose album ‘Desquamation (Fire, Burn. Nobody)’ is/will become a cult classic. Leather coat, hood up, eyes closed. Delivers his autotune heartwrenchers inch perfectly from the middle of the crowd. Tough shoulders make space then he’s baring it all from down on the cold concrete floor. Everything is bodily. Then overground at an art space that holds 400 people. Iceboy Violet in white with a mic and spilling it all into a big white room. Stomping rave boots, getting amongst it. Confrontational and empathetic and let’s have it. Both artists out of Manchester, both kicking the door off its hinges so noise and pure honesty can flow through
Shouts to Queer Rave Soundsystem which recently unveiled a beautiful custom-built system at a joyous rave. The happiness and excitement behind this project is palpable – check the IG for more info on this movement and its journey so far
With love from Tropical Waste ✌️
We’re back on radio in March – if you’ve got music, send it to tropicalwastebass@gmail.com