The month's best mixes: blood-pumping beats and meditative techno
Dazed Mix: Anthony Naples
Anthony Naples arrived amid the wave of scruffy, left-field techno and house from earlier this decade, serving up hyped singles through Mister Saturday Night, the Trilogy Tapes and his own Proibito label. These days, he’s working within the album format and passing the torch to a new cohort of weirdo clubbers, releasing the likes of DJ Python, Beta Librae and Buttechno on his Incienso imprint. His mix for Dazed doesn’t sit on the fringes of club music so much as it’s caught between dancefloors; it builds steam with an irresistible percussive warmup before DJ Richard’s modern classic Bane comes at a watershed moment. From there, Naples flits between ravey stutters and soulful crunch, hovering on the verge of a climactic breakout until it’s suddenly over.
An AFROPUNK Mix: UNIIQU3
Best known as a global ambassador for the bombastic, high octane Jersey Club sound, DJ and producer UNIIQU3 more or less guarantees a good time whenever she touches the decks. Edits in this scene tend to involve chopping up samples and girding them with accelerated stomps to create blood-pumping sprints. Afro B and Paul Johnson find themselves given the Jersey treatment in this high-intensity 24minute workout. UNIIQU3’s sets are more varied than ever these days – here she finds room to bring a smattering of gqom and baile funk into the fold and gives retro sounds a new sheen for the finish.
FADER Mix: SHYBOI
New York’s SHYBOI has been busy rattling speakers and stages across the US, Europe and beyond for a few years now, previously as part of the formidable queer DJ crew KUNQ, and now as a stalwart of the technofeminist Discwoman roster. Given her background as a multidisciplinary artist, she has a knack for pulling off conceptual ideas: her mixes have explored identity and power, channeling oral histories as a mode informed by her Jamaican heritage. She also delivers in spades when it comes to high-intensity club sets – it’s the ease and inventiveness with which she can do both that’s so striking. Her mix for the Fader falls into the latter camp, dishing out east coast club, breaks, techno and gqom for a slammer of a summer romp.
M2 Performance Enhancer: MssingNo
New material from MssingNo is a rare and beautiful thing, and this production mix is his first to surface in three years. Named for a glitch in the first-generation Pokémon games, the producer and DJ burst on to the scene in 2013 with XE2, a shimmering singalong anthem that paired twinkling electronic tones with pitchedup R&B to become something of an overnight sensation in the UK underground. He continues this idiosyncratic approach: his latest creations sample Mariah Carey’s iconic whistle, twilight crooning from Future and a bit of organ from Phantom of the Opera. Some of the most emotionally devastating and gloriously melodramatic electronic music you’ll hear all year. FACT mix 720: Barker
As a mainstay of behemoth Berlin club Berghain’s in-house Ostgut Ton label, Sam Barker has released topnotch techno throughout the 2010s alongside collaborator Andy Baumecker. While his party-turned-record label Leisure System has facilitated the release of many an exciting dance tune, it’s only recently that Barker has focused on his own creations. His mix for FACT arrives ahead of his debut album and stitches together recordings of his own live shows. It opens with refractive minimal techno, taking flight with a lush combo of punchy drums and synth splashes before settling into the deep end.
RA.689: sold
This mix from the Chicago DJ sold is flagged as ambient, but that’s something of a misnomer – there’s all sorts stewing away in here. Lo-fi fuzz meets washed-out dub movements, the otherworldly voice of MHYSA and free jazz from fellow Chicagoan Angel Bat Dawid over 66 stunning minutes. The impressive variety is mirrored by sold’s roles in so many aspects of the culture: visiting and resident DJ, events organiser and promoter, record purchaser and agent. But it’s the care and devotion behind this tapestry that stands out. Every selection, transition and juxtaposition has a deliberate quality that compels meditation through focused listening.