Mix Up Look Sharp: The Best Mixes Of The Week

Here at Complex, we understand the grind of listening to the best music each week. There's so much new music uploaded to every single platform, every single day, that following just one of your streams can become a dizzying, life-consuming task. To help you out on at least one front, each and every Friday, our music team will trawl the depths of the internet to bring you the best mixes from the past week. House, hip-hop and bass, grime, trap and techno—it'll all be represented in our picks to get you warmed up for the weekend. So let us do all the hard work; click through below and enjoy.

The (sort of) recently reformed Sepalcure are back with the Fight For Us EP on Hotflush, and to celebrate, they've put together this mix of '90s garage, bassline, 2-step and dub with a few hints of house and techno thrown in for good measure. We're not sure if we can expect a new full-length album just yet, but Praveen and Machinedrum have confirmed that a Fleur remix EP will be released next year with edits from FaltyDL, Jimmy Edgar and Daedelus.

Happa's gloriously rough and unpolished mix of classic UK rave cuts, feature the likes of Autechre, The Prodigy, The Dust Brothers (a past alias of The Chemical Brothers) and Orbital. It's a real mix of sounds, too, from early drum & bass to acid house. The mix took its inspiration from a similar place to the label Happa runs, PT/5. "PT/5" refers to Part 5 of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act which was designed to clamp down on rave culture.

"With this mix, I tried to explore how the government fought against the ravers of the '90s and knocked them down in '94 with the Criminal Justice Act," he explained. "But then they raised up with protests and music in direct response to it (e.g. Autechre and Prodigy). I used recordings of protests, raves and news broadcasts as well as music to try and demonstrate the political battle dance music went through at the time. Oh also, whilst searching through YouTube looking for footage of the protests and whatnot, I found a funny video of Russell Brand in The Bill, so I put a little slice of that in there too."

ITSJUSTECSTACY by Happa by Oki-Ni on Mixcloud

Solid Steel mainstay Darren "DK" Knott is one of the radio show's driving forces, even if he is one of its least visible. For over 15 years, DK has been championing the Solid Steel radio show, playing a crucial role in seeing it syndicated in over 30 radio stations worldwide. Now, with Ninja Tune's Clock Strikes 13 party taking place tonight, the Solid Steel champ has taken to the decks to showcase some of the artists playing the series of events. Look out for badness from artists on the Ninja Tune, Hyperdub, XL, Houndstooth and Astral Black labels. 

Yes, we know Halloween has been and gone but we couldn't help but include this Halloween-themed mix from king of the masquerade, Claptone. Check out some haunting 4x4 reworkings of The Doors' "People Are Strange", Dusty Springfield's "Spooky", Electric Light Orchestra's "Evil Woman" and more mixed in with some deep, bass-heavy bangers.

This mix from Sinden is mostly made of his own productions, but with a back catalogue as large and varied as his—why not? Look out for his collaborations with producers like AC Slater, Bot, Petey Clicks and his old pal, Hervé​. 

Struggling to get through that final day of the week? Well, luckily M|O|D's Colby "CZ" Zinser is here with a mix of laid-back rap beats and ambient tones that gradually build the tempo until you're pumped up just enough to face other humans. There's quite a few of his own productions (opening track "I Don't Feel So Good" sums up the woozy lethargy you feel stumbling towards the final hours of the week) but that just means you've got a solid introduction to who CZ is as a producer.

Squelchy classic electro, house and techno sounds from NTS regular, Mosca, featuring Levon Vincent, Risqué Rhythm Team, Trus'Me and many, many more.

Goûte Mes Mix #53: Mosca by Goûte Mes Disques on Mixcloud

With a regular show on Radar Radio and the recent Amy Becker TRX comp to her name, London DJ Amy Becker is on quite a roll this year. The TRX ​compilation featured exclusives from Benton, D Double E, Nightwave and more. This mix, however, is almost entirely made up of exclusives (it was 100% exclusives when she first submitted it, apparently) with tracks from Murlo, Benton, Melé, Sir Spyro, MikeQ, Inkke, Novelist, Dread D (T.Williams) and more.

FACT mix 521 - Amy Becker (Nov '15) by Fact on Mixcloud