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.

Staycore, the latest in a string of very excellent club collectives that seem to be emerging at the moment, was founded by DJs Dinamarca and Ghazal as an outlet for their fun-loving, anything-goes approach to partying. The collective/label/compilation series/radio show now includes Toxe, Mechatok, Alx9696 and Mobilegirl as its core team, alongside regular contributors and friends Endgame and KABLAM. Here, the two founders Dinamarca and Ghazal take the helm to deliver a punishing, elating and utterly nuts stroll through the worlds of dancehall, hardcore, minimal techno, dembow, trance and more. Leave your snobbery and preconceptions at the door before you tuck into this one.

Tonight (June 3), eccentric rap super-group Problem Child will be hitting Fabric alongside fellow UK rap dons Foreign Beggars and Skinnyman, as well as President T, Alix Perez and LEVELZ lunatic Chimpo. In advance of the show, Problem Child's resident producer Sumgii has put together a 45-minute exploration of Problem Child's myriad influences, from grime and dubstep to hip-hop old and new. Marrying all this together with a classic hip-hop approach, Sumgii keeps an eye on the past whilst propelling these influences into the now.

When Chemist, Lovedr0id and Tom E. Vercetti came together as Silk Road Assassins, we greedily hoovered up their Reflection Spaces album and then kind of assumed that since all good things come to an end, the trio would eventually return to their individual careers. Thankfully that has so far proved to be completely inaccurate. Just last month we heard their combined production expertise on Mikey Dollaz' drill rap monster "Commas" and now we have a brand new mix that pools each producer's record bags. Their coming together has once more proved a beautiful thing as the three producers combine their abstract take on grime and trap with even weirder sounds.

We were all pretty ecstatic when T. Williams revived his grimey Dread D alias last year, but let's not forget how many hours of raving fun we owe to his house sets (and indeed productions). Let's be honest, the internet has pulverised our memories and attention spans, now's as good a time as any for a reminder? As a little refresher, dip into this blend that takes us far and wide through the eclectic range of styles that have tickled Williams' fancy over the years.

Slackk's productions have always seemed like they'd be a good fit in R&S' roster. When he released the Backwards Light EP on the label last year it fitted perfectly and if a subsequent EP (this year's stunning Aviary) and this here mix are anything to go by, it's only the beginning of a very fruitful relationship. And if it leads to Slackk collaborating with some of the other artists on the label, then all the better. To get an idea of where the Boxed co-founder is now and the kind of beats inspiring him, tuck into this one and thank us later.

A couple of years ago, Hannah Wants put together the first Roots mix which spanned the years 1996 to 2005. She returned this week with Roots 2, picking up where the first volume left off with more UK garage and 4x4 bassline classics.

Murlo's reputation as a next-level selector is a well-deserved one. Since showing us his production nous on Odyssey last year and the Deadboy collab "Ride With U" / "Squeeze", Murlo's churned out some astonishing mixes—a lot of them have made their way to this very column. For this mix he's delved even deeper into his collection of ice cold synths, choppy beats and sultry R&B grooves, with more than a few of his own productions to boot. 

A truly great DJ mix should take you on a journey through, at the very least, the selector's record bag. As Andwot, however, Errol Anderson takes that concept to the next logical step by opening the mix with a promise to take you on a trip to "a distant star". It's a hell of a promise, but this hazy, psychedelic collection of sci-fi leaning funk and disco, half-time rap beats and distorted R&B certainly has something extraterrestrial about it. At times futuristic, nostalgic at others, there's no denying Andwot has an astonishing ear for a tune and a gift for bridging the gap between seemingly disparate sounds and styles.

With more recognisable moments than you might expect, Brownswood boss Gilles Peterson dips back into the rich melting pot of Cuban sounds, from disco to jazz and everywhere in between. It's no wonder he sent Mala out there back in 2012 to investigate the country's wild musical output for the Mala In Cuba album. Just one in a long line of reasons to spend all your money on Brownswood records, really.

Here's a collection of stone-cold classics. There aren't many DJs who could convincingly blend Guns N' Roses, Philip Glass, 4Hero and Tinashe, but Keysound affiliate Sully is one such DJ. An enthusiastic student of soundsytem culture, Sully's approach is heavily influenced by the low-end prowess of jungle and dubstep. You can hear it in the dark and foreboding treatment he gives to GNR's "It's So Easy" and in his use of more minmal productions like The Haxan Cloak's "Excavation Pt 1" and Philip Glass' "Koyaanisqatsi" from the soundtrack to the film of the same name. DJs as adventurous and fearless as Sully are few and far between.