So what, you though May had given it all you had to offer? Think again. Just when you were about to toss May aside like a rinsed can of Rubicon Mango, this absolute dream of a mix pops up, offered to us by the excellent bilinguals over at Playground Magazine. Of course, being Truants we’re no strangers to excellently produced mixes, and with our appreciation for all things Japanese we can only wish we’d been the ones to hand this to you. You might be familiar with Yosi Horikawa‘s sounds from his work with Fulgeance, but for the uninitiated the man is a master. You can grab his incredible forest techno track “Wandering” from XLR8R, and some of you lucky ones might have caught the live stream of his incredible set for Dommune, where he displayed a technical genius that was simply exhilarating. This mix for Playground gives you a little taste of how deftly Horikawa weaves his various influences, featuring a Tanazanian marimba duet, remixes from Horikawa himself and one of our favourite hip-hop tracks. This mix is truly something different so check out the interview, keep your eyes peeled for a forthcoming album, and whatever you do don’t hesitate to press play. Listen to Yosi Horikawa mix for Playground here.

Daniel Avery is relentless. Having stepped out from behind his Stopmakingme guise, he’s been one of the hardest working producers out there this year, with two solo releases, a bunch of remixes already released and a collaborative release with Justin Robertson on the way, as well as his Divided Love tape and White Light mix. Following the release this week of his “Movement” EP on Throne of Blood, he’s been so kind as to offer up his remix of Munk’s “Kitchen Call” for free. Opening with woozy, “Geogaddi”-era synths over a solid 4/4 beat, this one is the sort of ALFOS jam that gets your head nodding while poking around inside your mind and your soul and making you feel things. The original track veers between 60s psych wigout and slap bass-led folksy house, anachronistic as that may sound. Avery twists that template by tearing snatches of vocals and distorting them while layering around them his grinding basslines and arpeggiated synths, not to mention those sorched, shoegaze sounds that soar up above. It’s a twisted wake-up call, 7am sunrise music that’ll leave you scratching your head and wondering what you really got up to last night.

Download: Munk – Kitchen Call (Daniel Avery’s 7AM Remix)

Speaking of free tracks, Truants homeboy South London Ordnance promised one when he hit 1,000 likes on Facebook. This can often be a way for artists to keep their name out there for the sake of some attention for a duff track, but SLO came good on this one. Combining flourescent ravey synths with hard beats and house organs, “Shutter Island” is – unsurprisingly – a trippy affair. Crowd noises and MC samples only add to the party feeling. It’s a hefty seven minutes too, so there’s no reason to feel short-changed. Grab it at XLR8R.

Stream: South London Ordnance – Shutter Island

The Canadian triune consisting of Ango, Lunice and Prison Garde who go by the name of Nouveau Palais  (which might, or might not be, named after a hangout in Montréal where infamous caramelized bananas and ice cream sandwiches are served) released an EP for free the other day in collaboration with Red Bull Music Academy. With a number of six remixes on the five tracks release, it’s hard to pinpoint how to exactly refer to this format – but one thing is certain, it’s packed with a lot of heat: this applies to both the originals well as the remixes. There is a wonderful and plodding remix of “HARDLYTRY” on there done by Friends Of Friends’ Salva, but our personal stand-out would be the remix of “Drama” by the Club Cheval appointee Canblaster in collaboration with “sitting on 25 mil” Sinjin Hawke. The original track by Nouveau Palais, “Drama”, is a stand-out on its own but with the twofold Midas touch by Sinjin and Canblaster the track gets transformed into something that works a little better in the club. With the uptempo drum patterns and fairly hyphy drop it works just as good on the dancefloor as in the sleeping quarters. In the morning, as a hefty alarm clock. Download the entire EP here for free (don’t forget to peek the remix of the same track by Ambalance on there) and stream the remix by the Paris b2b Barcelona pair below.

Stream: Drama (Canblaster & Sinjin Hawke Remix)

Churning, gurgling basslines and repetitive sax breaks, vocal snippets and other-worldly bleeps – all these disparate elements could come together in an unbearable cacophony, but somehow Matthew Dear makes it work. He’s taken Something In Spanish‘s cowbell and clap-heavy “For Slowing Down” and extended it into a 12-minute disco jam for your pleasure. That’s not to say the original, in all its ’80s Miami glory, is lacking in funk. Dear just squeezes out every last drop, bending and reshaping samples beyond the point of welcome or recognition, all for the sake of the jam. And it’s worth every minute.

Download: Something In Spanish – For Slowing Down (Matthew Dear vs Audion Mix)

Frankly, as much as we love Rosa alias Roman Zolanski alas Nicki Teresa alias Nicki Minaj, “Roman Reloaded” was a little debatable – but this mash-up made by the revered Eliphino is anything but that. He uploaded this track three months ago and was kind enough to hand out the track for free the other day, and this DJ Rashad instrumental is a million times of a better match than DJ Diamond Kuts – who would have thought? Blending the vocals of Nicki Minaj’s “Stupid Hoe” with Rashad’s “Drop Juke Out” (out on Juke Trax, sampling Polow Da Don’s “Drop” instrumental for Rich Boy which is also sampled in Lil B’s rare to the maximum “I Am Legend“), he turns the boilerplate hit single into a favorable dancefloor edit. Let us footwork in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair.

Download: Nicki – Stupid Hoe x DJ Rashad – Drop (Eliphino Mash) (320 kbps)

Written by: Aidan Hanratty, Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura & Immy Soraya. (Sunday’s Best Archives)