Over the last few years, Manchester-born crew Swing Ting has gone from radio show to regular party to label to an overall force in the world of truly global dance music. They've shepherded records into the world from the futurist dancehall crew Equiknoxx, as well as members of the collective like the sunny producer Florentino and the syrupy vocalist Fox. But they shine even more as DJs, shredding sets of dancehall, soca, grime, UK funky, and dizzy house tracks both at their own parties, international DJ gigs, and at various established purveyors of boundary-pushing mix files across the World Wide Web.
This weekend, they'll land in New York for the first time and to celebrate, label principles Samrai and Platt have shared a little guest mix for us that demonstrates the best of what they're about. Over the course of a little under 40 minutes, the duo manage to sneak in some cosmic synth arpeggios, swooning vocal house, lens-flare bashment, among other more unexpected left turns. About a third of the way into the mix they drop El-B's funky cut "I Feel," the chorus of which finds the singer Natasha proclaiming that she feels "lovely as a summer's day"—which could really function as a thesis statement for all the selections here. In an email statement, Swing Ting explained that the mix was indeed intended as a warmup of sorts.
"This mix is a one take blast of our favorite UK Funky tunes with the new single 24/7 from integral Swing Ting member Fox, alongside our extended family Zed Bias & SNØW," they wrote. "We've also thrown in a small helping of some bashment favourites to get you warmed up for the weekend. Shout to Gavsborg, Shanique Marie, Cali P & Agent Sasco on the drops!"
On Friday night, they'll headline Mixpak and Tryna Function's party in the East Village at NuBlu—a show which, full disclosure, THUMP Associate Editor Ezra Marcus is also playing and co-promoting. That bill will also feature Byrell the Great, Debit, Dre Skull, and the Large.
