The Most Vital Tunes and News from the Worldwide Underground

Welcome to Notes from the Underground, THUMP's weekly premiere feature dedicated to shining a light on underground sonics from around the world. Every week, we'll start at the surface and dig deeper into the underground with each track and news story.

In this week's edition, we've got beats from all over the world, and stories from all over the internet. Sit back, strap in, it's time to do deep.

We didn't expect to see gritty UK bassline champion Taiki Nulight show up on Dim Mak, even under the label's new, underground facing New Noise imprint. Taiki's debut for the label manages to simultaneously be one of Mssr. Chinbayar's most foreboding and minimal tunes to date. It never gets to full-on choppy-whomp mode and is thusly a refreshing change of pace.

Game of Thrones fifth season may have already come to another meme-baiting, blood-soaked end, but the talents of its cast stretch way beyond Westeros. This is no more true than of Kristian Nairn, who plays Hodor in the series. His DJing career has quickly become the stuff of legend, rivalled only by Breaking Bad's Walt Jr in the unexpected selector from a big-budget television show stakes. Well, Nairn is now taking things a step further, with the release of his first original production.

Heavy-hitting, apocalyptic, genre-bashing madness from this collusion between West Coast producers. Released on the latest Shifty Rhythms compilation (That's #3 if you're counting), this one is all about glitz-free mechanical bassweight as it roves through straight and broken kick patterns. Free download here.

Over the past month, a series of mixes (including a Major Lazer remix, and a freshly-released remix of Tchami's "After Life") have flown out of the SoundCloud account of Malaa, a heretofore unknown producer and balaclava-clad mystery man who is hiding his identity. Malaa knows we are craving an face to these new wonky dance bangers, that's probably why he has created a Who is Malaa mix on SoundCloud. But who is this guy?

On paper, there's nothing underground at all about ex-JLS pop star Aston Merrygold. Chris Lake's remix of "Get Stupid," though, puts the funky pop number on some petite bounce house shit, all chopped up doo-wops atop that propulsive tempo. This one will get some joy on both festival stages and basement raves.

Reynard Productions, the company behind New York's Cityfox, party series, has always had an ambitious streak. But this time, they're pulling off the stuff of nightlife legend: a massive pop-up club and outdoor venue called the Brooklyn Mirage, which will run from July 4 to September 26 before living up to its name and disappearing with the summer. (We've got some preview pictures of what it looks like below, but we won't ruin the surprise.)

R3LL is on Facebook // SoundCloud // Twitter // Autolaser is on Facebook // SoundCloud // Twitter

Richard D. James, better known to the world as Aphex Twin is slightly less known to the world as AFX, an alter-ego the Syro-dropping, Windowlicking glitch auteur last used in 2004 to produce the 3 ½ hour, 42-track Analord series, released on his own Rephlex Records.

Today, Warp Records has disclosed the details of the first AFX record to be released in over a decade. It is to be titled Orphaned Deejay Selek (2006-2008)