January: Six artists you need to check out this month

Manchester’s Swing Ting started in 2011 as a bass, dancehall and reggaeton club night, then became a label with an eclectic, international focus. Founders Samrai & Platt draw on links with Ireland and Jamaica as well as tapping Manchester artists such as Fox and Tyler Daley, who feature on tempo-hopping yet cohesive six-track EP ‘Junction’. Highlights include ‘Turn It Up’, with a joyous vocal from Equiknoxx’s Shanique Marie, and ‘Addiction’s muted guitar, glistening keys and emotive Gemma Dunleavy vocal.

‘Junction’ is out now digitally; vinyl release due early ’18

[Photo: Louis Reynolds]

As a member of party promoter collective It’s Not U It’s Me and founder of female-focused night Work In Progress (WIP), there are few on the Toronto scene as important as Cindy Li, aka Ciel. As WIP’s resident DJ, she’s honed her skills as an eclectic selector, happily playing breakbeat, acid house and electronica. Her debut on Shanti Celeste’s Peach Discs is three slabs of celestial electro glistening with heavenly synth lines and snappy drums, making Ciel one of Canada’s most exciting talents. ‘

Electrical Encounters’ is out now via Peach Discs

The underground house that vinyl obsessive Wes Baggaley favours is at odds with Manchester’s gay scene where he cut his teeth as a DJ. After playing as part of Block9’s 2016 team, gigs at Horse Meat Disco, Your Love, Trough, Handsome, Secretsundaze and Dalston Superstore followed, and with Prosumer, Dan Beaumont, Midland and Gideön he’s reclaiming underground clubbing as part of gay culture’s heritage. He recently helmed a week-long Rinse FM residency, and toured Europe with Prosumer.

Wes Baggaley plays regularly on Rinse FM

[Photo: Richard Cameron]

With their icy synths, sultry French vocals and kosmische-inspired live jams, you’d be forgiven for mistaking Suzanne Rodden and Lewis Cook for a seasoned Parisian Euro-disco outfit. Yet they hail from rural Dumfries & Galloway in the south-west of Scotland, and began making tunes as Happy Meals three years ago at Glasgow’s Green Door Studios. To sample their ethereal aura, check recent LP ‘Full Ashram Devotional Ceremony’.

‘Tomorrow Could Be Heaven’ is out now

Col3trane’s music comes from a landscape indelibly marked by the work of Frank Ocean and Drake. The 18-year-old has been tipped for success by Dua Lipa and Jorja Smith and, like both artists, his take on principally US genres has a very British flavour. Of US and Egyptian parentage, Cole Basta made waves with a vocal on SG Lewis’s ‘Smart Aleck Kill’ earlier this year. Recent mixtape ‘Tsarina’ is a winding trip through soul and r’n’b flavours.

Col3trane’s self-released mixtape ‘Tsarina’ is out now

Lex Luca has gone from producing shows for the likes of Heidi and Pete Tong on Radio 1 to making bouncing house bangers more than capable of capturing the Essential New Tune slot. A big remix of Jaguar Skills in March ’17 propelled him into the wider consciousness and hinted at a love for high impact 90s house. He’s released on Cr2, his own In Tune label and Roger Sanchez’s Undr The Radr, serving up emotive vocal stabs and slamming drums.

‘Can’t Take It/Jumpin’ EP is out now on In Tune