This mix is filled with music created by friends, and I’m counting in that circle a fair few people who I’ve never met but consider close allies. IRL sometimes gets its ass kicked by URL, as we’re all learning.

VS//Youthclub, a Manchester/London duo who have done remix work for my label, are here tearing up Kavinsky’s Nightcall; and TWOS, a fantastic producer who releases on Aural Sects. AS is an important label for me, not least because they had faith in my early instrumental productions, giving me an outlet for stuff I saw as existing in a separate xone from Black Lantern rap stuff. Now, I’ve kinda merged those xones, inspired by AS producers and the Black Lantern fam – the lead track from my next EP, INCVBATE, near the end of the mix, is self-produced, lo-fi, and electronic… it’s getting closer to what I hear in my head.

But back to AS – since they released my beats, they’ve become one of the most inspiring collectives/labels/bunch of weirdos out there, putting out stuff like VS//Youthclub and TWOS and Marie Dior and Ron Hardly, and a whole host of other stuff so raw, nasty, beautiful, glacial or strange that I’ve saved it for another mix… they’re just incredibly diverse and have a real ear for talent. They’re curators. Gardeners of the SoundClouds. Fellow travellers – that has been what Black Lantern aspired to, so far, as well – representing our IRL collective and linking with URL allies to make music outside the mediocre mainstream.

Which leads me on to Pet Cemetery, aka Bunny, one of the shadowy cabal who run AS… Bunny, I’ve met in real life, and I can tell you he’s an amazing bloke, one of the nicest, cleverest people who’ve had the misfortune to bump into my sorry ass in all my short and miserable years. His track, Psychic Shame, is a piece of genius, a doomed disco beat you could imagine being enjoyed by young people in any one of the modern discotheques which are so in vogue. We’re collaborating on some super-secret stuff by email, bonding over a love of Raime and The Haxan Cloak – as we’ve kept in touch, mostly online, we’ve become friends and collaborators.

There are a couple of nods to my label, Black Lantern, with Asthmatic Astronaut remixing Ukraine’s Mr Morse, from a forthcoming remix EP. AA is an incredibly talented producer and a dedicated pro when it comes to music and studio knowledge. He’s one of my best friends too, we’ve been making music since we were in an experimentyal noise/rap collective called Chemical Poets. That band was the genesis of Black Lantern. We roll deep. This man has bass and kicks like no other motherfucker I know, and a sense of melody that never ceases to make my jaw drop. Church Of When The Shit Hits The Fan, Kromatic, Underling, study up – this man’s back catalogue is amazing. p.WRECKS is another close collaborator, although we’ve never met IRL. A truly inspiring emcee with visionary rhymes and incredible production skills. We’re kindred spirits, I believe. We have a joint album coming out at some point under the name Power Hungry Liars. I believe it’s some of the strongest work I’ve yet produced.

Then there’s CRIM3S. One of my favourite bands in the world. If I had any money at all, I’d book a show for them up here in Scotland. Their sound is so fucking real and raw. There’s nothing like it. They make other bands just sound like bullshit. I love them like I love Death Grips: utterly and hopelessly. Get them in your life. Now.

The rest is filled with trap, which I love – I get my fix from the trapmusic.net site, but ignore half of what they’re pushing, if not more. I look for the depressing, minor-key synth epics with trap hooks, by people like $INES and Niclas Dmitri. That’s what I love – big, huge, dynamic, depressing fucking music. They deliver some quality nuggets.

Witchney Houston is something that I think the internet suggested… somewhere. I forget. Cadence Weapon is Canada’s dopest emcee. El-P’s Run the Jewels with Killer Mike is the project I’m most excited about in 2013. NEW FEAR is a producer from Belarus, we talk on Twitter. And Dilla’s take on Numan is inspired.

I don’t really give a fuck about beatmatching. Fuck that, I used to be a club DJ, using vinyl, back in the late 90s and early noughties. I’ve done my time counting to four, I feel. I rate it but… it’s a skill I’ve elected not to convert to digital. I mix with eyes and foreknowledge, matching wave shapes. I just play shit that makes my head nod. Bipolar shit that changes tempo frequently, a little bit sad and minimal, a little bit sexy and fucked up.