IOMix017 // Anina
A next-level exploration of half and double time D&B with a technoid veneer, from one of the best DJs in the Bristolian ecosystem.
There’s something special about your local DJs. Touring out-of-towners swooping in on the weekend can be exciting, but the staple selectors in any given scene are the ones you catch at a low-attendance midweek session indulging a curious whim in their digging habits or venting the pressures of the day over the soundsystem. In Bristol, the Young Echo collective in particular provides the perfect conditions for their DJs to express themselves and try out new things in a relaxed manner. So it went at a low-key YE session at The Exchange in April 2024 when Anina, not even billed on the poster but simply part of the extended collective, ran through a little less than an hour of submerged, half-time and fathoms deep selections somewhere on the far edge of her more established D&B expertise.
Anina has been a fixture of Bristol’s club landscape for a long time now, quietly establishing herself as a peerless authority on jungle and D&B but absolutely not blinkered by genre. Alongside Young Echo, it’s telling she’s also part of the Slack Alice crew where punk spirit, industrial aesthetics and rave’s more renegade tendencies merge in murky, compelling forms. Ask anyone engaged with the scene who the city’s best jungle DJ is and Anina is sure to come up in conversation, but her instincts and interests move beyond genre dogma.
We’ve been hounding Anina for a mix for some time, but as always it’s worth waiting for the right moment and her set at Young Echo was the perfect spark. It was immediately apparent there was fresh inspiration guiding the tracks she was reaching for — the sort of mixing you do when a fresh batch of records arrives, or when you finally indulge a fleeting hype. Sometimes these phases open out into a wider steer for your creative practice, other times it’s a passing moment, but the energy is always palpable. Luckily for us, Anina was up for catching the energy around this set and went IN (even getting an extra CD-J to do the job), creating a truly masterful set that weaves through crooked rhythms and heads-down atmospherics somewhere between deep techno, sleek D&B, the Autonomic vibe and a more abstract feeling all of its own.
It’s worth making clear Anina is much more than just a Bristol bod — she’s regularly playing internationally, but absolutely operates outside the mechanical industry churn. She’s the DJ who gets invited by attuned ears who know the real deal when they hear it. Beyond her steady flow of gigs at home and elsewhere, she also works with fellow YE alumni Jasmine Butt in the hybrid live-DJ project Aagnes, and with added Sunun they’ve become Ama on occasion in the past. Quite when these projects will re-convene, nobody knows. Whenever the vibe is right, we suppose.
For now, hit play if you haven’t already, and lock in for a mind-bending hour from one of the best to do it. Dig down below and there’s a Q&A , plus a tracklist for those intrepid enough to make it all the way to the bottom.
Hey Anina! Thanks so much for recording this mix… so what’s it all about then?
I took a break from regular radio this year and had some memorable gigs that I wanted to capture the mood of. The mix is all around 85/170bpm, sci-fi atmospherics along with organic texture layers, quite a lot of tension and space. A meeting of more recent finds from labels like re:st, Midgar & Delsin with choice tracks drawn from the Autonomic era and beyond.
What are you digging in that particular sound? Do you find it lines up with earlier eras?
In general, I love deeper sub driven bass music. Amongst other things, I’m always looking for music at a D&B speed that matches the sound aesthetics that I’m drawn to in the techno sphere. These labels and the artists on them are making exactly that.
Where did it all begin for you? Were there ideas or inspirations you had at the start which still hold true now?
Mixing-wise, drum & bass was my entry point. I grew up in rural Wales and moved to Bristol when I was 18. I learned to mix through buying records on the Andy C Nightlife CD series and imitating the mixes until I could successfully blend. For the first three or four years, I was only collecting and exploring that style. I fell in love with jungle and was drawn to the soul and warmth in 95-96 era stuff as well as the darker sci-fi tech style that came about later in the 90s. I was also buying more current stuff on labels like Shogun Audio, Ingredients and Exit. It wasn’t until I finished studying that I started to incorporate other styles of music that I was into – radio really helped me grow as did the people and parties around me.
I think what drew me in still holds true throughout whatever I play now – the melting pot of sound and culture, bass driven at its core. My ideas and inspirations are constantly evolving.
Where do you place DJing in your life? From the outside you don’t seem so much like the careerist DJ trying to climb the ladder to Instagram fame and fortune?
My approach has been fairly unconscious, maybe naive. I don’t think I’ve ever considered myself a careerist. I forever pursue the ‘work-life balance’, and the amount of gigs I take on is dependent on maintaining that balance. I’ve always just found my way with it. Gigs have led to more gigs, and there’s no doubt that my friends have helped me along the way. Music and DJing is my first love, so maybe that’s why I’ve been hesitant to put all my eggs in one basket with it. I don’t want the relationship to change and become more about marketing than mixing – that encapsulates how I feel about social media too. The way things have gone with Instagram etc. has made things more disposable in my opinion, I’m not into creating content for contents sake. It’s good to have a platform to share art independently and connect, but I’m not sure this is the best way. My aspiration has always been to get better at DJing and keep it moving.
Tell us about any DJs that have been especially inspirational to you over time.
I regularly revisit the first edition of Doc Scott’s Future Beats podcast. Those mixes inspired me a lot in terms of style and technique, as did the Autonomic podcast (dBridge & Instra:mental). Over the years DJs like Kutmah, Helena Hauff, Vladimir Ivkovic, Loxy, Grooverider, DJ Stingray and Bukem have all had an impact, some from live experiences and others from rinsing mixes. More recently watching people like DJ Nobu and Donato Dozzy have helped shape and develop the way I think about it. The community around me in Bristol is my biggest inspiration, it keeps me on my toes and pushes me forward.
Where are things are with Aagnes? I’m always curious to know if that project is developing or evolving in any way?
Ah yes, people ask this question a lot. Perhaps both Aagnes and Ama projects will surface again in the future, we’ll have to wait and see.
What’s your ideal breakfast jungle tune?
What’s your ideal jungle tune for a rainy Sunday while the roast is cooking?
Roni Size – ‘Heroes’ (Kruder’s Long Loose Bossa), an alternative choice but it’s the first thing that came to mind.
What jungle track would you play on a fishing trawler navigating choppy waters in the North Sea?
Innervisions – ‘Inside Yourself‘, but if it gets really stormy then Ed Rush & Fierce – ‘Locust‘.
Have you ever played jungle at an inappropriate time and instantly regretted it?
I don’t think so. Last year whilst warming up for DJ Nobu I released a loop on an old Consequence tune that went into more of a traditional drum and bass arrangement and heard a grumble from one person in the crowd that it wasn’t techno. It made me smile.
IOMix017 // Anina tracklisting:
- Aleksi Perälä – FI3AC2271110 [AP Musik]
- Azu Tiwaline & Forest Drive West – The Pitch [Livity Sound]
- Bas Dobbelaer – Exists [Something Happening, Somewhere]
- Konduku – Dalgın [Delsin]
- Synth Sense – Sea Of Storms (ASC Remix) [Auxiliary]
- Lucid Dreams – Transcendence [UVB-76 Music]
- Ghost Warrior – Meet At Infinity [Well Street Records]
- DYL & Tammo Hesselink – Prelude [Rear View]
- Ruff Cherry – Ixchel [Midgar Records]
- Synkro – Graisse [Exit Records]
- Sam KDC & Flaminia – Bloom [Samurai Music]
- dBridge, Forest Drive West – Van Mij [Exit Records]
- Logos – Occitan Twilight Pyre [Different Circles]
- Polygonia – König des Waldes [Huinali Recordings]
- The Vision Reels – Memory Layer featuring DB1 [re:st]
- Tammo Hesselink – Danaba [Delsin]
- Abstract Elements – Fourth Dimension [Auxiliary]
- Dyl – Point 1 [re:st]
- Kagami Smile – Part Of Your Breath Leaves Without A Trace [Opal Tapes]
- Breakage – Eve [Bassbin]
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