Braiden: The Wednesday Alternative Mix

Please introduce yourself… Who are you, where are you and what are you?

I’m Braiden, normal human in London who’s pleased to be talking about his first studio mix in many years. Studio mixes have always been a very significant thing for me as a DJ, and really my career started from one I did for the legendary Barefiles website many moons ago. I’m about to release my first EP since 2017, which was also the date of my last studio mix. It’s a rebirth of sorts.

What does your music sound like? Can you draw what you think it sounds like for us (an image from the old internet is acceptable)?

Before producing, my start with music was DJing on RinseFM and NTS in London between 2007-2014, and alongside being involved in the UK mutant bass strains that were around me, I was blending in other sounds from techno, electro, and weirder electronic sounds into my sets. London inspired the syncopation and physicality to some of my productions, but there’s also techno and experimental influence in its more metallic, heady side. I’m always searching for new inspiration and often interested in the balance of the organic and machine-like, and a restrained drama.

I shot the cover photo for my new EP and that attempts to create a visual alongside the world I’m building in that project – an atmospheric mix, a bit human and celestial.

I spent the first two months of the year building a new studio in Hackney, going deep into researching the best soundproofing and sound treatment I could pull off. Many hundreds of REW measurements later, my space is complete, the venue this mix was born in as well as the birth of many projects to come.

What would be the ideal setting to listen to the mix?

I always think mixes are best listened to on the move. Best would be some kind of space rocket leaving Earth if you can sort that out. I think if you start the mix when you enter the Mesophere you should pass the Karman line into space as the final track starts which would be ideal.

What should we be wearing?

Bottega space suit

What would be your dream setting to record a mix: Location/system/format?

At nighttime in the back of a perfectly stabilised & soundproofed glass walled truck, being driven at speed from the centre of a pulsating neon city out towards a moonlit coastline, lit up by bioluminescent plankton.

Which track in the mix is your current favourite?

Hard to say, its a diverse mix in there so really depends on mood, quite hard to compare some of these tracks to each other! But i’m glad I got a Vril track in there, been listening to some of his more spacious tracks recently that really are stellar, like Psionik, Torus XXXII, Cto – beautiful works. Also happy I got a bit of Nkisi’s Mokonzi in there since she sent me that many years ago. It’s such a bizarre, wild banger of a track.

What’s your favourite recorded mix of all time?

Oh that’s a tough one. Extremely different to my mix here but DJ Harvey’s Sarcastic Disco Volume 2 I don’t think i’ll ever get bored of. It’s such an interesting blend of tunes that seems to have its own unique story and character.

If you could go back to back with any DJ from throughout history, who would it be and why?

Ricardo Villalobos in 2007 when he’s on particuarly loose and ragged form. Yeah sometimes he can play quite flat, but at his best he would channel an almost UK-like sensibility to his DJing, cutting and blending with a very ‘dippy’ type of energy to how his selection was structured.

What was your first DJ set up at home and what is it now?

Back in 2005, a pair of Vestax-PDX2000’s with that ultra-pitch fader. I haven’t seen a pair for many, many years but I can still remember vividly how they felt to touch, I was so obsessed with mixing as soon as I got them. Very formative experience. Now, 1210s with A&H mixer. Still using vinyl serato to mix digital music at home!

What’s more important, the track you start on or the track you end on?

For my studio mixes i’m usually thinking of how those tracks will set up what’s to come, and wind down what’s happened. Everything in the mix is context specific so this is hard to answer. But if I must…. I do love an outro.

What were the first and last records you bought?

I bought a few records when I started in ’05 – I think one was the dnb classic Power of RA and a record by the Bunker italo-electro legend Bangkok Impact

If this mix was an edible thing, what would it taste like?

Seared scallops in the flying uber home.

If it was an animal what would it be?

Probably this guy:

One record in your collection that is impossible to mix into anything?

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Upcoming in the world of…

As mentioned I’ve got this EP coming out on my label Off Out on October 10th 2025, as well as a couple of DJ support slots for Blawan’s new live show he’s doing in London and Amsterdam for ADE, and playing a set at the great Kindred shop at the end of the month for a DJ Persuasion curated lineup.

Anything else we need to discuss?

Definitely – next time!

Tracklist:

1. SHXCXCHCXSH – Stio
2. Sd Laika – Meshes
3. Hyden – Manifest Content
4. DJ Richard – Richardplatz (NJ Storm Drain mix)
5. Ela Minus – megapunk (Verraco Reshape)
6. Kuf & Dold – Track 1
7. Data Assault – Movida Pelo Ódio
8. Braiden – X5x
9. Mutable Mercury – Vexation
10. Chlär – Insurrection
11. Nkisi – Mokonzi
12. Wata Igarashi – Spiral
13. Wallis – hope ill get back home ok
14. Vril – Psionik