Sian Anderson Picks Out Some Summertime Jams

Radio personality reveals the tracks that have excited her...

Sian Anderson continually stands at the forefront of new music, helping to seek out and break underground sounds.

Her 1Xtra shows are required listening in the Clash office, a place to catch music that might not otherwise gain a platform of that nature.

We're making plans for the end of the summer season, so we decided to ask Sian Anderson what's been soundtracking those long, hot days, and cool, chilled out nights…

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Summer 2017 (albeit short) has been a good time for UK music. We’ve had the pleasure of grime being heavily represented at most festivals and of Afroswing jumping to the forefront of the club shows we’ve come to know and love.

These are the tracks that I’ve been pumping this summer, and that are good contenders for ones to keeping us warm through till winter too.

Kojo Funds and Tion Wayne – 'I’m On'

This is a relatively new track but as soon as I heard it I knew I would love it forever. The beat makes me so happy it automatically makes me want to do a really goofy dance. There are loads of flows in this song that keep it interesting and both Kojo and Tion's tones work together really nicely.

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Redlight ft. Kojo Funds and Liv Dawson – 'I'll Be Waiting'

Banger, seriously. One of those songs you can listen too in any scenario, whether you’re singing in the shower, wining to it at a rave or rooftop down driving – this track works. The beat is repetitive with peaks in all of the right places and Redlight manages to compliment vocals from singer Liv Dawson at the same time as the rap melodies Kojo Funds brings to the tune. It’s nice to hear a track that doesn’t sound over produced but still manages to give you a number of different vibes with the production it has.

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Fekky ft. Neutrino & Chip – 'Avirex'

Proper want to moesh when I hear this tune like I really really want everyone around me to be battered and bruised at the arms when this comes on, it’s soooooo hype. I’ve always considered Fekky more UK Rap than grime sonically but he’s managed to give me a nostalgic feel about grime on more than one occasion with his music. Talking about its early days and the culture, language associated with the genre so fluently, better than a lot of grime artists in fact. His album El Clasico is out now and it’s such a good listen I’d massively recommend it.

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J Fresh x Koder – 'Special Powers' (Dots Per Inch Remix)

I wasn’t expecting this collaboration from Koder but it crept up on me and is now a personal favourite. Been kicking off my festival sets with this tune it’s a good one to get heads nodding, alert the crowd to the DJ change, get people really going. It’s refreshing, bit of bassline but still repping grime with Koders vocals. The original is excellent as well go check that out too.

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The Heatwave – 'Walk Out Gyal' ft. Mr Lexx and Keida

Grime is my favourite genre very closely followed by Dancehall so you can imagine how gassed I was when I heard this. The Heatwave have refixed Terror Danjah's 'Juicy Patty' which was already a top ten riddim and added patios verses from Keida and Mr Lexx that you just can’t go wrong with. The chorus is super catchy you want to be getting onto this song before carnival and making up a 'Walk Out Gyal' dance (I’m sure The Heatwave have probably already made one!)

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Boogee Zauce – 'Secret Boogee Zauce'
I found this track when I hosted the Nando’s Music Exchange event. They had given 30 people from the UK, South Africa, and Australia the chance to group up and make a track in two days, this Boogee Zauce track was the result. I loved it as soon as I heard it, it does what it says on the tin, makes you want to boogee 'cause it has all of the sauce! Massively impressed that they managed to make a song with so much longevity in such a short amount of time, I smile every single time it comes on in my car playlist.

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Faze Miyake ft Jesse James Solomon – 'Routes'

I love discovering new artists via producers and this track did that for me. I hadn’t heard of Jesse James Soloman before but now I’m really excited about hearing him again. The Faze Miyake 'Infamous' EP is four tracks but four gems, hard to pick which is my favourite but this won me over because of the "hopping the bendy bus to Peckham" references (I relate, ha!). Solid production on this as well, eerie in all the right places, bass in all the right parts, perfect mate.

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Sian Anderson took part in Nando’s Music Exchange panel debate, which took place Thursday, July 27th. Nando’s Music Exchange inspires talent from the UK and South Africa through a network of established artists, regular workshops and partnerships.

Photo Credit: Vicky Grout

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