After The Smoke Is Clear 729 (Oct 22, 2026)
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Below this write-up, you’ll find the track list, complete with artists, albums, and the city they represent. If you’re using the Mixcloud app to listen, hit the “…” to check out the track list. Above this there’s usually also a video from the Twitch stream where I slapped the mix together.
Most weeks I go live on Thursdays to DJ on Twitch. Come through and say hi, hang out and listen to music. I’m streaming often on weekday afternoons: working on ATSIC on Thursdays; listening to the Canadian new releases each Friday or Saturday to make picks for the show; or talking with artists for Fly In Formation interviews on Tuesdays. I’m trying to do some streams working on my own music when I can find time. The Thursday Making of ATSIC stream where I spun this week’s mix is posted under this.
More new music from the North. There’s no shortage of voices speaking across the national cypher every week - and this one has lots of them. A few tracks with my next FiF guest Sayzee - a new single called “Trouble” featuring DNTE & Le Zeppo from his new YFRWN 11 project, and 2 from features he did over the summer (on an SB11 track with Lotus called “Too Many Options” and “Ocean Smock”, which is from Daniel Son and Futurewave’s summer album Shattered Glass. Daniel Son was also on here with one from his new project with Asun Eastwood & Futurewave (those guys have been busy). Some of this stuff is from earlier this summer, like the Edmonton examples: Mouraine’s clever football wordplays on “Premier”; Jr. Rhodes building epic monolog on “a waiting king.”; and Mac Millon with Sonic on the It’s Always Sunny referencing “Nightman”. Some is brand new too: Quake Matthews just dropped “Zyn” last week, and he’s continuing to deliver heaters as the cold weather hits. I ordered the double vinyl for Bassments of Badmen 4 from Handsolo Records last week, so I also got the digi download and picked one of it’s many posse cuts for “Organ Time!”. Copywrite & and the boar join K-Rec for some sinister steez on “Wild Style”; more of that vibe from J Scienide, Chris Jose & Dango Forlaine on “Getaway Car”; a switch up for some more uplifting fare from Awol on “I Wish” and from Ezza on “Wear My Heart” with AYOO BIGZ & Boogie Mason. Tone Chop and Frost Gamble never miss, and you can tell they’ve been around - this week they flex with “Hair on My Chin”, a cut off of their new Missing Links Vol. 1 lost tapes style project. We’ve got some introspective talk from B1 & Mark Jordan on “Let It Go”, and the mix finished out with “Sabado Gigante” from Romeo Don’t Die, Busy Nasa & Kris the $pirit out in Montreal.
Listen to the music. Go buy something.
Fly in Formation is back for weekly interviews now until December. The week to week schedule is still a surprise usually announced just before the interview happens - but I’ll always be talking indie Hip Hop with someone worth talking with. You can watch every interview I’ve done up until this point on Youtube - Leave a comment, hit like, or show some love and run up the playlist - it’ll help the algorithm show this content to more people, which will get more Canadian music in more ears.
I buy every track I play on ATSIC (unless it’s sent to me). Streaming barely pays, so it’s essential to support indie artists by buying their music, tickets, or merch to keep them creating. Listening to #ATSIC on Mixcloud is free for you, and makes sure that each song you hear pays the artist at least SOMETHING. Spotify pays 0.006 CAD per stream, and that’s only if the song hits 1000 plays in 3 months. Assuming a song gets 1000 spins, that means it takes around 125 Spotify plays to earn an artist the same .76 cents they earn from my 1.29 purchase on iTunes. Spotify is also now investing the billions they earn into weaponized AI drones, which is just awful, frankly. Fuck those guys - I use it because it’s the only realistic way to keep up with all these drops from all these artists, but I never listen to anything more than twice on there - because I go buy a digital single of anything I like that much. You could to, and the musicians would thank you.
Shows like After the Smoke is Clearalso need support. If you appreciate discovering new music without the algorithm, or if you appreciate my efforts to get indie artist’s music in more ears, consider donating via PayPal to help me buy the tracks and keep the show going. Every dollar helps indie artists and ATSIC alike.
If you can’t donate, that’s all good — people who can afford it are paying, and you get to enjoy a free show while I earn a living. Do me a favour though, and help spread the word to other people who love Hip Hop! Shoutout to everyone who is already supporting financially, by sharing the show, or by coming through in comments and chat to help build community.
Stay up.
