Phonica Mix Series 147: Tom Sharkett

Tom Sharkett has spent the last few years carving out a distinctly wonky route between Manchester’s DIY scene and the dancefloor, as a founding member of W. H. Lung and a producer in his own right, with releases on Optimo Music, Okay Nature and Ransom Note Records, collaborations with System Olympia and Raf Rundell, and remixes for the likes of Pip Blom, Glok, Nation of Language and Nightbus. His much-loved edit of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Home’ even went from bootleg to official DFA release, while his DJing has taken him through The White Hotel, Golden Lion and further afield, with appearances alongside names including Erol Alkan and Justin Strauss; he’s also hosted his Inside The Outside show on Soho Radio and contributed mixes to Phantasy Sound, NTS and Worldwide FM. For this Phonica mix, however, Sharkett turns away from the club records and production work to dig into a very different kind of archive: a recently inherited collection of 7"s from his partner’s family, spanning Sheffield synth and new wave, Northern Soul and forgotten oddities unearthed from her grandparents’ boxes. Played entirely from those discoveries, the result is deliberately noisy, crackling and chaotic — a lively little trip through records that might otherwise have remained hidden in the jukebox.