Picks Of The Week (26.09.20

1. Various Artists - Liquicity Alchemy 3 [Liquicity Records]

Recommended if you like: Maduk, Andromedik, Old Netsky, Telomic

Welcome, to the Galaxy Of Dreams.

At this point it should be painfully obvious that I thoroughly enjoy Liquicity as a label and event series / festival. I don't know, I just love the happiness/cheesiness of it all. When the dutch label announced the release of the third installation of their Alchemy compilation series, I couldn't help but get super hyped. Every single compilation album they put out has been incredible, even the ones on their sister label Galacy. When all the singles were released over the last few weeks I knew that this new release would not be an exception to that rule. And when I saw the full lineup featuring pretty much all my favorite "uplifting dancefloor" artists, it became painfully obvious that this will be my favorite release of this week. Turns out my assumption was right!

As with all compilation albums it would just take way too much time to get through all the tracks one by one, so I'll just quickly go through my favorites. But please be assured that I love every single one of the tracks on this.

First off we have one of my favorite artists currently releasing on Liquicity, Lexurus. For me he is one of the best examples of quality over quantity. He rarely puts out new music, but every single time he does release something I'm in love with it. His contribution to the compilation Take Me Away is another good example of what I mean. Perfect forward-pushing 2012 Netsky vibes, I love it. Next up we have a collab between Liquicity and Monstercat veteran Feint and up-and-comer Andromedik, who is also one of my absolute favorites. Their combined talent for melodies combined with an amazing vocal performance from Cammie Robinson makes for one awesome track.

One of the more unique tracks on the compilation comes from The Outsiders and Boxplot. In The Cold, featured multiple times on Noisia Radio before its release, is The Outsiders and Boxplot at their best. A simple, yet very effective main melody, delivered through a unique synth (please don't kill me if it's not actually a synth, I have no idea about music production) in a strangely addicting rhythm. In other words: A vibe. Next up we got Jon Void with With You. The german producer only just started producing under this new name this year, but his first few releases, and especially this track now, have proven that he can play in the big leagues already. Same goes for my favorite underrated producer in this subgenre, Phonetic. His new track Heartbeat is yet another step-up in quality over his previous releases. And I already loved those older ones, so you can imagine my love for it is through the roof. Honestly cannot get enough of it.

Nearly talked about the whole thing again, oops. Oh well, still want to mention two more tracks. First, that new Smooth track The Missing Channel. Just pure beauty. This is one of the tracks that just makes me feel like I'm at Liquicity Festival. I would kill to be at Geestmerambacht hearing this track at one of the Liquicity stages right now. But while we're still in this mess, listening to this on headphones with my volume turned to 200% while having my eyes closed is a nice substitute. Last but definitely not least I want to mention the Telomic & V O E collaboration. The combination of Telomic's beautiful production and V O E's amazing vocal performance is something to behold. Telomic just knows how to create a beautiful liquid track with vocals. By the way, if you haven't heard of Telomic or V O E before, please check them out. Especially V O E, super underrated in my opinion.

All in all just an amazing piece of music!

Other similar great uplifting dancefloor or liquid releases:

Subsonic - All For You
Monrroe, Zara Kershaw - Out Of Time (huge recommendation, those vocals are godlike)
Koven - Good Enough / For Me (Bcee Remix)
C418 - Aria Math (Protostar Remix)
Degs - Versions from Ndegwa
Toronto Is Broken, Deuce & Charger - Always In Motion
Tritona - Reflection (Despersion Remix)

2. gyrofield - Synopsis EP [mau5trap]

Recommended if you like: The Caracal Project, IMANU, Rohaan

Now for something completely different.

This week also saw the release of gyrofield's new Synopsis EP on deadmau5's label mau5trap. I still can't wrap my head around any of this. Just one year ago 18-year-old electronic music prodigy gyrofield from Hong Kong, now Bristolian, used to be my go-to "hugely underrated producer" example. I even featured her Overview EP in one of the first weekly review threads as my Hidden Gem of the week. Now, a few months later, she sits at around 50k monthly listeners on Spotify and has released on DIVIDID, UKF's Pilot label and now mau5trap, of all places. I'm honestly super happy how big she has gotten, because if anyone deserves this kind of success, it's her.

At this point she has become one of the faces of the new-school weird, unique kind of dnb alongside the likes of IMANU, Buunshin or The Caracal Project. Just like the mentioned producers, she has repeatedly mentioned that she has a strong urge to produce other genres too. In spite of that, this new EP is dnb through and through, except for a tempo switchup here and there.

Starting off with 2024, it immediately becomes clear that gyrofield isn't screwing around. Right from the start her sound takes us straight into the future, it's like something from 2025 or so. Everything about the track screams originality. From the futuristic intro to the fast-paced first drop to the unique rhythms of the second drop. I love all of it.

Search Optimized goes into a slightly different direction. It still has the gyrofield "trademark" style to it, but leans more into the "coordinated chaos" that she does so well. This is also the track with the tempo switch that I mentioned earlier. That switch on the second drop pretty much just proved to me that gyrofield could produce any genre and I'd enjoy it just as much.

The True is by far the most chaotic track of the EP. There's just so much stuff going on that you'd usually get disoriented or annoyed with any other producer, but, as always, she somehow makes all of it work. Beautifully weird.

Finally, Jade is another fine example of genre experimentations gone right. Slightly less chaotic than The True, Jade is still hella wonky and unique. There's always lots of things going on at once. The second drop of this one has to be my favorite part, but I pretty much love all of it.

What an EP! If you like your drum and bass weird and beautifully chaotic, you will enjoy the hell out of this release.

Other similar(ish) releases:

Grey Code - Masque / Curve
Klinical - Violet EP

3. Various Artists - Blackout Lifecycle: Destruction [Blackout Music]

Recommended if you like: Memtrix, Black Sun Empire, Pythius

Yay, it's neuro time!

One of the biggest labels in Neurofunk, Blackout Music, has just released the second entry in their 2020 Lifecycle series. After the first entry "Creation", the dutchies are going harder than ever on "Destruction". So hard that they uploaded the tracks as single entries on Spotify and then promptly forgot to upload the EP as a whole. To fix their mistake, they created a Playlist with all the tracks of the release. Don't ask me why they didn't just upload the EP afterwards, I'm confused too.

Anyway.

For this release they pulled together some of my favorite Neurofunk artists around, like a small Neuro version of this week's Liquicity release. Joe Ford, Black Sun Empire themselves collaboration with State Of Mind, Prolix and Rido. Fortunately, the release fulfills my super high expectations created from that lineup easily with some of the tracks even exceeding them.

One of those exceedingly awesome tracks is Joe Ford's Into Black. Straight up madness the whole way through. Having heard this track live multiple times at an open air yesterday I can also confirm that it tears up dancefloors with ease. Such a banger. Next up we got label chiefs Black Sun Empire and Down-Under duo State Of Mind collaborating on Fateful Hour. As expected from the Neurofunk Supergroup, they smashed it. Not the most original track maybe, but definitely one that hits you hard. Very hard. The same can be said for Prolix's Elixir. Lastly Rido presents us his newest creation The Tune, one of my favorite track titles of this year. The Tune is very much a Rido track, original but hard vibes through and through.

If you like Neurofunk at all, this is a must-listen!

Other similar(ish) releases worth checking out:

Kanine - Tell Me (!!!)
Mewone - Revolt
PRFCT Mandem - Hyperdrive EP

4. Frank Lemon, Manta, Novy - Out Of Control / Adventure [Hanzom Music]

Recommended if you like: Memtrix, Black Sun Empire, Pythius

This one was technically not released this week, but thanks to Beatport Exclusivity™ I couldn't properly listen to this until last friday, sooooo I'll just talk about it now. Whatcha gonna do?

This week's Hidden Gem Of The Week™ is coming from Austria! Graz, to be more specific. By Frank Lemon, to be even more specific. Released on Hanzom Music, to be as specific as possible. Oh yeah, it's a double single. Frank Lemon has been producing since around 2013, with releases ranging from his very own Fresh Recordings (or Fresh Recordz for the older releases), Moshbit Recordings or Hanzom Music. Sidenote: Following the Fresh Recordings rabbit hole has actually been quite rewarding, there is a lot of great music released on there. The Fresh Summer 2020 compilation is really fun!

The double single starts off with Out Of Control the collaboration with fellow Austrian MC Novy providing catchy as hell vocals. Those catchy vocals are supplemented by Frank Lemon's unique sounding neuro-jump-up style of drum and bass. I especially love the small random samples throughout the song. I think one of them might actually just be a ping-pong ball falling down.

The B-Side Adventure, a collaboration with fellow Austrian producer Manta, is similarly heavy but goes into a way more cinematic direction. Right from the intro you feel like you're embarking on a journey, which the artwork used in the music video visualizer on DistrictBass also emphasizes. Fun fact: That visualizer was made by Frank himself, under his Frankleberry Finn alias. After that initial cinematic intro the two Austrians throw one of the most energetic drops I've heard in a while at us. All the variations throughout the drops and the melodies they create with their unique bass sound is just pure fun and makes me jump in my seat every time I hear it, even after the 20th time.

I guess what I'm saying is: When life gives you a (Frank) Lemon, you better listen to it! To be completely frank (lemon) with you, I could have done a better job with the name puns. Anyway. Big recommendation.

Other Hidden Gems of this week:

Various Artists - I Am Eloisa
Drumsik - Madman / Mind
Natus - Falling Up (beautiful)
A. N. - Different Story
Rieger - Crocodile EP