Picks Of The Week (10.10.20

1. Camo & Krooked & Mefjus, Sophie Lindinger - No Tomorrow [Hospital Records]

Recommended if you like: James Bond Themes!

The best trio in drum and bass is back!

No, not Noisia. Not Black Sun Empire either. But good guesses! I'm talking about the Schnitzelpowered supergroup Camo & Krooked & Mefjus. On their own they already produced some of the best and most unique tracks of all of drum and bass, but together they're just on a whole 'nother level.

First Mandala on Camo & Krooked's Mosaik in 2017, then Kallisto, arguably the best track of 2019, and then Sidewinder, arguable the most unique track of 2019. Now, around a year later, we finally get another entry in this series of incredible collaborations: No Tomorrow.

Unlike all the other mentioned releases, they recruited a vocalist for this one, the Vienna-based local talent Sophie Lindinger, known to some for her work on Leyya or My Ugly Clementine. Together with her they produced the best James Bond soundtrack the world of drum and bass has ever seen. I'm not just saying that to be funny (when have I ever been funny?), they were literally inspired by Billie Eilish's No Time To Die theme song, as is evidenced by their "No Tomorrow Inspirations" playlist on Spotify.

But it's not just a track with a fun little theme to it, it's honestly some of the best work of the trio. The song writing and structure is so perfect it could literally be the next Bond theme and people probably wouldn't even notice. Okay that's maybe a bit much, people would probably notice the big phat drop blowing them away. But you get what I mean.

Speaking of the drop, man, this one's a goodie. It vibrates through your skull and makes you want to dance without sacrificing any of the James Bond vibes they have created with Sophie Lindinger's incredible vocals and all the beautiful string instruments during the buildup. The big drum and bass first drop is followed up by an incredible half-time second drop. With all the trumpets, fat basses and the biggest of big drums they manage to make it sound even more Bond-like, which I didn't know was possible. All in all, it's definitely not the "banger" or experimental track you'd expect from the trio, but something at least just as good.

This will definitely end up in my top 10 favorite tracks of this year list. Just do a whole album together please.

Hard to recommend similar things when the track we're talking about is so unique. I'll just recommend some dancefloor/heavy stuff:

CHEFF - Monarch
TC - Sounds Like TC
Dimension, TS Graye - Remedy (sue me, I like it)
Simula - Scarab
Giganti - Imagine
Toronto Is Broken, Deuce & Charger - Always In Motion (SyRan Remix)

2. Air.K & Cephei - No Promises / Sakura [Integral Records]

Recommended if you like: Dawn Wall, Mohican Sun, Artificial Intelligence

The triple Schnitzel wasn't enough for you? First of all, rude. But I get you. You can never have enough Schnitzel in your life. Good thing we have another double one on the menu.

The next entry in this week's list comes from Air.K & Cephei, Fokuz veterans and slowly but surely also becoming an Integral Records regular. Even though they met way back in 2006 in Klagenfurt, they only started properly producing in 2013. After a few free downloads they caught the attention of Mainframe Recordings head honcho Disaszt, leading to their first official release on the Mainframe Soldiers compilatio in 2015. After a whole lot of releases on legendary Fokuz Recordings, they also joined the Integral family in 2018 on the GLOW compilation with a full 4 track solo EP one year later. And now, they're back. Just two tracks this time, but oh my, those two really pack a punch.

Quick sidenote before I forget: Check out their remix of Edlan - Saving You please. It's incredible.

First off we have No Promises, a collaboration with Minos. The asian vibes on this one are through the roof and I am so here for it. They got an Erhu doing the main melody, they got a Guzheng doing the background plucking and probably a few more things I didn't even notice yet. Also, those instrument names might be completely wrong, but from all the "asian instrument" videos I went through those two sounded the most similar. Anyway. One of the things that are integral to the sound of the label (or at least of Dawn Wall/Mohican Sun) are the use of pop song vocal samples and this one is no exception to that. For No Promises the duo took some of the main vocals of Taylor Swift's Delicate and gave them a nice new coat of paint. No, I didn't expect Taylor Swift vocals to pop up and also work this well in here either, but life is full of surprises. As is customary for Air.K & Cephei, the track also incorporates a heavy dose of piano and bass work, nicely rounding the track up to a neat little package. Scratch that "neat" part, neat doesn't even begin to describe this amazing track. Truly awesome tune.

Secondly we have Sakura. Less asian vibes and Taylor Swift was replaced by a different pop singer (my pop song ID skills aren't refined enough to figure out who this one is though), but not any less of a great tune. The beautiful piano work and heavy warm bass filling the room are still as present as ever, working their magic to make this second single just as magnificent.

Great release as always for Integral and Air.K & Cephei!

... I know this section is about Air.K & Cephei, but I just have to specifically mention Keeno here. His new single Behind The Glass with the amazing Kate Wild is just incredible. It's the first single of his forthcoming album to be released in November and if the rest of the album is as good as this single I'll probably scream.

For more liquid vibes check out any of these:

Emba, Tempza - All Our Years (!!)
Tokyo Prose - Jacknife
Ben Snow, DRS, Gardna - 2020 Vision (trust me this is actually liquid)
Blue Marble - Summer Romance
The Vanguard Project - Pumpkin
Various Artists - Offworld Transmissions Volume 8
Colossus - Third Face LP
Atlantic Connection - Instrumentals LP
Skuff - Reflections EP

3. Nuvertal - Apogee EP [ProgRAM]

Recommended if you like: Data 3, Grey Code, Winslow

Error. Error. Error.

That's how Nuvertal's newest Apogee EP on ProgRAM starts off. Maybe it actually says something else, but that's all I could hear. At that point I didn't expect those leading vocals to be an accurate description of my brain trying to comprehend how great this EP is a few minutes later.

Nuvertal is slowly becoming one of my favorite Russian producers, as you might remember from my review of his Urbanization EP on Fokuz a few months ago. Unlike most of his fellow countrymen his sound goes more into the liquid/deeper side of drum and bass. As is expected for a ProgRAM release, he leans more into the deep than the liquid part for this one.

The EP starts off with the aforementioned Error's being thrown at us on Skarabei Room. Did you know that error means "wandering" in Latin? Both this intro tune and the follow-up Presage are great examples of some of the more heavy Nuvertal tracks. Super fast, rolling drums with a bunch of different growling sounds fading in and out. Kind of reminds me of Data 3 at times. The title track Apogee goes into a slower direction. But maybe it only feels slow because the first two tracks were incredibly fast. Even with this lower perceived fastness, this hard-hitting stepper still doesn't pull any punches energy-wise. Lastly, Catch You leans more into the liquid side of Nuvertal, while not completely abandoning the high energy of this EP. Some really unique vibes.

Highly recommended if you like your dnb fast! Regularly recommended otherwise.

If you want more deep vibes, go check out any of these:

Objectiv - Rain On The Roof EP
Oakwite - Technology
The Caracal Project - Modern Intimate
Sustance, Morty - Lapis
High Contrast, LOWES - Rhythm Is Changing (well, not really similar, but I wanted to mention it)

4. Rubix - Wishes EP [Bad Habitz Recordings]

Recommended if you like: Soothing Piano-based Liquid DnB

At long last. It's time for the Underrated Pick Of The Week™️. I bet you were so close to closing the tab, phew.

This week's pick comes from Belgium, home of some of the filthiest and screechiest jump up the scene has ever seen and also Netsky. Since it is released on Bad Habitz Recordings, the "Belgian Jump Up Drum 'n' Bass record label owned by Basstripper, Basstripper, & Dexed" (actual quote from discogs.com), you might think I'm gonna show you some filthy stinky jump up newcomer. You would be wrong in that assumption. The creator of this week's Hidden Gem is a producer called Rubix. Rubix doesn't conform to the label's or even his country's assumed genres and is going for a straight-up liquid vibe with his work. He is the newest of the newcomers, he literally only has two other releases on Divination Recordings, making this his first full-scale EP.

But as we've learned by now, being new doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the quality of a release. Rubix's new Wishes EP is a great example of a newcomer delivering quality music. It's an EP for those who love lush piano-driven liquid, a group I'm very much a part of. A vibe through and through. The collaborations with Echo Motion, another great newcomer in the liquid scene I've been following for a bit now, and N23 are also very much blissful. I especially love the vocal sample flying in and out on Wishes. Second highlight would probably be the melancholic piano that can be heard throughout the whole EP. I guess it's not really a single highlight, but definitely one of my favorite things about this release.

Great debut EP! One for the colder days.

Other Hidden Gems this week:

Paper Dragon - Self Control (Sakkura Remix)
Perplex - Broken World EP
Various Artists - Raw Cuts Vol. 4 [Vandal Records]