Picks Of The Week (21.11.20

0. Keeno - I Live, I Learn LP [Hospital Records]

Recommended if you like: Hugh Hardie, London Elektricity, Natus

Before I get started properly I want to share my thoughts on the absolutely amazing Keeno album. And by thoughts I mean all the stupid puns I have in my notes. Or should I say Kee-notes? I must say I wasn't overly keen(o) on the album when I first skipped through the previews, but that quickly changed once I actually started listening to it. I have always loved the orchestral arrangements that are a key(no) element of his sound so it wasn't a huge surprise I would love it eventually, even with that shaky(no) first impression.

What is Keeno's favorite movie actor? Keeno Reeves.

What is Keeno's favorite Pokémon? Mankey-no. Or should I say Po-keeno-n? Amirite??

Okay I'll stop myself right there. Please read the great review by /u/Huubidi over here for a more serious review. And please listen to the album, it's incredible.

1. Sound In Noise - Shapes LP [RAM Records]

Recommended if you like: Smooth, North Base, Mind Vortex

Let's start with one of the most underrated Dancefloor producers and especially DJs around: Sound In Noise.

Even though the Estonian DnB legend only started releasing as Sound In Noise around 2016, he is not a new name to the scene at all. Releases under his previous alias S.I.N date way back to 2002, his first one being an entry in the Spy Technologies compilation on the british label DSCI4. Around 2004 he and his friend Eero Mander also started the biggest DnB event series Estonia had seen during its runtime of 15 years: Sin City in Tartu. With appearances by London Elektricity, Loadstar, Lenzman and a ton of other artists that don't start with L, it wouldn't be exaggerated to say they hosted the whole European DnB scene over the years. In 2016 he rebranded himself as Sound In Noise with his first splash being his banger of a remix for TC's Have You. Very shortly after this first release he gained the attention of Andy C's RAM Records. One release on their RAM Annual 2017 compilation later and he was signed exclusively on the legendary label.

Three years later and Sound In Noise released the first of three album snippet EPs of his debut album Shapes. With each of these three to four track preview EPs the Estonian producer showed us again and again just how diverse his sound is. That's actually also what the Shapes name alludes to: the different styles and shapes that drum and bass can take and that SIN likes to play, namely Dancefloor, Neuro and Jungle.

Since most of the tracks of this massive 15-track LP were already released months ago, I will mostly focus on the newly added ones, except for one.

The first track I want to talk about is the titular Shapes, a collaboration with the Estonian vocalist Marie Vaigla. Her vocals don't just sound haunting, the lyrics actually contribute a lot to that sound too. They're based on a painting by the Estonian artist Anu Muiste called "The Change". You don't even have to look it up to see what it looks like, because that artwork is also the album cover! The artwork and thus also the lyrics' central theme are dark thoughts and times people are going through. Perfectly timed I suppose. Beside all that, it is also a great "dark" dancefloor banger of a track.

From the darker side we move on to the more hopeful shape dancefloor can take. In Nights Like These Sound In Noise shows us how well he can execute the uplifting style of DnB. The lyrics performed by Daniel Levi Viinaless, another Estonian vocalist, talk about escaping sad thoughts by remembering the better times. The better nights. Nights in which we can finally be ourselves. In normal circumstances I would praise the catchy melodies and production, but in these times its the lyrics that resonate with me the most. Man, what I would give for another Night Like These.

Okay okay, soppy time is over for now. Let's get to a straight-up banger: Touch is one of the many tunes on the album that would absolutely destroy a dancefloor. A simple melodic loop throughout most of the track that is broken up and repurposed in multiple different ways throughout gives the song a stable base around which it can cause mayhem without seeming all over the place. And oh, what a mayhem it is. So many elements of the drop take different shapes throughout that it never gets boring.

Getting to the last one for now. It's not a new one, but one I wish I could've talked about before, so I'll just do it now. I'm talkin about the wonderful Space Cadet. The combination of one of the catchiest, most uplifting melodies ever and Jon Hazel's, yet another Estonian vocalist, incredible vocals just cannot be beaten. I especially love the call-and-response between Jon's "Past the satellite" (etc.) and the drop's main melody. Gets me every time. This beautiful piece of music was honestly one of my favorite tracks of 2019 and it's probably still in my top 20 of all time.

But it's not just these four tracks. For your in-your-face dancefloor needs Sound In Noise provides you with a whole lot of options, namely Expert Killa, Magicman, Believe In Monsters, Yo, 13 and Give It All. If you are more about that fun uplifting sound there's Sugar Rush and Deep Inside, if you just want a whole lot of breaks and jungle influences you got Cowards, One By One and Duppy Bass.

All in all, a superb dancefloor album!

Other dancefloor things this week:

Millbrook, Eviya - Echoes (<3)
Toronto Is Broken, Sebotage - Gunfingers
Stonebank - Scared
Flowidus, Lee Mvtthews - Reason
Phibes - Got To See Her VIP (jump up but close enough)

2. Operate, Rizzle - Azure EP [Overview Music]

Recommended if you like: Alix Perez, Invadhertz, Visages

Overview does it again!

After countless of incredible releases in 2020, including but not limited to EPs from Klinical, GROUND, Waeys and Skylark, it is time for yet another banger of an EP on the UK-based independent deep drum and bass powerhouse. Seriously, Overview's quality levels have been so consistently high this year it's almost too obvious to include them here. But I'll still do it, I don't care.

This time they got the dynamic Bournemouthian duo Operate and Rizzle together for Overview's first group project EP in 2020: the Azure EP! Rizzle seems to be a big fan of blue because whenever Rizzle is involved, Overview lays off their tried-and-true moody artwork colour palette of Black, White and Purple and drizzles the EP covers with some sweet Blue shades. And now they even named their EP Azure! Groundbreaking, I know. You're getting some real hard-hitting journalistic work from me here.

The EP kicks off with the moody Think Of You. While the unique rolling drums and the room-filling bass work by themselves would already make for a great tune, the duo went one step further and worked a vocal from an old Celdweller tune ("Fadeaway" for the curious) into the mix that is just straight up lovely. There's just something about these processed vocals that producers in this subgenre use that I cannot get enough of. I'm sure the "Dejavu, Think Of You" will stay in my head for a looong time. Absolute vibe of a track.

Operate and Rizzle follow this up with Mindset featuring highly sought-after MC Rider Shafique. And yet again, he shows that this popularity is fully deserved. The instrumental is as deep and atmospheric as they come with some occassional stabs which when all combined make you feel like you are in a huge underground tunnel system. Or a cave. Doesn't matter what place exactly, as long as it is deep and dark. This is the exact vibe Rider Shafique's vocals were made for. Perfect choice of vocalist right there.

After that Operizzle takes us back to the processed vocal territory with Opposites. As mentioned above, I can't get enough of that sound so I was happy to see it coming back a second time here. Even though the vocal isn't quite as catchy as the Celdweller one, it is still vibey as hell. Compared to Think Of You the instrumental is doing more of the melodic "work" in this one, the vocal mostly comes in play during the buildups. It can also be heard during the ""drop"", but is quickly overpowered by the instrumental, almost as if it is trying to gain back control over the track. Would be a neat music video. Message me for more great ideas.

Lastly we have Toxic, which is just straight up nasty. While the other ones were more atmospheric and built up a vibe, this one goes in. Straight up bassface once that first lower than low bass kicks in. Mariana Trench vibes. My face is too busy processing the bass to come up with more words to describe this madness. Stonker of a tune.

Definitely one of Overview's best EPs of this year, and that's saying something!

Other deep/dark/techy stuff that happened this week:

Skylark - Like This / The Shadow
Levela, A Little Sound - Moving Forward
Bredren, Swift - Energy
Wingz - IDW / Rearranged

Because it kind of fits this EP too these are other great liquid things that happened this week:

Mohican Sun - God Of Ages
Leniz, Painted Skies - Without You
Laminar - Daybreak
Deadline, Eloise Keeble - Wake Up Call

3. ChaseR - Curse Death Link EP [Neuropunk Records]

Recommended if you like: Cod3x, 2Whales, Nais

ChaseR returns to Neuropunk!

After his first appearance on the label on the first entry of the Neuropunk Forge series alongside Fatloaf, Subminderz and label chiefs Gydra themselves, the Astrakhan-based producer is back in full force with his first full-length EP on the label: The Curse Death Link EP!

Disclaimer: This is a bit different from my usual reviews. More of a story. Miiight have gone a bit overboard at some parts.

Let's set the scene a bit. Our protagonist is a guitarist who just landed his first big gig. Just as he is on his way to live it up in his favorite pub, The Iron Fiddle, a street performer in a nearby alley catches his attention. Her voice, her dance, something about her just drags him towards her. His heart beats faster and faster. His inner danger radar tries to warn him, but to no avail. In a flash her facade falls, the beautiful voice turned into an ear-piercing shriek. The Dance Of Siren has trapped him.

She drags him to a dark room. Candles everywhere, strange occult symbols on the floor, piles of books all around. She starts speaking in tongues that only she understands. Suddenly, she grabs his arm. Pure agony shoots through every part of him, while she undergoes a rapid transformation. The grimace turns into a smile, the arched back and crooked teeth straighten, all of her bodily pains are transferred to him. This, is the Curse Of Death. He blacks out.

Our protagonist wakes up and stumbles his way out. As always, he greets the people on the street. Instead of greeting back, they seem to be actively avoiding him though! Confused, he continues his path home, when he catches a glance of a ghastly face in a nearby window. He slowly goes back to take a closer look at this spectre, only to find that it was a reflection. Of his own Subhuman face. Shocked, he leaps back and rushes home to hide his shame, the Siren's song echoing in his head.

Our protagonist isolates himself, turning away friends and family. His mind races: How would he be able to play at his breakthrough gig? His one chance at success? "What if... I hide my face with a hood?", he thinks to himself. "I could barely see the guitar, but what other choice do I even have?" Desperately, he decides to learn how to play blindfolded. Countless days filled with tears, sweat and blood later, he has done the impossible. Braillefunk, as he calls it, is a reality.

Showtime. He has prepared the least see-through black hood he could find and is ready to rock. Even though the crowd is sceptical at first, that quickly goes away as soon as the first note is played. A minute later they are loving it. They are even cheering for an Encore afterwards! During the crowd's endless chanting and stomping, he reflects on the last few weeks for a moment. While he has found a way to live with the isolation, life as he knows it is over. But for this brief moment, he forgets all about it. For a moment, there's just the music.

Well.. That escalated a bit. Anyway.

The Curse Death Link EP is a return to form for the man like ChaseR and I can't wait to hear more from him! If you like your neuro hard-hitting and unforgivingly raw, this will be one for you!

And one more thing: Big big thank you to Bes from Neuropunk for helping out with this review!

Other neat neurofunk things that happened this week:

Myselor - Evolution & Need (!!!! see below)
Zombie Cats - Flava (!!!!)
Rusty K - The Savage (The Clamps Remix) (!!!!)
TR Tactics - Mindgame / Beyond the Mass
Koven - Followers (A.M.C Remix)
Bytecode - Parasite EP
Shadow Sect, Loop Stepwalker - RVLTN
Various Artists - 5 Years Of Ignescent

4. Myselor - Evolution & Need [Blackout Music]

Recommended if you like: Disphonia, TR Tactics, 2Whales

Ah yes, the most hidden gem of them all, Blackout Music. What's next? Macky Gee as the hidden gem? Unsubscribe.

Okay this might seem weird, but hear me out. Yes, Myselor is my Hidden Gem Of The Week™. Yes, his double single Evolution & Need was released on the hugely popular Blackout. You know what though? He is still unknown enough for me to deserve an extra spotlight. When I first listened to the release he was still under 1000 monthly listeners on Spotify and after his excellent-but-underviewed Blackout Podcast I just needed to shout this excellent double single out here. I'm getting ahead of myself here though.

Let's take a step back. Who is this mysterious Myselor?

Myselor is a greek neurofunk producer that is currently based in Berlin. My research showed me that he is also holding an impressive rank 12120 on djrankings.org, which, fun fact, is an actual real site! For comparison, A.M.C is rank 6532 while I'm writing this. Not bad, Myselor, not bad. While Mr Myselor's first productions from around 2012 were mostly Glitchhop/Neurohop, he quickly pivoted to Neurofunk in the same year. He didn't completely stop producing Glitchhop, but the DnB definitely took over. The last Glitchhop release of his I could find was released in 2014. With his unique take on Neurofunk he landed releases on several big labels like Red Light Records, C4C Limited and Mainframe. But it wasn't until he participated in and won first place in Black Sun Empire's Driving Insane Remix competition that the dutch trio decided to take him under their wing.

Speaking of, let's talk about the release itself. First off we have Evolution, one of the more unique neurofunk tracks I've had the pleasure of covering. From start to finish the track goes through all kinds of changes. The first drop starts with some really great muted (for lack of a better word) drums you don't hear often in Neurofunk and a melody that is way too catchy. After a few bars Myselor changes out the snares for a more "classic" feel but keeps the rest of the rhythm going. For the third part the drums are brought back to the original version, but the underlying bass and melody switches. Phew. But that's not all. He does a similar thing for the second drop, but this time the rhythm has been switched to a 4x4 type beat. It's a whole journey. All in all, Evolution was a great name choice for this track. All throughout these changes and switchups you can here so many little things that add to the experience. The attention to detail is just great.

Secondly, there's Need. Right off the bat, Need feels a lot faster than Evolution. Less of a funk rhythm and more 16th notes. However, it has two big things in common with Evolution: the huge amount of variations and its attention to detail. Myselor seems to be going for some serious speed buildup though. With each change and variation another element gets added or switched out and with each change it feels like the velocity of the track has increased just a slight bit more. At some point he even brings in an acid-y synth that gives the part a Psytrance feel. After that the track slows down a lot though and ends with a half-time chilled second half in which the aforementioned synth is just used for melody purposes.

The more you pay attention to it, the better it gets. Did I mention that the artwork looks great too? An incredible release and hopefully not even close to the last we hear from Myselor!

Other Hidden Gems this week:

Perspective Shift - Don't Deserve EP (huge recommendation)
Kublai - Discworld / In Tandem
Jammez - Zodiac EP
Zigi SC - Outsider / Blackmailer
Art1fact, Stiff Jangle - Lightspeed
Bytecode - Parasite
Komax - Destiny EP