Picks Of The Week (05.12.20

1. V O E - Where You Belong [ProtoCode]

Recommended if you like: Magnetude, Memtrix, Koven

Told ya I'd soon talk about V O E some more!

I usually try to avoid covering an artist multiple times, especially twice in a row. Sometimes there are exceptions though. For example when an artist releases a track I've been looking for for months. Or when I've looped the Beatport preview of a track as soon as it was released and literally jumped when I saw that it was uploaded on YouTube. Or when a great track is produced by an artist I've come to love over the last few weeks and that I hadn't gotten around to covering properly yet. In case it wasn't obvious: all of these apply to V O E - Where You Belong.

V O E is an Adelaide-based duo comprised of Tevlo and CARZi. It all started when CARZI invited Tevlo for an interview on the local radio show she was hosting at the time because she really liked one of his tracks. On Fresh 92.7 to be specific, for those few Aussies in the crowd here. In said interview Tevlo gave some great anecdotes and provided incredibly witty banter, like that he apparently started playing around with production when he was just 11 years old. That's how I imagine it at least, I couldn't find the interview anywhere. That 11 year old part is true though, if his Spotify profile is to be trusted. However, he did mention in that interview that while he was doing fine on his own jumping from electronic genre to electronic genre with his trusty Keytar in hand and his own silky voice providing the vocals, he was more or less desperately searching for another vocalist to collaborate with. Since she had spent the last 10 years on stage as a singer, CARZi cheekily suggested herself, the end result of that was their first collaboration Armour.

The next few months they "accidentally" (direct quote here) created another 8 tracks in the studio and they realized they needed a kickass name to go with this new group. With the help of a friend who was playing a lot of League Of Legends at the time, they decided on Vision Of Empire, or V O E.

If I had to describe their sound succinctly, I would say I can't do it. Take a teaspoon of Pendulum, one part Koven, one tablespoon of Memtrix, one part Evanescence and mix it together with a large and healthy portion of Neurofunk and you get V O E. Okay that sounds a bit messy, let me explain. The instrumentals often feature some electric guitars with some sweet sweet creative Neuro basses and grooves, but that's not even close to all of it. Sometimes dancefloor (Let You In, Giants), sometimes liquid (Not Thinking Straight with Telomic), sometimes just unique as hell (Fall). That's just their instrumentals though, what pushes them over the top are their incredible vocals. Both CARZi and Tevlo lend their voices for the project and I can't stress enough how much of a fun and unique experience this combination results in. Sometimes Tevlo raps, sometimes he sings, sometimes just CARZi sings, sometimes they both sing, the possibilities are endless. And their voices work so well together too! Some of my favorite parts of the songs are when both voices are layered on top of each other, I will never get enough of that.

That versatility helped them earn releases on Global League, Liquicity, Blackout and just last week NCS in just two years. And that isn't even close to the end of it. In the next few weeks releases on Viper, RAM, and Liquicity again will be following. They also didn't just win the Build And Track 2.0 competition with Giants, they also won third place in Black Sun Empire's Driving Insane Remix competition, which means they'll also be part of the finished remix album, earning them yet another Blackout release. They're in the process of steamrolling the scene and I'm so here for it.

Okay, but why am I telling you all of this? Because they've got a new track out. And oh boy, you are not ready. But maybe I'm just projecting here, because I sure as hell wasn't ready, even with all preview looping. This new scorcher of a track is called Where You Belong and 1000% belongs in the "straight up neurofunk banger" category of V O E releases.

It starts off with an eery atmospheric intro that puts you in the right headspace for what's about to follow. This track features Tevlo on the vocals, whose lyrics and general attitude perfectly complements the atmosphere the track is going for. His lyrical persona is directly addressing an unknown apparently long forgotten person that at first might seem like just any old friend or partner, but as soon as the titular "I can only hope that you found where you belong" hits, the suspicion that this has a more sinister background starts to creep in. And that's exactly when the instrumental starts shifting from atmospheric eeriness to the eventual explosion of energy that is it's drop. Man, that drop. That back-and-forth between the main melody and the overwhelming neuro bass blowing everything to pieces haunts me in my dreams, in a good way. After a short half time full-on assault on your senses breakdown the track goes straight back to the back-and-forth to smash the remaining pieces of your head in.

During all this Tevlo's singing already becomes more hostile and this development culminates with his rapped verse in the buildup of the second drop, where the resentment really seeps through a lot. The angrier he sounds, the angrier the instrumental seems to get too. Depending on which version you are listening to (Club Mix, Radio, Extended), the track now either goes straight back to the full dnb drop or blasts you with some half time goodness before going back. Either way, it bangs.

All in all: I love it.

2. The Rest

Recommended if you like: Quick round-ups of releases

This weekend I didn't really have a lot of time to properly prepare more full reviews than the V O E one, so I opted for a quick overview of what I'd consider the most important releases of this week, or as others might call it: Stuff I liked from this week.

Starting off with Liquid! My main big liquid release of this week has got to be the Future Sight EP by the latest Integral mystery signing Tatora. Very much an Integral vibe all the way through, very much recommended. Favorites are Faded and the Perspective Shift collab Broken Hearted. For some more very nice floaty vibes you can also check out Elixr's newest single All Night, an up-and-coming liquid artist I urge all you liquid lovers to check out. Speaking of liquid newcomers, this week also saw the release of Alpha Rhythm's sophomore EP on Celsius, the Everfrost EP. A vibe and a half.

Let's change gears into Dancefloor. The biggest dancefloor-esque release of this week is probably the Ram Trilogy remix album Revolutions LP. With remixes from the likes of InsideInfo (multiple ones at that!), Andy C, SyRan and Levela, this one is both stacked and promises a lot of different takes on the original legendary tracks. While we're talking about remixes, this week also saw the release of SLANDER's Back To U remix EP with Matrix & Futurebound and Mazare representing the DnB side of things. And don't you forget about Toronto Is Broken's fun remix of Nocturnum - Silhouette! Lots of catchy goodness. RAM didn't just have the big remix album this week, they also released Culture Shock's new single Lost, from his upcoming SEQUEL album! This week has also been big for Monstercat DnB lovers, with Delta Heavy and Kayzo's Tormenta for those who crave some drumstep vibes on the one hand and Pixel Terror and Protostar collaborating on the unique genre mashup that is Andromeda on the other.

One last gear change, full spead ahead. Exactly, it's Neurofunk time. This week might not have had a lot of neuro, but the sheer quality of releases we got definitely outweighs any complaints about a too low quantity. One release that heavily contributed to that is Burr Oak's new double single Mind & Dolls on Blackout, which is both the french duo's label debut and also Blackout's 100th release ever! Prepare to be BRRR'd to death. If that somehow didn't satisfy you enough, we've also got REAPER's new track with SYN called LEVITATE that is a short but very sweet burst of energy that is sure to wake you the fuck up if you are sleepy. Lastly, we got two banging EP's from some of Russia's (and Ukraine's) finest: Teddy Killerz new Nerd Starter Pack EP on Bassrush Records and Nais' Testing Lab EP on Eatbrain. Huge stuff. Oh and one more thing: Shadow Sect collaborated with Dope D.O.D. on STFU and they included a VIP DnB remix of it (with Hallucinator) on the release that bangs quite a bit.