Picks Of The Week (19.12.20

1. Used - Where I Belong [usedmusic]

Recommended if you like: Andromedik, Murdock, Subsonic

Welcome to the last releases thread of this year! It has been a year of ups and downs. Well, mostly downs. But there was one major up for me: becoming a part of the weekly releases crew and writing these release reviews. I am still utterly overwhelmed by all the supportive comments and messages the team and I have received for these threads. I would write these even if I didn't have an audience, but seeing that people actually read and sometimes even enjoy wasting their time reading it makes it all so much more worth it for me. Big ups to every single one of you!

Fittingly, the first release I'm covering talks a lot about what happened this year. There has been a sharp increase in DnB tracks with lyrics that are obviously inspired about the various shitty things that happened this year, from Millbrook - Echoes to Andromedik - Break Away. However, there's not many tracks that are as direct about their feelings towards 2020 as this one is.

I'm of course talking about Used's newest single Where I Belong. Even though Used is in many ways still a newcomer, including that he has only been around as a producer since around 2016 and that he has only released a handful of songs, he is also in many ways more established than some other producers that have been around for longer. The belgian prodigy's first big hit, Mistakes, has recently hit 2 million streams on Spotify and has over the years become a straight-up anthem that the whole of Belgium can sing along to.

Used isn't just any old, or in this case young I guess, producer though. He not only writes and sings his own vocals, he also plays multiple instruments, including the violin and the piano. Oh yeah, by the way, he's also mainly a Jump Up producer. I'm sure I've lost a few of you already, but I assure you that Used is certainly one of the more interesting ones out there and definitely worth your time.

Not only is he quite the multi-talent musically, he is also the producer with the highest hit-to-release ratio I've seen in the last few years. Since Mistakes, every single track he released is an instant anthem that a majority of people at a rave could sing along to. After the trilogy of personal tracks about one of his own breakups that were Mistakes, Come Back Home and Better On My Own, Used strayed off the beaten path and decided to change the subject for this next single while still remaining personal. This time the topic is something we can all relate to: a longing for a return to normal. A longing for a rave, just any rave.

While his biggest hits so far were very personal, they still had a certain distance to the artist himself. This is not the case for his newest single Where I Belong. In it, he speaks his heart out about how much the lockdown and the cancellation of all the shows and festivals have affected him. "No therapist can do, what the live show's done." - Biggest mood of the year. Right below that on the "big mood top 10" you can find the previous line: "I can't even remember a single thing that happened between March and December". As mentioned earlier, I've heard quite a few lockdown inspired tunes lately, but none have felt quite as deeply personal as this one.

These relatable af lyrics are of course performed by himself, alternating between rapped and sung verses. The shortest description for the instrumental I could come up with is Andromedik meets Fox Stevenson. A fun Jump Up inspired Liquicity type beat, with violins and pianos, all played and produced by himself. In the second drop the jumpy beat is stripped back a lot and the violins take centre stage, further driving home the melancholy of it all. I like songs that make me feel things and this is one of them.

Big recommendation for my fellow vocal dnb fans out there.

2. Various Artists - Various single releases [All kinds of labels]

Recommended if you like: Drums, Basses

Due to Christmas, we sadly don't have much time for more deep dives (except for the Hidden Gem section below). Luckily, not a whole lot of people released something this week anyway. Loads of yearly compilations once again, but mostly just repackaging of older tunes. But there are still quite a few tracks and EPs I want to quickly mention at least, just to give you a quick overview over the neat stuff that did get released.

On the Dancefloor side of things we've got Protostar's remix of the Darren Styles classic Us Against The World, as part of the Monstercat Christmas remix saga. If you ever wondered how Happy Hardcore DnB would sound like, this is for you. If you like something more laid back and maybe more asian (who knows), I've got just the thing for you. Japanese Electro Rock Band The Game Shop, who from time to time do dabble in DnB, released a remix EP of one of their earliest hits Everything Is OK. My favorite remix of the bunch by far is the one by Osaka-based producer Mountain. I will never get enough of his Miami Vice funk type of drum and bass.

From the chill side of dancefloor we take it down another notch to Liquid. One of the most underrated czech producer duos out there, Ripple, released a really neat free download Words that is sure to calm you down if the festivities stressed you out. Watch out for that album they've got coming up! If you need even more c h i l l, there's also the lovely Emotions single by my fellow german countryman and multi-genre producer PLTX. Big up the Dresden gang.

Let's take it down even further. To the Deep side of things. My favorite release on that side is probably Rift's Can't Stop EP on Differential Recordings. Especially Never Last and the Phobetor Rift & Petroll VIP did it for me. Great stuff as always from Rift and Differential. Need For Mirrors also released a very interesting track this week: Patience, a collab with vocalist Fusion. In true Need For Mirrors fashion it's one of those tracks that you cannot really compare to anything else. Definitely one of the more uplifting NFM tunes though.

This week was also great for Deep DnB compilations. First off we've got the The Frontliners Vol. 1 compilation on Propaganda011, which I only found because it features a DnB track by a Bass House producer I fell in love with the last few months: Kage. I'm very glad I did find this though, my favorites were the tunes by Mew Zu, Point 4, Sub Mortal and, of course, Kage. Next up we got V Recordings's yearly compilation Planet V Vol. 4. Not a whole lot of new tracks, but the few new ones Bryan Gee blessed us with are well worth your time. L-Side and Command Strange, Makoto and Paul T & Edward Oberon, Alibi, Beat Merchants, all these are featured and deliver the good stuff, as expected.

Lastly (in the deep section), I want to mention the Christmas present that is the SANTA FIGHTS SOME MONSTERS LP on my newcomer label SIN.FULL Maze. And the incredible LP name isn't even the best part of it! 16 free tracks with some of the freshest productions around, by some of the most unknown names around too. I can't even recommend specific tunes, it's all so interesting. Just listen to it all If you only care about streaming (guilty as charged), I was assured that this one will also come to Spotify, probably next month. Which is good, because I need all of these in my playlists, like now.

Hey, nice, we have arrived at the Neuro section! A clear highlight this week was the release of the album that puts the funk back in Neurofunk: Mean Teeth's Bring Back The Funk LP. If you have closely followed their excellent album preview EPs over the years since the Estonian and Lithuanian duo started this project, you won't find that many new tracks on this finished album, but it's still very much worth your time. Great remasters of their biggest tunes to date and collaborations with NickBee and Volatily Cycle for those who are up-to-date, for everyone else a whole 20 amazing tracks of the funkiest of the funk Neurofunk awaits you. For those who like their dnb even harder, there was also Hallucinator's new Rejects LP on PRSPCT.

One last thing and then I swear to God I'll shut up about this forever. Until next week that is. This week also saw the releases of DJ Hazard's When The Dreams Are Over EP and the long awaited Bou and Mefjus collaboration Wormhole. Not for me personally, but I can't not mention them at least.

3. Particular Shades - Fault Input / String [Watchout Music]

Recommended if you like: Amoss, Notequal, Synergy

You better Watchout, you better not cry, better not pout, I'm telling you why: Hidden Gem Of The Week™ is coming to town!

Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? I've got one last present for you guys. This week's pick is Particular Shades - Fault Input / String on Watchout Music. Lots of new names in there. Let's start with the label and work our way to the artist.

Watchout Music is a very very new label. They were founded earlier this year and this is just their second overall release so far. They are a Slovakia-based label focused on showing off the vast amount of talent that can be found in Eastern Europe, more specifically Slovakia and the Czech Republic. If you were active in that specific scene (no judgement if you weren't) in the last 3 years you might remember there being another project with very similar ambitions: dnb.zone. In fact, dnb.zone and Watchout are working very closely together to not just showcase releases by Slovakian producers, but now also release the best ones themselves. Watchout is also collaborating with the czech label SIN.FULL MAZE that I've mentioned earlier and covered for the Notequal EP a few weeks back. If you recognize any of these names, you know that can only mean one thing: Very high quality music. Watchout for this label in the future.

Not convinced yet? Alright alright, let's talk about their newest release then. It comes from the newly established Slovakian producer duo Particular Shades. Previously known in the local scene as the DJs Abbre and Deepthonic, they have now joined forces, expanding their repertoire from "just" DJing to also producing their own tracks. As they are still very new and only have one single other release, it's hard to judge their production too much. But if that one release and this new double single is anything to go by, this certainly won't be the last time we will have heard of them.

This newest release by them is a double single that combines the best of the techy and deep worlds of drum and bass. The first track, Fault Input, is a collaboration with fellow Slovakian trio Notequal. It's a great blend of rolling and shuffling drums, seriously hard-hitting snares and basses that go crazy all over. But my favorite part has got to be the way they worked a old timey computer tutorial sample into the mix. I love documentary or computer generated voice samples. Techy, deep goodness. If this is the faulty input, I don't even want the correct input.

Continuing with the IT-based naming schemes, String is the second half of the double single. This one takes us a bit further away from the techyness, but doubles down on the deep part of it all. A loudly growling bass so deep I can barely hear it in my headphones, a string of equally aggressive but slightly less deep bellows and roars and lots and lots of different sections keep you on your toes as you listen to it.

Can only recommend following both Watchout and Particular Shades in the future!

Other Hidden Gems of this week:

Various Artists - VA AW20 [Sub:Edit Records]
DEZPOT - CORRIDORS OF DEATH PART 13
Anizo - ANEP01 (what an EP name lol)
MYLK - Chocolate Parfait (KONKAI Remix)
Ci-Energy - Qualia (sadly missed this one on release, definitely worth a belated shout-out imo)