Picks Of The Week (12.09.20

1. Pendulum - Driver / Nothing For Free [Earstorm Records]

Recommended if you like: MUZZ, Metrik, come on, it's Pendulum man

Well, what did you expect? For me to not talk about new Pendulum?

Ten years. We Pendulum fans have waited ten long, hard years. Every year since pretty much 2015 we were promised new releases, the infamous fourth album. Even though at the time Rob Swire pretty much said he hated the idea of that, he also said they would come back with something eventually. Year after year, Knife Party release after Knife Party release, they kept dropping hints about new content Coming Soon™. 2016 saw the band's return to the festival stages with their Knife Party / Pendulum "hybrid" show at Ultra Miami. A big moment for Pendulum fans around the world. Also a sign for more to come, or so I thought. An interview here, a cheeky ID there, enough to keep the hype flame from going out completely, but sometimes it felt like it was "just" a return to live shows and that's it. The 2017 Pendulum returns teaser videos that turned out to be just a teaser for their return to South West Festival did not help clearing my doubts about actual new tracks by them coming anytime soon. A year later they actually released a new album under the name of Pendulum, their all-star remix album The Reworks. Not quite what I was waiting for, but enough to satisfy the need for a while.

A few years later, after all this, here we are. Actual, new, released music from Pendulum. 2020 has been wild man.

And what a release this is!

Released last Wednesday, Driver starts off exactly where Pendulum left off on Immersion, with the person that was apparently drowning in Encoder gasping for air and getting out of the water in Driver. I know this is not exactly a new revelation to anyone that has visited the YouTube comment section of the new Pendulum singles, but oh well, it's still a nice little easter egg.

Anyway. What a way to start their comeback. With Driver they perfectly managed to bring their signature sound into the current era. One could even say it's one of the most Pendulum-sounding tracks ever. And I'm lovin' it. It's the perfect "comeback banger" track, showing everyone who doesn't know them what they're about and showing the fans that they haven't forgotten their old sound. In true Rob Swire fourth-wall-breaking fashion, the vocals even directly mention that they're "Back with a track called Driver". Such a banger, honestly.

Onto the second single, Nothing For Free, known to some as Muffin For Free. Once you hear it you can't unhear it. It's definitely more of a half-time vibe, but when you got Pendulum-quality production and Rob Swire vocals, who even cares that much about genres anymore. In other words: It's not drum and bass, what you gonna do? Started as a Knife Party project back in 2016, this is a track the group has sat on for quite a while. If you want to hear how strange the Knife Party version of this track would have sounded like, check this video out! That's the earliest version I could find, but Rob confirmed in the latest interviews that it was definitely written in 2016. In a weird turn of events, those lyrics are even more applicable to the current global situation than ever, which the music video, in which rabbits fight the global Myxomatosis pandemic, makes clear as day. All in all, an amazing second single.

So what's next for Pendulum then? Is this a precursor to a full album? Turns out, no, it's not. But fret not, that doesn't mean the end of new Pendulum content. They plan on releasing double singles every now and again for the near future, because, and I quote, "I don’t think people listen to fucking albums anymore". Oh well, as long as we get new Pendulum I honestly don't mind.

Absolutely incredible release this one.

2. Synergy - Monochrome / By Accident [NËU Music]

Recommended if you like: Proxima, Redpill, Buunshin

It took like 5 months of waiting, but today's the day. I can finally fanboi over a new NËU Music release.

Founded in 2017, the sister label to Phace & Misanthrop's Neosignal, has quickly established itself as one of the best smaller or upcoming labels in the scene. Until now they've featured the likes of Buunshin, Proxima, The Caracal Project, Tom Finster (<3) and, of course, Synergy. Sadly they don't release music often very often, but their quality over quantity approach is also something to admire. Everything they put out is a banger. Just like this latest double single from Russian duo Synergy.

Allow me to introduce the two. Once known under their old aliases Segment and Concept Vision, they have quite a few releases under their belt at this point. From Blackout over Eatbrain to VISION they have released on a lot of the subgenre's biggest labels. Since the last few years they have pushed their own sound more and more into the techy direction, while still retaining their neuro high energy "roots".

And let me tell you, they have delivered just that with their latest EP. Both Monochrome and By Accident have some amazing sound design while still being aggressive as hell, the former more so than the latter. With some of the most interesting and weird drums and an addicting, forward-smashing rhythm throughout the drop, Monochrome just blows your face off. By Accident on the other hand is more of a "fill the whole room with bass" kind of vibe. It's way more interesting than that though, trust me. For me at least.

As always, great stuff from Synergy!

3. Alix Perez - Without End LP [1985 Music]

Recommended if you like: Lenzman, Halogenix, Satl

I probably don't need to introduce this one.

Alix Perez has been a consistent source of quality music for longer than I can even remember at this point. The same can be said for his very own label 1985 Music. If you have any interest in soulful and/or deep liquid and don't know either Alix or his label, I urge you to check them out thoroughly.

Whether it's liquid or deep dnb or dubstep, Alix Perez delivers. His newest release, the Without End LP, or rather a really big EP, is one for the fans of his more soulful work. An entire 8 tracks of just Alix Perez liquid - I'm in heaven. And it's not just a random collection of songs put together, it's something that should be experienced from start to finish. I mean, do what you want, the tracks are also great on their own, but together they form such a coherent picture that I would definitely recommend it if you have the time.

Highlights for me would be first of all the two Liam Bailey collaborations, Moving On and Lost & Proud. Especially the latter one has caught my heart. There's just something about Liam's voice that makes it a perfect match for this style of dnb. Another one of my personal highlights is the collab with Workforce, Distant Figures. Just makes me wish for more from those two. Perfect Stranger, yet another collab, this time with former Ivy Lab's Halogenix, is another track to add onto the highlights pile. A bit deeper than the other ones I've mentioned, but still oh so good. If you fancy Alix's deeper side I would also recommend listening to Ain't Nothing. The rolling drums, the perfectly used soulful vocal sample, the atmospheric continuous bass, it all just puts you in a trance-like state.

At this point I have recommended more than half of the album already, oops. Just.. listen to the whole thing. It's great throughout!

P.S. If you liked this release, I would also recommend the two new double singles from Liquid DnB master Calibre. Both falls to you VIP / end of meaning and the DRS collaborations white horse / living for are lovely as hell. Especially falls to you vip. Too good man, too good.

4. Moekel - Eggong / Goomnepla [Baked Beats Recordings]

Recommended if you like: Subtension, Camo & Krooked, Bensley

It's time for some Schnitzelpower!

This week's Underrated Release Of The Week™ is coming from Moekel, an upcoming producer from Austria.

Moekel started DJing in his local student club, the Poco Loco in Graz. At some point he moved away from the chart music of that scene away to more electronic sounds, first deep house, now drum and bass. He also produces HipHop for other artists, but not under the Moekel moniker. Or Moekelniker, if you will. Okay that sounded better way in my head. I'm just gonna roll with it now though. His sound is very much inspired by fellow countrymen Camo & Krooked, but with a very own twist on it. It's a very dreamy sound, in my opinion best exemplified in his Analogue Dreaming / Modulation double single, which is also the release that made me a fan of his.

This newest double single Eggong / Goomnepla, released on the Austrian artist community label Baked Beats Records, is a continuation of that same unique sound.

First of all, those track names are.. unique. I'm still trying to find out if they are weird Austrian slang or just random strings. I found out that if you read it backwards the latter one says "Alpenmoog", which could be referencing a Moog synthesizer that he is using in the Alps, somewhere in Austria. But maybe I'm reading too much into this.

Anyway.

If you listened to Analogue Dreaming you might recognize some of its elements in Eggong. The whole dreaminess of it all. With a big focus on some large room-filling BRWOOM synths moving through the otherwise relatively minimal arrangement he manages to build up an atmosphere that makes you think you are slowly moving through space. Goomnepla on the other hand is a bit more energetic than its counterpart. The long atmospheric buildup that drops into a single, hectic drop is certainly different to Eggong in its execution, but it still conveys a similar Space vibe to me. All very interesting and unique stuff.

He mentioned in a recent interview that he has quite a few more releases planned soon(ish), so keep an eye out for new stuff from him if you liked this one!

Other Hidden Gems this week:

High Resistance - INCEPTION V.1 (shoutout to Cyntax's and Confusion's tracks, absolute highlights for me)
Ice-O-Later - Gunman
Plasmator, Volition - God Particle (released the week before, but still wanted to mention it)
Xeomi, Kaiza - Cypher EP
Drumcatcher - Get Them EP
Nami - Bridge Into Your Memory
Aaronson - Funk Show