Picks Of The Week (23.10.21

1. Manta - Out Of My Mind EP [Diascope]

Recommended if you like: Despersion, Frank Lemon, The Clamps

I know, I know, this one has been released for a bit already. In my defense: it was only just now uploaded to Spotify, my main and favourite method of consuming music, and subsequently also new DnB. I mean, does a release really exist if it's not on Spotify yet? Okay, too far probably. Anyway, let's talk about the release!

On this oh-so-wonderful New Music Monday, or should I New Music Manta-y, I want to show you lot the new double single by Austrian Neurofunk virtuoso Manta. Wait, doesn't that name ring a bell? You're right, I briefly talked about him in my Frank Lemon review last year. However, this time he's coming at us solo style! Since around 2015, the Salzburg-based producer's spin on the hard-hitting DnB he loves to produce, and that I love to listen to, has been getting progressively more unique with each release. While he might have started out on smaller labels like Moshbit or T3K, his distinct distorted melodic Neurofunk productions have since then landed him releases on the likes of ProgRAM, Bad Taste Recordings, Mainframe Recordings, Hanzom Music and Diascope. If you're completely unfamiliar with him, I suggest checking out his Watching Waves EP from last year, which in my opinion is a prime example of his refreshing take on the genre. Fun fact: Watching Waves was also released on Diascope, just like the new Out Of My Mind EP we're talking about here!

Wait, Diascope, that rings a bell too, doesn't it? Man, you really got a good memory on you, I also talked about them last year! In short: It was founded in 2019 by none other than Leipzig's very own Neuro-duo Neonlight to gain more control over their own, older releases on now-defunct labels and to use as a platform for up-and-coming producers. When I last reviewed them, most of the releases on it were their own Remasters, however, since then they've invited more and more producers to the table. Not only did they feature solo releases by in my opinion extremely underrated producers BorkerBrothers, Evolved and Ripple, they also expanded upon their Constellations EP series once more, once again featuring some super promising newcomers. Fun fact: Manta was actually the first non-Neonlight producers on the label. Now, it's time for his smashing return, so let's talk about that!

We kick things off with the title track Out Of My Mind, featuring Manta's long-time collaborator Frida Vamos. The Austrian, but now Berlin-based, singer smoothly guides us into this journey of a track with her angelic voice, as the drumbeat and the background synths slowly chugs along. Then, we speed up. And up. And up. And up. Holy moly, how fast are we going here?! Through this clever speedup from what feels like Halftime to full speed Manta managed to make the already quite wild drop even wilder, completely knocking me out of my socks on my first listen. Let's be real, so far it has worked on any subsequent listens too.

In typical Manta fashion, the drop is not just frantically hard-hitting, thanks to some great, I wanna say nostalgic, synths it's also weirdly beautiful and catchy at the same time. Even when Frida is coming back with her sooting vocals in the last part of the drop, we're still going at full speed ahead, with drums that are so blazingly fast I sometimes think I'm going at 190BPM. This track is honestly an explosion of energy and will cause me to drive a few hundred kilometers per hour too fast on the Autobahn soon. With the amount of insane chair-bouncing I'm doing at my desk right now, I'm very much reminded of last year's Adventure, one of my favourite tunes of that year. At this rate I'll have to add it to my Best Of 2021 list after the next few listens.

On the flipside we've got the spooky stomper Melon Groove. Snippy snares surf on a distant wave of shuffling breaks alongside a season-appropriate eerie Castlevania-esque melody towards the drop, where we're greeted by heavy basses that are as weighty as they are groovy. While not as insanely energetic as its predecessor, there's still lots to love here. Not only is the sound design quite interesting, it's also all just arranged together in such a neat way. After a mostly quite relaxing first half, the second half fires back with double the energy, with fast shuffly breaks and additional, way more aggressive basses. Groovy tune!

I had been awaiting Manta's return to Diascope for a bit, and it did not disappoint one bit. Listening to this release is like injecting yourself with pure energy. Amazing release. One could say that listening to this, especially the title track, is Manta-tory!

Other Neurofunk things from this week:

Mefjus - Hear Me
North Base, Burr Oak, PAV4N - Spanish Town
Audio - [unsocial] Sampler
Gydra, Nuvertal - Meditation (Audio Remix)
Hybert Phillips - Cybercrime EP
Zombie Cats, Freshney, Psynchro - Mutation Remixed Sampler 4

2. Askel & Elere - Simulations LP [Soulvent Records]

Recommended if you like: Data 3, Phaction, Workforce

After all this hectic energy, why don't we chill out a bit with some excellent futuristic deep liquid by the bois Askel & Elere? It's getting colder, it's getting dark outside earlier, especially after daylight saving time ends on Sunday here, it is the literal perfect vibe to listen to new stuff by the finnish bois!

Wait, who? Asere and Elkel? Close, but no. Around three years ago, in 2018, long-time friends Juho Kavasto and Sainey Gibba from the icy finnish city Tampere started putting out their first drum and bass tracks as Askel & Elere. However, the bond goes much further back then that, both musically and friendship...ly. Not only have the two have been friends since the age of ten, they also took their first few production steps together way back when. One of their first collaborations was a drum & bass remix of Super Mario Bros' theme song. At the age of 15, in 2010, they even already tried to do the whole artist thing, but only for a very short while. Maybe it's because they tried to make a consistent effort to actually work on music, or maybe it's because they weren't teenagers anymore, but either way their restarted musical efforts in 2017 had way more longevity than the first run. They started their journey on Pola & Bryson's Soulvent Records in 2018, but that was only the beginning! Releases on Fokuz, Delta9 and a little lesser known label called, uhm, let me look real quick, ahh yes, Hospital Records, followed. However, after working with this wide variety of labels for a bit, they realised they still liked working with Soulvent the most, and subsequently signed an exclusive deal with them earlier this year. A deal that directly lead to their debut album Simulations, you know, the one we're talking about here!

As always with these smaller album reviews I'll just pick out my favourites and gush about them for a little. Let's go!

I'll start with one of the more "straight-forward" liquid tracks, Perfect Symmetry. To the backdrop of some seemingly simple but honestly perfectly fitting beautiful piano chords, DnB vocal powerhouse Riya delivers a performance that pulls at your heart strings. This isn't just some standard piano stuff though, this is Askel & Elere man! Even in something as integral as a piano in a liquid tune, the duo finds a way to do it just that little bit different from the rest. It's hard to explain because it's literally just chord after chord, without any switchups or anything, which might not sound too amazing, but it kind of works in the context of the tune. The unshakeable steadiness of the piano chords kind of act as an additional rhythmic glue holding the arrangement together. Those subdued little Dawn Wall-esque synths coming in right as Riya is letting the instrumental breathe a little are also sublime.

Next up we're going a little deeper with Nothing More, which you might remember from their Get Up double single earlier this year. For this one they employed the insane vocal talents of YENIAS... wait a minute. Yenias is Sainey backwards. Oh damn, YENIAS is Elere! The point stands though, those soulful vocals of his are some truly excellent stuff. Just as excellent as the instrumental behind them! Not only are the roaring basses wonderfully warm, the drums are also rolling along really nicely, they even got freaking wind chimes!

Now we plunge into the deepest depths, with Do I Know U. This is one of those "testing out the subbass of my sound system" tunes. Right from the start it prepares us for how mean the bass will be with an equally mean vocal sample from someone not recognizing us. This mean girl bass pounds away in a kinda infectious rhythm, while playing call-and-response with a quite weird sound that for some reason reminds me of a frog. With each passing loop of this, something equally strange is added to the mix, continuously increasing in energy. First, the bass gets a little heavier and I wanna say a little more distorted too, then the duo throws in some fast-paced glitchy drums with even more distortion on our original bass rhythm. Then they straight up just bonk something against their radiator, you can't convince me otherwise. Especially in the second drop. Perfectly weird stepper this one.

This whole album is honestly bursting with unique and refreshing ideas. If you want to experience some weird yet banging stuff, Laser Pistol and Searchlight, their collaboration with fellow finnish producer Nosfer, would be the ones for you. If you enjoy fun percussion experiments, I'd recommend Cherry Yoghurt with In:Most, Jola Dub and Better Time. They even take their percussions into completely different tempos on the Breaks-inspired Eclipse and Palate Cleanser. However, if you just want some beautiful liquid with a little bit of unique finnish sound design sprinkled on top, you'll want to listen to After The Rain, which features Elere on the vocals again, 42, with man like Degs on the mic, Thrice or their Winslow collaboration Taking Forever.

Across these fourteen tracks the duo managed to showcase us just what their sound is all about. A bit of liquid here, a bit of deep glitchiness there, sometimes even both at the same time, always perfectly executed.

Other liquid and deep things from this week:

London Elektricity - Rebuilding Better Worlds LP
Grey Code - Simple Things (Wingz Remix)
Operate, T-Man - Ivory
VA - Refraction Vol. 001 [Transparent Audio] 💎
Nelver, Polaris - Nexus
Low:r - Get Movin' VIP
BCee, Dynamite MC - Hooked On U
Auris - Metro 54 EP
Yerite - Back To You 💎
Feyln - Titanica (GLXY Remix)