Picks Of The Week (11.12.21

1. Crash Comet - Fragments Of Time EP [Differential]

Recommended if you like: Nelver, Nic ZigZag, Dustkey

Get out the candles and get comfy, 'cause it's time for some crying Christmas content, courtesy of Crash Comet's criminally competent compilation of conceptually coherent music!

If I did a list of people whose music I enjoyed the most this year, maybe even factoring in how underrated I believe they are, Crash Comet would be way up there. No really, literally everything the London-based producer put out this year was amazing and I loved it to death. It started off with the incredible Infatuation on Simplify, which was both my personal introduction to his work and the first time I featured him on here, and continued on with the tear-jerkers that were Feeling on High Tea and Berlin with Dustkey on Liquicity. While this is not necessarily an impressively large list, it is reeking of quality. All of these tracks are in my Best Of 2021 list, all of these are in my "Top Songs 2021" Spotify Wrapped list, and yet, I'm not sick of them one bit. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they enter my all-time favourites list at some point too.

So when he announced a full-length EP a few months ago, I obviously got excited. Even more amazing tracks that I can loop forever! Even better, it was going to be released on my favourite up-and-coming liquid label, Differential Recordings. Well, here we are a few months later and what can I say? I had quite high expectations, I got my hopes up and... the EP is as amazing as expected, if not better. Damnit, I could've aimed even higher with my unreasonable expectations!

You might suspect it from the tracklist and EP title already, the first few seconds of the EP will make it a bit more obvious: This EP is about time, more specifically Crash Comet's 3 year stay in India, before coming back to London again. Our first stop on this personal journey through time is Back In Time, featuring the beautiful vocals of up-and-coming vocalist Cardia. Clocks are ticking from left to right, while an old-timey piano playing the track's main melody makes me feel like I'm watching an old recording of a tape I've watched a thousand times. However, this time is different. There's mystical sounds of harps, strings and distant voices calling for us coming closer and closer, and before we know it, we're sucked right back into that old memory. Right from the start the whole atmosphere already feels very melancholic, but Cardia's vocals elevate that feeling even more. The lyrics, written by Crash Comet himself, are about a relationship that seems toxic to the very core. Not necessarily a personal one but the signs do point toward that direction. A relationship you want to forget, because of how miserable it made you feel, how "chained and drained" you became.

Even if you don't pay attention to the lyrics or know anything about the backstory, the drop makes it abundantly clear that this is not about a pleasant experience. It's the kind of drop that makes you feel like you're speeding through the snow, away from all these problems, with the tears just flowing and flowing. Towards the end we wrap things up by quickly going back towards our time, symbolized by the now double-time clocks from the intro. Mystical, beautiful, emotional, I love it!

Next up we've got Focus, Crash Comet's reunion with the wonderful Rhode. Almost as if we're waking up from the psychologically exhausting dream that was Back In Time, we fade into a beautiful morning atmosphere. Birds are chirping, the sun is shining, everything is calm. However, the dark thoughts from before are still lingering, we are still "stuck in a memory". Throughout this track, we're struggling to find our inner centre again, to focus on our energy, to be in the here and now. The continuously evolving arrangement of sparse but effective pianos, beautiful synth melodies, the occasional guitar and Rhode's perfect dreamy vocal performance contrasts against the omnipresent looming bass, just like our efforts to recentre ourselves amidst all these unpleasant memories. Beautiful is the proper word I'd say.

Third stop: When We Used To. You awake in the middle of the night. You hear crickets chirping, rain droplets dripping down, a beautiful piano is playing, everything is peaceful. Your mind, however, is still racing. You hear your subconsciousness whispering thoughts into your ear, thoughts you would rather forget about. Thoughts of resentment, of deeply buried and almost forgotten animosity. As if producing and writing the lyrics of the previous two tracks wasn't personal enough for him, Crash Comet now highlights the close-to-heartedness of these tracks even more by jumping on the vocals himself. His almost whispering performance perfectly fits with the feeling of night-time, of being in unhealthy thoughts unable to sleep. A feeling he accomplishes masterfully, once again, with a stunning arrangement of multiple pianos working in tandem, an effective moody synth melody, a set of wind chimes (or something that sounds similar at least) and more little details that I can't possibly all recount here.

We've got one more track before this journey is over. It's Almost Time to go. Crash Comet recently shared that leaving India to go back to the UK made him nervous as hell, since he was leaving behind amazing friends and structures. I am almost 100% sure he channeled these exact feelings, of saying goodbye even when it's hard, into this last song. We open to a beautifully serene scene, with birds chirping and rivers flowing, contrasted with a melancholic piano melody that tells us that, while this current state is great, we still need to say goodbye to it soon. For one last time Crash Comet jumps on the vocals, repeatedly reminding us that it's almost time to leave, even though you fear that this memory will fade. Might sound simple, but his delivery and voice makes it work just as well as a more complex prose would. Maybe even better, because this way it also represents that repeating back and forth between "I need to leave" to "but I'll forget all the great things here" that probably went through his head back when he decided to move back.

Did I mention that this track is absolutely beautiful already? The pianos are perfect, I can't stop singing along to the vocals, the drop makes me want to turn the volume to 110%. Especially the second drop. That last little whisper right before we go back into the madness of the drop is not just menacing, combined with all the little variations of melodies in that drop it also gives me goosebumps every single time.

Crash Comet really is a master of conveying these atmospheric settings. With each and every one of his tracks I can feel the work that was put into it, the attention to detail, the attention to how everything feels when put together. Everything is so 3D too, if that makes sense. This EP cements Crash Comet as one of my favourite artists in 2021. Beautifully melancholic, amazingly produced, goosebump-causing.

Other liquid stuff from this week:

Various Artists - NQ State Of Mind, Vol. 2
Disrupta - In The Distance EP
Mage - Rise
Promenade - Scroll Down (Ripple Remix)
Aperio - Antwerp Nights EP
Air.K & Cephei - Echoes EP

2. Polygon - Unison EP [Liquicity Records]

Recommended if you like: Andromedik, Lexurus, Itro

It feels kind of poetic that one of the last pieces I am writing this year is about Polygon, who were the also the subject of the first review of this year. Proper full circle moment. I mean, what is a circle if not an infinity-sided Polygon?

You remember Polygon, right? Amsterdam-based dancefloor duo, comprised of Julian daPlaque and Elliot Volture, best known through their various amazing bangers released on Liquicity, Viper and Korsakov? You don't remember? Well, go check out that aforementioned first review to freshen up your memory! Or read their artist bio, which I've heard was written by an equally accomplished writer. Anyway, what's important is that they're back with four brand new tracks, yes, a full-on new EP! According to the duo, this EP marks a whole new era of Polygon. Might sound a little over-the-top at first, but allow me to explain. Until now, Polygon has only been about Elliot and Julian working together and exploring how to merge their different facets into music. On this EP however, the two reached out to other artists, songwriters and vocalists too to collaboratively expand their musical horizon. In other words, they added even more sides to their Polygon. So let's see what that sounds like!

The EP starts off with something I, and probably a lot of other Polygon fans, have been waiting for for way too long: I Got You, yes, that dub with bvd kult! I don't even know where I first heard it at this point, but what I do remember is that Devotion transition from their Hello 2021 set. Even now, when listening to the released version, I hear echoes of Devotion in my head. Anyway, even without any doubles this track is stuck in my head. Even a few months after its initial release as a single, I catch myself singing it in the shower or just randomly while walking in my apartment every now and then. However, it isn't just a whole lot of fun to sing along to, it's also extremely cleanly produced and has some really fun variations throughout. As a fan of the Polygon sound (oh, really?), I also very much love that this one just screams Polygon, from the vocals to how the synth sounds.

Next up on the list is Tricks, featuring surf DnB pioneer and second place on my top 5 artists Spotify Wrapped list SØL and up-and-coming dutch singer Synga. What an absolute anthem of a track. Not only is Synga absolutely killing it on the vocals here, SØL and Polygon's collaborative work on the production is nothing short of amazing. Those synths. Those drums. That melody. I could go on. And I will! That little part halfway through the drop where it goes back and forth between fast steppy hits and the regular fast tempo of the drop. That little thing towards the end of the first and third block of the drop that goes "dudududu". Literally all of it, perfect. If this is what collabs between you three look like, then I just want to say: please collab more often. Maybe call yourself SØLygon? Or if you involve Synga too maybe SØLyngan? Come on, you know you want it too.

After all these anthems how about we slow it down a bit? Hideout, featuring new dutch vocalist Frae, is Polygon's newest experiment away from the typical dancefloor standards, but unlike its predecessors like Contradiction or Falling, this one isn't even drum and bass at all! To quote Beatport, Hideout is Polygon's take on "Dance / Electro Pop". However, even on this previously uncharted territory the duo manages to craft something beautiful. Turns out their incredibly clean production from their DnB works carries over to other genres too! Considering Polygon's track record in choosing great vocals for their tracks, it's no surprise that they've landed yet another hit with Frae's great soulful vocals. Not my typical tempo, but the quality is high as usual here!

Last but not least we've got the second EP single, All The Way! With singer-songwriter ROSE on the vocals, Polygon have once again set their sights on "anthem" here. However, All The Way is considerably rockier than the typical Polygon tracks. Seriously, the way it opens with that electric guitar strumming along, while ROSE puts on one hell of a rocky vocal performance, hypes me up like nothing else. You Polygon purists don't have to worry though, we still got extremely catchy Polygon-y synths, we still got a production level cleaner than anyone else, it still is a certified Polygon banger™.

In short: Front-to-back bangers, in typical extremely high Polygon quality. Literally all of the DnB tracks on here have ended up in my Best Of list for this year and Hideout shows that they could easily branch out in other genres too if they want. Amazing end to an amazing year for them.

Other dancefloor things from this week:

Lee Mvtthews - Takeover - The Official Remixes
Subshock & Evangelos - Running
METHOD - No More Us 💎
REPAIR, Ruebik, Christina Harrison - Pretend
Melt. - It's You 💎
Cursed Sun - e-Motion 💎
Entel - Stranger (Zeal Remix)
Bliniks - Flash In Time 💎