Picks Of The Week (06.03.21

1. Blue Marble - Each Day [Marble Recordings]

Recommended if you like: Raise Spirit, Boxplot, Fliwo

Let's kick this week's selection off with one of my favourite feel-good producers around: Blue Marble!

Blue Marble, also known as Matthias De Herdt, burst onto the scene in 2013 as Station Earth on Murdock's Radar Records. In the following years, the belgian producer went on to release on the likes of Nemesis Recordings, Audioporn and Liquicity. In 2017 he decided to start anew and not only switched his artist alias to Blue Marble, but also founded his own label Marble Recordings. From then on, he stuck to independently releasing on his label, except for a few Liquicity releases here and there. That switch to self-releasing also came with a huge boost in productivity, but that still was nothing compared to last year. Blue Marble not only released his debut album Pangea (check it out, it's amazing) in 2020, he also went completely off the rails with side projects and created the Macoon, Night State, Aztiq, Riffdale and Lucian Soul aliases for all kinds of different non-DnB action.

This brings us to his first release of 2021: Each Day! And what a great way to start his year off it is! It starts off with great feel-good "relaxing at the beach" type guitar chords. Soon after, our main chopped up vocal comes in and instantly makes it clear that this is going to be a signature Blue Marble track through and through. I will literally never get tired of his vocal chopping, it works way too well every single time. It also makes it way more fun to sing along to, because you don't have to learn any lyrics. Then the main melody synths come in. Those synths man. They make me feel all fuzzy inside. Not only are each of the elements by themselves great, Blue Marble arranged them so perfect that together they sound even better than the sum of their parts. Every single time I listen to this track I simply have to smile from ear to ear, it's just so damn melancholically beautiful.

He must have anticipated how much I will love this tune with the title, because I will probably listen to this one each and every day for the near future.

Super lovely stuff as always from Mr Marble!

Other dancefloor things from this week:

Rag'n'Bone Man - All You Ever Wanted (Sub Focus Remix) (<3)
Koven - Butterfly Effect (Deluxe) LP
T & Sugah, Voicians - Days Away
JYRYMY, Laminar, Gavin Beach - Hold On
Fred V - Icarus / Reaching Dawn
Seventhrun - The Reason 💎
Freaks & Geeks, flowanastasia - Pressure

2. Various Artists - Footprints [Plat:form] 💎
Recommended if you like: Subtension, Redpill, Zombie Cats

I know, I know, it's been out for a while. That's what I get for only using Spotify for this I guess. It's too good not to review though. As it features mostly lesser known producers this is also the first Hidden Gem Of The Week™ for this week!

Footprints is the first release of the very newly founded label Plat:form, straight out of the Czech Republic. In fact, it's so new I couldn't find much information about them. Their SoundCloud told me that they're from the Moon, but I feel like that might not be quite true. I really hope there's not an actual city called Moon in the Czech Republic, that would be really embarassing for me. What I do know though is that they are putting out some real quality music already!

Footprints is a little compilation EP that showcases the sounds the label wants to help put a spotlight on. It starts off with one of my favourite lesser known neuro artists: Holotrope! His contribution to the compilation, Corridor Pulse, instantly sets the tone for what's about to follow. Pure techy, rolling goodness, whose various switchups get me hyped every single time. I especially love the way he worked all those pots and pans into the mix.

Next up, we've got Phonetick with Survival. If I had to describe Survival in one word it would be wonky. Or maybe brain-melting. Maybe it's because my consciousness has been rewired by the track already, but it really sounds like the highly transformed bassline of the drop is laughing at me. Thanks to both some of the best weird sound design I have heard in a while and the constant variations throughout the track, this track manages to keep my attention at 100% all the way through, every time.

At the midpoint of the EP we've got the first of two tracks by newcomer Thez: We choose, a collab with one of the bigger names of the Czech scene, Rido! The previous two tracks were already quite out there, but this one is straight-up experimental. After a truly atmospheric intro that makes you feel like you're in outer space, the first drop transitions from simply weird (in a good way) echo-y snares and eerie melodies to chopped up think breaks. The atmospheric synths from the intro return as we are led to the second drop. Unlike the first one, this one goes straight into the think break's with loads of aggressive bass on top coming right at us. A really cool journey of a track!

Second to last we've got Thez's second entry on the compilation: Apparition! Definitely more straight-forward than We choose, but techy as hell nonetheless. On the one hand it's beautifully melodic, on the other the techy fast-paced drums are piercing right into my head. In a good way. The fact that the drums have this irratic rhythm to it makes them all the more interesting. Lastly, we've got a literal techno track by Kevin More. Even though I'm german, I'm not much of a techno guy. I can tell you that I would still enjoy this one on a night out though, thanks to its great atmosphere.

All in all, a perfect way to start off the label. Will definitely follow this one closely in the future!

Other deep and techy things from this week:

Linguistics - Out Time (ft. Document One
Data 3 - Losing Myself (Remixes)
Kings Of The Rollers, Chimpo - Shella (Halogenix Remix)
Fade Black - Our Time
2Whales - Where I Am
Black Sun Empire - Statis (Waeys Remix)
Sleepnet - First Light
BCee, Charlotte Haining - History (Technimatic Remix)
Marvel Cinema, Matt View - Return (Matt View Remix) / Time Bandits
Subtension - Tween Wave / Never Alright
HLZ - In Between EP

Also, because it kinda fits too, some other great neuro stuff from this week:

Qo, ComputerArtist - Spread The Fire Remixes 💎
Art1fact - Archetype (technically last week)
Shadow Sect, Transforma - The Devil In My Mind
Samthing - Maelstrom EP 💎

34. Joja - Translating Time EP 💎[Influenza Media]

Recommended if you like: Alpha Rhythm, Rezilient, Dustkey

After all this chaos, let's end this week's picks on a more relaxed note.

My last pick, which is also my second Hidden Gem™ for this week, comes from Joja, also known to some as Jojabes. He's a very new producer from... oh shit, Germany! I swear I didn't pick the release just because of that, but I won't deny it's a nice bonus I can support a fellow countryman a bit. He first started publicly posting his productions towards around 2017. While he of course shared his tracks on platforms like SoundCloud too, he was (and I assume still is) learning the craft and gathering feedback through interacting with people in forums like recording.de or dogsonacid.com. Yeah, I was surprised to hear those still exist too! After a few years, Neonlight caught wind of the upcoming talent and featured him on their label Diascope on the Constellations - Pegasus compilation EP in 2020! Not long after, Influenza Media approached him for a debut EP on the label, the Translating Time EP! Avid Hospital Records Podcast fans might recognize the sounds already, as it was featured by Mr. Hospital London Elektricity himself in the 434th episode.

And deservedly so!

This blissful journey of an EP starts off with the title track Translating Time. It begins with an atmosphere that I would describe as "dreamy beach vibe": You can hear the waves crashing against the beach, complete with sea gulls in the distance, while a great combination of beautiful strings and warm bass lulls you into a state of trance. As a relatively obvious (but still neat) little tie-in to the title you can hear a clicking tock appear and disappear throughout the track that adds a little bit of flair to it all.

The vibe is switched up a bit on the next track Echo Valley. From dreamy strings to a bit of a more upbeat, nearly hip-hop kind of roller. It achieves that vibe by injecting a few vinyl crackles, with an accompanying oldschool voice sample from what I assume is a old tape about vinyl, plus some dubplate pirate BOH!'s. For our third track For All The Lost Ones we go back to the dreamy vibe once more, this time with pianos instead of strings though. As a fan of pianos in liquid DnB, this has got to be my favourite track of the EP. The underlying bassline that comes in every once in a while provides a great contrast to the various uplifting yet melancholic piano melodies and great forward-pushing drums. It's a textbook example of a piano liquid roller if I've ever heard one.

Those piano vibes continue on the last track of the release, Absorption. Compared to its predecessor, this EP closer is way more laid-back and dreamy though. It's like you're sitting in a lounge sipping on the beverage of your choice, while the resident piano player fills your ears with warm relaxing melodies.

A great vibe all the way through!

Other liquid things from this week:

Dogger - Nineteen Forty Seven
Zeitgeist, Nia Archives - Move On
Mollie Collins, Ruth Royall - Remedies
Rudimental, James Vincent McMorrow - Be Somebody
Alpha Rhythm - Subwoofer Lullaby EP
Rezilient - Differences EP