Picks Of The Week (17.04.21

1. Cyntax - Eat It/Nerve [Neurofunk, What Else?] 💎
Recommended if you like: Gydra, Traced, Despersion

Let's get right into it!

I am very happy to announce that my first pick for this week, which is also the Hidden Gem Of The Week™, comes from none other than Cyntax. Who, you ask? Only the most underrated Neurofunk newcomer of the moment, duh!

Cyntax, also known as Ollie Kaye, began his Neurofunk career around 2016, when he started putting some of his already quite heavy productions on his personal SoundCloud account. Later that year, the Essex-based producer debuted his then-new alias Cyntax when he participated in the Dazed DJ competition. His first official release came after getting in contact with the underground neuro label Kill Tomorrow, founded and run by Bytecode, formerly known as Tomtek. That contact resulted in Cyntax being featured on the first edition of the label's VA compilation series Shoot Today, Kill Tomorrow (or STKT) in 2017. Two years of near radio silence later, Cyntax presented his first full solo release on the label, the Overlord EP. It was the first time I got in contact with his music and I was instantly a fan. Restricted off of that release was easily one of my favourite neuro tunes of 2019 and I was sharing it with everyone who had even the slightest bit of interest in neuro. Honestly, go check it out. After massive submissions on Korsakov's and High Resistance's newcomer compilations (especially Pericardium was insane), it is now time for a solo release once again: Eat It/Nerve. For this, he returns to the Austrian underground Neurofunk powerhouse Neurofunk, What Else, where he also released his awesome Block Drop free download last year.

The double single kicks off with the heavy, yet somehow still super catchy Eat It. One thing I have always loved about Cyntax's productions are his intros. He always manages to hype me up for whatever nasty drop is about to follow. The great thing with him is, the drops always do the awesome intro justice. Eat It is not an exception to that rule. Its buildup checks off all the boxes of my favourite neurofunk intros: It starts with an outworldly alarm sound, it features a melody straight out of a horror movie soundtrack, there's even a little vocal snippet from a movie (I assume) in there. This textbook neuro intro is followed by a drop that could most easily be described as Gydra-esque: a rolling forward-pushing rhythm, a seemingly simple but super effective bassline melody that will get stuck in your head and an overall atmosphere that makes you feel like you're on your way to the endboss of a videogame. I love it.

The second half of the release is Nerve, which goes a slightly different, higher energy route. After another one of those aforementioned "Cinematic Neurofunk" buildups that Cyntax seems to have perfected, the track changes into overdrive and doesn't slow down for quite a while. It relentlessly thrusts you forward with the main fast-paced bass-heavy melody, which is kept fresh by various little extra melodies and other elements that come in one after the other all throughout the drop. Especially that little extra buildup right before the last bit of the drop always gets me hyped up.

If you are at all a fan of the heavier side of dnb, check this release out, I can't recommend it and Cyntax in general enough.

P.S. When you are reading this, Cyntax has also just released an insane new banger on Blackout's Evolution series. I urge you to check it out. You won't regret it.

Other neurofunk things from this week (what a week it has been):

2Whales - Chapito (<33)
Gancher & Ruin - The Sect (<33)
SYNE - Carcinogen 💎

2. Vorso - Full Tilt [Selfreleased]
Recommended if you like: False Noise, Joe Ford, Clockvice

Let's get weird.

If you have ever spent some time in the "weird electronic music" bubble, you will almost certainly have heard of Vorso. For anyone else: Vorso is a self-proclaimed music dude from south uk, a description which is as wonderfully accurate as it is not nearly flattering enough. This music guy, also known as Tom Slattery, has been making serious waves in the whole electronic music scene since 2016 and has only gotten bigger over the years. But what about the times before Vorso though? Bevorso, if you will? As a school boy Tom not only played the trumpet in the school's big band, he also listened to loads and loads of film scores and soundtracks, which he still cites as a huge influence on his melodic sound. His electronic music journey started when he heard Skrillex - Bangarang on the radio, from which he slid deeper and deeper along the chain of influences. Skrillex cited KOAN Sound as a big influence, which lead him to some more obscure producers like Roger Wilco and Frequent, which then lead him to Mefjus and Emperor, which in the end lead him to Noisia. Not quite the typical drum and bass journey.

In 2016 he started releasing half-time banger after half-time banger on the Californian label Upscale, which was also where his collaborative journey with Clockvice started. After being featured on Flexout Audio's half-time spotlight series WAVES in 2017, his music caught the attention of industry giants like Aphex Twin and the Inspected label, which ended up becoming his "home" label for the next few years (and still is). Even though he was still mostly going for a half-time-y sound, the Computer Science student then branched off into all sorts of directions in the following years, while still keeping his glitchy, heavy-hitting style intact. It was 2018 when he first presented a full-on DnB track to the world, Crisis on UKF's Pilot. He continued killing it with each and every release, but two stood out the most: His excellent Wanderer EP in 2020, also released on Pilot and the EP with the most DnB we ever got out of him, and the Dusty Bugs EP with Opiuo, which might not be my usual tempo but is just fun as hell.

This brings us to Vorso's newest self-released EP Full Tilt, which was premiered with the amazing audiovisual Big Data mix 1 1/2 weeks ago (go check it out). Please keep in mind that I am woefully unknowledgable about all the non-DnB genres that are present on this release.

The multi-genre experience that is Full Tilt begins with Resonant, probably named after the resonant filter that was heavily used in this. If you're unfamiliar with Vorso's DnB, Resonant would be a good introduction to his sound. Not only does it feature the "signature" Vorso synths and glitchy basses, it is also a great example of the way he switches between all kinds of wonky rhythms and drums while still somehow keeping a flow going throughout. In that way it is a bit similar to Skytrace, but way more switchy, for lack of a better word. Throughout the track the drums will switch from a simple two-step rhythm, to a more break-like flow, to being completely faded out to give more space to the massive bass, to a super short drumroll inbetween sections, all the way back to a rolling break-y loop. Even the more standard parts are interlaced with different drums coming in left and right. Everything is keeping you on your toes the whole way through, it's insane. And it's somehow all so damn catchy too!

Resonant smoothly leads us into Stronk, a track title which just makes me think of the Stonks guy. As the name promises, this is a heavy one. My genre recognition skills fail me here though, all I can tell you it's faster than half-time but definitely not DnB. I think. Vorso himself has tagged it as #sportsball, so that's what I'll have to work with now. Stronk is a weird melting pot of glitchy melodies, weird frog-like distorted basses and bouncy breakbeat flows that will cause you to nod along to all the weirdness.

With Bad Fuel we're back to DnB territory, yay! Remember when I said Resonant was quite switchy? Well, this one goes off the rails with that concept. Literally every 2 bars of the drop the track is hard-switching to some other rhythm or melody or drums. The concept might sound insane, and so does the end result, but Vorso really makes it work. It's beautifully arranged chaos. It probably won't be something to listen to with family at sunday lunch though. With a sample from 2018's Rick And Morty April Fool's creation Bushworld Adventure, whose chaotic ever-changing animation style might actually have been an inspiration for the track now that I think about it, we're lead into the next tune.

That next tune is SFX, yet another step towards madness in the ever-increasing switchiness of the EP. The idea behind the track came from quickly scrolling through various different radio stations, which resulted in 1-2s of each station's played track being hard cut together into a weird hybrid song. With SFX, he recreated that effect using sounds and samples from his own tunes. How damn cool is that? The result is one of the most creative House (??) tunes I've ever heard. Well I barely listen to House so not sure how impactful of a statement that really is, so let's just say it's one of the coolest track concepts I've ever heard in electronic music.

Next up we've got All Torque, which is pretty much the continuation of his 2018 track Real Torque. Less bounciness, more in-your-face heaviness. After the peak of switchiness in SFX, we're now going back to more regular rhythms in this one. That doesn't mean that All Torque isn't still interesting to listen to though. It still has super unique melodies and rhythmic elements all throughout and is also just a straight-up banger. Last but not least, we've got Biggest Phil, not just the end of the EP's journey, but also the final installment in Vorso's legendary Phil series. It's not DnB, but it's truly the biggest Phil you will ever see or hear.

This EP isn't just (Vor)so-so, it's (Vor)so damn good I just had to share my hype about it even if only 3/6 tracks are DnB. Check it out if you enjoy getting your brain rewired!

Other techy and unique neuro-y stuff:

The Upbeats - Realm
Gobs De BXL - 350 EP 💎
Various Artists - Architextures III 💎
Yatuza - Timeless EP 💎
BorkerBrothers - Panic Room RMXD - Room 2
Intercept - Nexus / Black Lotus 💎
Loudek - Come Down / In My Mind U Are All 💎

3. Ruebik - Synchronized [Selfreleased] 💎
Recommended if you like: Flowidus, Lee Mvtthews, VovKING

Alright, one more.

My third pick of this week is up-and-comer Ruebik's Synchronized EP, which is also still underrated enough that I'd also call it a Hidden Gem Of The Week™.

Ruebik is my newest entry in my never-ending list of "Producers from New Zealand that are somehow super good". I swear it's in their DNA to make awesome DnB or something. Instead of DNA they have DnB hehehe. So, this joke is already quite bad, but you know what makes this joke even worse? Ruebik isn't even from New Zealand originally! He's from South Africa, where he used to be a drummer in a heavy metal band, before he moved to NZ and discovered his love for DnB. Oh well, I tried. Anyway. In 2019 Ruebik started self-releasing banger after banger, which lead to him releasing with Melbourne-based label onesevenfour. His track Losing Myself on said label then went on to win the 2020 NZ Music Month competition, hosted by George FM & Toocut! Now he's back with another self-release: the Synchronised EP!

Ruebik gets the ball rolling with the title track, Synchronised. It was the first track I've heard and as soon as the catchy vocal started, I knew I would love it. I wasn't prepared for the wild ride that was about to follow though. During the drop we've got some really interesting-sounding forward-pushing synths that are guiding us through the earthquake that the weighty bass is causing beneath, creating a neat combination of both melodic and heavy sound. I won't deny that it still falls into the Dancefloor subgenre, but it is so uniquely produced that it feels wrong to just lump it together with the rest like that. Also, I really want to know who did the vocal, it's been stuck in my head for a while now and I want to give him some credit for that.

These unique synths are repurposed in a way different context in the next track Over You. I regret using the earthquake metaphor for Synchronised already, since it would fit so much better here. Over You is a straight-up dancefloor destroyer. The massive bass goes back and forth with the aforementioned unique synths so much you might even think it's two tracks mixed together at some points. Additionally we've also got a beautiful female vocal coming in every now and then adding yet another layer on this lasagna of awesomeness.

The EP closes with Still Burning, which keeps the energy high one more time. While there are certainly similar elements throughout the EP, it feels like every track prioritised something else. Synchronised was the most melody-focused, Over You dialed back the melody aspect to go all-in on the jumpy heaviness and Still Burning feels like middle ground between the two. It has that heavy BRRR of Over You, but also features a few more Dancefloor-y elements and that little melody after the initial massive bass hit is just too damn catchy.

All in all, quite the awesome EP! Definitely something for the dancefloor fans.

Other dancefloor things from this week:

Culture Shock - Discotheque (<333333)
Rebel Scum, Gracie Van Brunt - Dark Clouds
YYVON - Double Time 💎
Genetics - Let You Go 💎

Since this has been an awesome week for liquid, I want to mention a few of those here too:

GLXY - Method EP
Technimatic - Everlasting
Mista Trick, Kathika - Do What You Do
Stylus, KSG, LØREN - Right Here
Lady Blackbird - Collage (Calibre Remix)
Hugh Hardie, Zoe Kypr - Dream In Green
Elixr - We Are 💎
Echo Motion, Millstreet - HEADSBASS VOLUME 6 PART 1 💎
Iskia - Ways Of The Underground / Break 💎 (well, Break is liquid at least)
Mollie Collins, Emily Makis - Friends (Disrupta Remix)
Chisel - Delusions 💎 _(released a few weeks ago but still worth a mention)