Picks Of The Week (10.07.21

1. Various Artists - 10 Years Of Kosen LP 💎 [Kosenprod]

Recommended if you like: The Clamps, TR Tactics, Maniatics

Happy birthday Toulouse, happy birthday Toulouse, happy birthday, happy birthday, happy biiirthday Toulouse!

I admit that I only included this opening line for the pun. However, there's a little bit of truth to it. While the French city itself might not be celebrating anything as far as I know, Toulouse-based label Kosen Prod is! The label for some of the best Neurofunk by big and small names alike is celebrating 10 years of existence! In this decade of excellence, the sublabel of Hardcore outlet Karnage Records founded by Karnage founder Céline Le-Ven has amassed a whole-lotta quality releases from all over the world. As a French label they have obviously spent a lot of time developing their platform for their fellow frenchmen like The Clamps, Opsen, Vici, Redpill or Signs, but they didn't stop there. Examples for other European producers in the Kosen family include Picota & Kumbh and the Maniatics from Spain, Mean Teeth from Estonia/Lithuania, NickBee from Ukraine, Akrom from Italy, Kaiza from Germany and DJ Hidden from The Netherlands. You thought that's where it stops? Ha, think again! Kosen even has ties to some great neuro talent from outside the continent, like Xeomi from South Korea or Killer Industries from Australia. Over this decade they have built up an international family of like-minded artists and today they're all invited!

On 14 tracks the 17 artists show us what Kosen is all about: earthquake-causing basslines, catchy-funky rhythms and face-contorting sound design that you can't hear anywhere else, straight from the underground. Everyone brings in their own unique vision for this compilation, with some even straying off into other subgenres like Hallucinator's epic dancefloor banger Hold My Hand or Brain and Don G's deep and dark wobbler Atonal. As always with these big compilations I'll tackle my favourites a bit more in-depth and give a quick summary for the rest. The tracks I featured are all by some of the more unknown producers on this compilation, so I'd say this counts as a Hidden Gem Of The Week™. Alright, let's go!

Let's start with Bobby's VIP of his funky 2018 stepper Speak Of The Devil. In case you are not familiar with him yet, Bobby is one of the many French talents featured on Kosen. The Parisian talent has been active as a DJ in the DnB scene for 10-ish years, but it wasn't until 2014 that he started sharing his own productions with the world. But that very first SoundCloud upload, a remix of Taiwan Mc's Mojo Riddim, was just the beginning! After his debut EP Execution on Tessitures Records, he was discovered by more and more labels. First Othercide Records in 2017, then Empire Recordings and Kosen in 2018 and finally Diascope and 0101 Music in 2020. Now he's back on Kosen to give the title track of his 2018 label debut EP, Speak Of The Devil, a brand new 2021 flair! In other words: Prepare for some 4x4 carnage! Not just that though, the drums are cleaned up a little while still keeping their metallic oomph, the buildup is way more grandiose and hype than before, everything just hits that much harder. The second half drops the 4x4 part of the drop for a more straight-forward dnb rhythm, before hard-hitting half-time section. A little bit like the original, but feels way different. A great update on an already quite banging tune!

Next up we've got the trio infernale, the Maniatics! The producer group from Los Palacios, Sevilla, Spain has been making waves all over the scene since quite a while now, but are still underrated enough that I would consider them a Hidden Gem. Maniatics consist of the Sevillian civilians Alvaro Alcazar Baez, Antonio Gordillo García and Francisco Javier Zarco Jimenez and was formed in 2013, but their roots go a little further back. It's a bit hard to find anything before 2013 for Alvaro and Antonio, but Francisco Javier at least has been putting out music as Javiviz since 2011. Mostly Breaks stuff, with a bit of Electro House sprinkled in, but the path towards DnB was already visible. The Maniatics project was debuted on the Spanish label Elektroshok Records, where they became a regular over the following years. In 2016 things really started picking up speed, with none other than A.M.C noticing their potential by signing them to his label Titan Records. This got the attention of several labels all over Europe, first Kosen, Eatbrain and Let It Roll in 2017, then Viper Recordings in 2018, followed by Histeria Records and DEM Records in 2019 and finally Gutting Audio in 2020. Through all of this, the manic cat trio have always returned to one label though: Kosen. Last year also saw the release of the first part of their album Reborn on the french label, which will be 100% worth looking out for if the first 4 tracks are anything go by. Maniatics, if you read this, please announce a date for the rest of the album. Pretty please.

Anyway, on this compilation the trio have provided another great single: Break My Heart. If you're unfamiliar with their style, this would probably be a great track to introduce them to you. It starts off with a menacing large bass coming closer and closer, while the vocal leads us into the destruction and chaos that is the drop. First they hit you with a combination of incredibly hard-hitting, wonky bass stabs and drums that keep you head-nodding, then the continuously raging bass slowly but surely introduces itself before steamrolling you while the vocal brings in the melodic contrast to the end-of-the-world massacre below. It combines the melodic tendencies of the Maniatics with their stompy wonkiness, with some extra havoc-causing switchups keeping you on your toes. Great stuff all around.

Last but not least I want to talk about Redject. Even though I've only learned about this talented producer through this compilation, I've also learned that he has actually been around since 2011! Then I continued researching him and learned that I was actually wrong and that he's been active as a producer and DJ since wayyy before that, as Dj' T-Rex! His actual debut release, the Delta Storm EP, was in 2001, that's right, 20 years ago. Going back once more, he was also the founder of the Sound System “S.A.S” that ran from 1995 to 2000. Damn. In '01 he went on to found his very own label Flexible Future Rec., where he released a lot of the Dj' T-Rex releases. Since switching over to Redject in 2009, he has been part of releases on the likes of Mindtech Recordings, Blackout Music and, you guessed it, Kosen. As a regular feature partner of The Clamps, he has been tearing up the scene every so often over the years, but now he's back with a solo track: Bipolar Automat! Bipolar Automat is one of those tracks that just grab your attention the moment they get going and don't let go until it's over. I was already fully dancing in my chair when the infectious rhythm of the drop first hit, but then the switchup it and it evolved into straight-up headbanging. All the main elements, the catchy high-pitched vocal, the irresistable rhythm, even a stripped-back version of the brrrrrrr-ing found later in the track, are introduced one by one and then come together in such a way that you can't help but press Save To Library. While the rhythm keeps doing its thing in the background, the mostly unintelligible vocal and The BRRR™ perform a call-and-response, with some lasers thrown in for good measure. Just a proper banger this one!

Even though I won't delve much deeper into the compilation now, I don't want you to think that that was all there is to marvel at here. All the other involved artists, Akrom, Brain G and Don G, DJ Hidden, Hallucinator and Kiara, Killer Industries, Kutlo, Opsen, TR Tactics, Vici, Kaiza and Xeomi, and of course neuro masterminds The Clamps, have smashed their tracks just as much. It still cracks me up a little that Hallucinator of all artists contributed the tamest track on the compilation. Not that I don't enjoy Hold My Hand, I absolutely do, it's probably one of my favourites, I just didn't expect to see that artist name attached to it.

Neurofunk fans will be very happy with this one. I know that because I am one and I am very happy. Perfect showcase of the Kosen sound.

Other Neurofunk/Heavy Dancefloor stuff from this week:

D_iolax - Inferno 💎
Sophon - Dust Off 💎
Toronto Is Broken, BVLVNCE - Paragons (Zardonic Remix)
Killswitch - The Beginning 💎
Jon Void, Ly Da Buddah, Brian Brainstorm - Kawaii

2. Despersion, 2Whales - I'm Sorry [SLK Records]

Recommended if you like: Toronto Is Broken, Maztra, Voicians

Remember the Russia special last week? Well, just think of this review as an extension of it.

I think most people, who keep up-to-date with the happenings in the Neurofunk spheres, know who Despersion are by now, but let's just go over it again to be sure. For some more added context why I think that first part, check out my review of their Warhead EP. Okay, back to the artist background.

Despersion are the Moscow-based duo Vladimir Decent and Alexander Lion, previously known as Decent & Snapper. Wait, but what was before that? Good thing you asked! Alexander, whose real name is Alexander Melnikov by the way, was on the one hand known for spinning some great tunes as DJ Lion and on the other, way more notable, hand known for being one of the main people behind the SLK event series! Since being founded in the 2000s the SLK team has organised over 300 events in Russia. Like a lot of other successful event series, the SLK team eventually also founded their own label SLK Records in 2006. Even if you haven't heard of the label before, there's a good chance you have listened to a track or two from it already. Why do I think that? Well, Russian Liquid maestro Nelver has been a prolific part of the label since nearly day one and some of his most popular tracks, including Empty Keys, have been released on SLK. Around 2015 Alex started releasing music as Alex Slk, showing off a more subtle, deep and steppy side of his productions on labels like Delta9 Recordings, Pick'n'Mix or Grid Recordings. For the more dancefloor-y, energetic tracks, he would also release music as just SLK.

And Vladimir? Vladimir Groshev has actually been DJing and producing under his Stillgrey alias since at least 2012. Maybe earlier, but that's the earliest mention I could find so that's what I'm going with here. Even back then, the two were working together as Stillgrey & Lion (SLK), so this particular partnership has been ongoing since quite some time now. The Decent & Snapper alias has been founded back in 2017 and lead to releases on Ignescent and, well, SLK Records of course. Just two years later, in 2019, they rebranded themselves one more time as Despersion. Soon after, the duo released on Kill Tomorrow, Empire Recordings, High Resistance, Neurofunk, What Else? and, most notably, Neuropunk Records! It was their release on the Neuropunk Forge, the Warhead EP, that put them on the map for most of the scene. I've heard Warhead more times than I can count at this point. Not just because I listened to it on my own countless of times, but also because it's been in literally every Neurofunk set since it's release. Not that I'm complaining though, I love that track to death. But we're not here to talk about that, we're here to talk about their newest release, I'm Sorry!

It kicks off with the title track, a collaboration with High Resistance label bosses 2Whales and vocalist James Timms. While Despersion's productions are quite often somewhere in the Neurofunk realm, they are really branching out into other genres more and more lately. Instead of being whipped up by violent snares and growling basslines, we're greeted with a lovely raspy vocal performance by James Timms to the backdrop of beautiful strings and pianos. The drop then brings us into some bouncy, synth-driven dancefloor territory, while James continues to slay the vocals. I can't stress enough how great these vocals are. However, it's the great composition of the two duos that really ties it all together. It's really one lovely tune. If you prefer an a little forward-driving version, you're in luck! The EP also contains a little Despersion VIP edit of the track, with some added electric guitar goodness and some additional melodies that give it a bit more of an edge. I honestly can't decide between the two versions, they're both excellent.

But there's another track on this triple single: Intergalactic Cats. I have to admit, my first thought was "oh man, I hope they sample cats in this" and what can I say? I was not disappointed. If I had to describe the track in one sentence it would be: It's like they took I Need You Now bounciness and turned the cuteness factor of everything else up to 11. I mean, the vocal is literally just heavily processed cat meows pitched up and down to form a melody, which together with the extremely fun synth melodies on top of the weighty bounce makes for one hell of a delightful track. And I'm not just saying that because I love cats. Well, a little bit maybe. Even after the 20th listen, I still have a big smile on my face when I listen to this one.

Despersion keep proving that they're one of the most interesting newcomers to watch, no matter the subgenre. Magnificent release.

Other more uplifting dancefloor stuff from this week:

Feint - Fading Wind (<33)
Voicians - Mask Of Joy
T & Sugah, Mara Necia - Bring Me The Light
ShockOne, Reija Lee - Hardwired
Station Earth - Mad World (Blue Marble Instrumental)
oneBYone - Lovin You