Picks Of The Week (04.09.21

Fun fact: this is the 69th week we're doing these threads. Now go look at the date we posted this thread (and don't read it in the American way). Yes, it's the 6.9. No, we did not plan this. If this isn't proof that life is amazing sometimes, then I don't know what is.

1. Camo & Krooked, Mefjus - Sientelo [UKF]

Recommended if you like: Sub Focus, Teddy Killerz, Fourward

AGUILA DEL MONTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Drum & Bass's favourite boy band is back in town and they've, yet again, brought us an insane banger to feast on! I'm of course talking about the Set Opener To End All Set Openers™ that is Sientelo by schnitzelpowered masterminds Camo & Krooked & Mefjus. Even without having listened to the released version, anyone who was lucky enough to catch them or pretty much any of the big names in the scene live the last month, will know which track this is, just from my capslock scream in the intro.

There's always a lot of DnB that I thoroughly enjoy each week, but I obviously can't write about them all, so I have to cut down my various choices in other ways. Releases by artists that I think are underrated, that I only recently found out about or that I just never managed to feature here are all high on the list usually. However, none of these apply here. There's another category though: tracks that are so amazing I just have to feature them, no matter how well-known the artists and label attached are. As you probably guessed, this is one of those.

Right from the get-go, the mysterious mayan arrangement of various different tribal drums, claps, maracas and flute melodies transport you into this majestic world that you can just lose yourself in. After this brief intro, we are introduced to this masterpiece's main hook, known as AGUILA DEL MONTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. While the emotionally charged spanish vocals, which were sampled from Martina Camargo's belter of a track Águila del Monte from 2017, inform us about the eagle from the mountain presenting itself like a peacock or something, a beautiful yet heavy signature Camo & Krooked synth in the background lets us know that shit is about to go down. The closer we get to the drop, the more you can hear the Mefjus-esque heavy-hitting snares coming in to crash the party, in a good way of course. This marooned Mayan mountain civilization is about to be smashed to pieces by the meteor that is this modern mammoth-collaboration's sound.

And what a sound it is! As the vocal echoes through the valley of the mountain range, the earthquake caused by the trio's massive bass thoroughly shakes everything in its way. The bass is only interrupted by the both glitchy and mechanical response in this call-and-response structure, while the snare continuously hits with a precision that only these Austrian masters know how to achieve. Once the vocal fully comes back into the mix, the snare switches it up into a slightly less heavy-hitting version of itself, with the beautiful synth from the buildup returning in the background. With the help of another set of very hype tribal drums we enter the third and last part of the first drop, in which the immense bass once again causes some carnage.

Then there's the breakdown. Damn. Everything about it is just pure bassface-causing goodness. With the exception of the snares, every single element comes back for one 16 bar block of pure hype that leads right into the equally massive second drop. It really has to be heard to be fully appreciated.

I'm (Sien)telling you, this is easily Best Of 2021 material.

Other great heavy stuff from this week:

Kutlo, Anna Vaverková - Porcelain
SØL - Need You
L33 - HerO EP

2. Pola & Bryson - Beneath The Surface LP [Shogun Audio]

Recommended if you like: Keeno, Technimatic, Edlan

Time for some Liquid Sculptures and Big Boy Rollers!

Their words, not mine. However, I do agree with their description. With they I of course mean the still relatively new but nowadays already quite legendary duo Pola & Bryson. Ever since Harry Bryson, a Jazz/Jazz Studies alumni from Leeds, and Jack Higgins, with his Music Business/Audio Production studies at the university of Westminster, decided to officially join forces in 2014, they have become true icons of the liquid and deeper parts of the scene. Around the same time, the two of them also started their very own label Soulvent Records, with which they have provided a great platform for countless of up-and-coming talents from all over the genre spectrum, some of which now having become large figures in the scene. From Pola & Bryson, or Bryzone, as he was called in the earlier days, themselves to the dancefloor veterans BMotion, NCT, Mountain or Dualistic to big liquid talents like In:Most or GLXY, the list of producers the label helped on their path is long. Not to forget the fresh new talents like Circumference, Blacklab or Askel & Elere that are making more and more waves ever since their respective label debuts. Yes, I love Soulvent a lot, how could you tell?

While the duo was only "properly" introduced to the world of DnB in 2014, the two have been writing and producing together as early as 2011. Not a whole lot I can say about that era as there's just not much to find out about it online, but it puts into perspective how they managed to rise up to the status they have today as quickly as they did. I mean, their 2014 bootleg of Etherwood's You'll Always Be A Part Of Me immediately got picked up by London Elektricity for his label Hospital Records and released in 2015. Even before that they were already releasing tunes on BCee's Spearhead Records. What a start that already was! I'd say the real hype was only about to come the following years though.

After their self-released debut album This Time Last Year in 2016, the duo turned quite a few heads in the scene, one of them being Friction, or more specifically his label Shogun Audio. Just a year after the album's release they got exclusively signed to the label that hosted the likes of Technimatic, SpectraSoul and Alix Perez. After a slew of stunning singles and EPs on Hospital, Liquicity, Audioporn and even Universal, they ramped up to their second album Lost In Thought in 2018. They really didn't slow down that much after that either though. Release after release on all the aforementioned labels, remixes for Sub Focus, both solo and with Wilkinson, and Camo & Krooked, collaborations with DJ Marky, Degs, Submorphics and so many more that I'd like to namedrop but I think you get the gist.

Some more fun facts about Bryson: Not only is he part of one of my favourite deep-and-dark DnB groups Data 3, together with Dan Hartly (aka Mark Dinimal) and Alex Kostyakov (aka Syrum), he also had his hands on the productions of various Charlotte Haining solo tracks and is part of the very newly popular group Deadline. I didn't even know about that last part until a few hours ago! Man's been busy.

Alright, let's get to the album, Beneath The Surface. For this 15-tracker Pola & Bryson decided to go full concept. The whole album takes place in a landscape dreamt up by the duo, which can be divided into four parts.

The first place we encounter is Shinrinyoku, which means forest bathing in Japanese. It's not that literal though, it's more about soaking in the atmosphere of a quiet and peaceful forest environment, which is exactly where the first quarter of the album takes place. Birds in the distance, water gently dripping down, every piano, every synth, every piece of melody echoing through the trees. That's the kind of atmosphere we're going for here. On Under, the incredibly talented Lauren Archer lends her ethereal voice for one of the most relaxing, beautiful liquid rollers you'll hear this year. When the drums cut out and only the strings and piano carry on in the background, while Lauren performs her heart out, I knew this would end up becoming one of my favourites this year. Get Serious concludes our forest cleansing trip with a more subdued and deeper take on the idea, with a perfectly fitting soulful vocal sample.

Next up there's Mangata, which is a Swedish word for the glimmering, road-like reflection that the moon creates on the water. As you can imagine, this corresponds to a cold lake at night time. At said lake we explore the loneliness of such a place in Friend, a beautiful piano-based liquid roller dedicated to the people that got us through this last year and a half or so, an idea brought to life by none other than the queen of DnB vocals, Ruth Royall.

This is followed by the relaxing genre exploration that is In Too Deep. Vibes upon vibes on this one, even if I can't tell you what genre this is. And finally we've got Wind Rises, which is my absolute favourite track on the album. Gone are the relaxing vibes, they had to make way for the absolutely masterful deeply haunting atmosphere that this track simply oozes. Each deep wub full of emotion, each glitchy stab piercing right through anything that's in its way, each big wave of bass causing goosebumps every single time. If you only check out one track of this album, make it this one.

Speaking of dark and deep, our next stop is Toska, a dark and endless cave. It's a Russian, not really translatable, word for a sadness with no specific cause. This section is about the darker and more melancholic feelings we experience, which can really be felt in the break-heavy Decay. Not only are the drums themselves both nostalgic and heavy-hitting, the rest of the arrangement also does a lot to emphasize the melancholy and underground cave atmosphere. On Anaesthetist with wordsmith Strategy the two go even deeper than before. The pounding drums getting louder and louder, paired with the reverb-heavy anxiety-inducing ominous melodies and Strategy's powerful performance really make you feel like everything is hopeless. In a good way!

Lastly, Neverend puts a different spin on the ideas of this section. You still got the booming low bass-heavy atmospheres, albeit a bit more bouncy than on its predecessors. However, it's SOLAH's excellent lyricism that really elevate this one. In my probably not quite accurate interpretation, this track is about the constant need to perform 24/7. SOLAH urges us to participate, to make use of every single second of your life, to just be better already you damn lazy bastard ("You can be anything you want // As long as it's more"). During all this constant performing you never managed to make time for the important things in life ("No Regrets // Nothing except you never slept"), which she also realises towards the end of the chorus ("Oh I think it's all pretend // Maybe this never ends"). This is one of those tracks that are more rewarding, the more you think about it. Even if they didn't intend any of this meaning, it's what you get out of it is what counts.

Last but not least, we've got Yuugen, "a vast and epic mountain range". It's also a Japanese concept for "mysterious profundity", or, in simpler terms, the beauty of things we can't immediately hear or see, that has to be interpreted to be understood. Or something like that, I struggle with a proper explanation to be honest. Either way, it's the part of the album in which we resurface from the depths and go soar in the skies. We have moved past our demons and are ready to face the future. On Ventur, an Old Norse word for "winter" and also a collaboration with Hugh Hardie, we experience exactly this feeling in drum and bass form. With one of the best piano work of this year and straight-up gorgeous string work, the three really managed to build something beautiful here. Seriously, these piano solos in the intro and breakdown are ones for the ages.

On the penultimate track of the LP, Close To Home, they recruited the young London-based singer Kojo, whose incredibly soulful vocals elevate both the track's quality and the listener's (my) mood to higher levels. It's a track about looking forward, just fly away, get away from what's behind you. Did I mention that the drumwork is impeccable? Last but not least we've got the LP closer Keeping Pace. After this long and eventful journey into nature, Keeping Pace's beautifully relaxing vibes are exactly what we as listeners need. You can just close your eyes and relax, as the warm bass surrounds you. Even as someone who doesn't normally enjoy slow tempo stuff, I have to admit this track is damn soothing and just works as a closing track.

I hope I made clear just how much I love this whole album. Pola & Bryson managed to really craft something that isn't just beautiful to listen to, but also amazingly rewarding to interpret and think more deeply about. It really doesn't get much better than this.

Other liquid and deep things from this week:

Nelver, Nic ZigZag - Prisma
Monty, Redeyes, [ K S R ] - Almond
AM94 - My Eyes 💎
Various Artists - Back To Bay 6, Vol. 3
Makoto, Vonné - What You Need
Scar - Why - EP
Scepticz - Vigilance EP
Fre4knc, Swift - Interlace
Arkaik - Jewel EP
Mindmapper, Silvahfonk, Phentix - Justification / Flash Forward Remix