Picks Of The Week (08.01.22

1. Ripple - Feels Like [Elevate Records]

Recommended if you like: Grafix, Andromedik, Maduk

You know what label I don't talk about often enough here? Elevate Records.

Seriously, ever since Friction founded it around 2016 as a space for the more energetic, dancefloor-y side of DnB, it has leapt from one success to another. Especially lately they've been cranking out tune after tune, while still keeping the quality extremely high. With a regular roster including the likes of Fourward, Flowidus, Subsonic, Document One, Deadline and of course Friction himself and an "extended cast" that includes Polygon, VovKING, Millbrook and Freaks & Geeks, they are involved with a lot of the very best of the best of the Dancefloor scene. Oh and, no big thing, but Elevate is also responsible for Macky Gee - Tour. Yep, the Jump Up anthem that trancends the genre, amassing more than 50 million streams just on Spotify and earning itself a silver certification (!), was released on Elevate in 2017. They haven't rested on those laurels for one bit though, in fact for this year they've already got plans in motion to bring even more artists to the label with their Elevations release series. Elevate is making waves, is what I'm trying to say.

You know what every wave causes? Ripples. Which is exactly why the first artist to kick this series off is none other than Czech-Slovakian DnB duo Ripple! It's safe to say that the duo consisting of Spill and DJ PmdR are riding a wave of success of their own right now. Not only did they release their debut album Effect last year, which I covered extensively by the way, they also played the Mainstage at Let It Roll Save The Rave among others and went on to win third place in Sub Focus' Stomp remix competition! That seems to have alerted even Mr. Friction to their presence, leading to this very release: Feels Like!

It really feels like I've been waiting forever for this tune to come out, ever since I've heard it at Let It Roll last summer. There's just something about this track that just makes me feel like it's summer, like I have just arrived at the main stage right when the sun is going down and the wonderful vibes make me dance with my eyes closed. Feels like I am overdoing it a bit on the track title puns, so let's instead analyze what it is that causes these wonderful feelings. First, that vocal is doing wonders. I'm not even sure what the exact lyrics are, except for ba bababam babam of course, but it doesn't even really matter. It's the way they are sung, processed and chopped together that is the real highlight here. I will most definitely be singing ba bababam babam in the shower for weeks to come. Second, the way those extremely cleanly produced, straight-up beautiful synths flow. Don't get me wrong, the fact that they sound as amazing as they do, is a huge factor too, but those little pauses between all the quick-firing series of synths just makes me dance in my chair every single time. Probably such a tiny detail in the grand scheme of things, but oh-so-effective.

Feels like we've got this year's summer anthem out early. Amazing vibes, amazing production, amazing tune.

Other dancefloor-y things from this week:

Grafix, Reiki Ruawei - Somewhere
SACHI - Take Me Back (Kanine Remix)
NCT, T & Sugah - Electrify (Jack Mirror Remix)
Krakota, Fred V, Tudor - Back To Me

2. Soul Extract - Solid State (Kaixo Remix) [FiXT]

Recommended if you like: Toronto Is Broken, Celldweller, Zardonic

Time for some dramatic rock action, courtesy of newcomer Kaixo!

Before we jump into that very action fully, let me tell you a bit about our protagonist here first. Jeroen Zwiers is a multi-genre producer from The Netherlands that's now been putting out music since around 2015! Since nobody can pronounce these weird dutch names, he decided to name himself Kaixo though. At first he ventured out on his own, self-releasing all kinds of music across the whole EDM spectrum, but one fateful day he decided to upload a few of his tracks to the LabelRadar demo submission platform. As it so happens, the heads of Arizona-based label Ninety9Lives stumbled upon one of his DnB submissions and the next day Kaixo got his tracks signed. Damn! Over the following years he went back and forth between self-released EPs and LPs and singles for Ninety9Lives, slowly moving towards producing more DnB while still maintaining that multi-genre aspect of his. One even more fateful day he decided to participate in a remix competition for "The Anix - Die With You", which he promptly smashed out of the park, earning him a release on FiXT. Not just that though, two years later, in other words since a few days ago, he is now fully signed to the label and this new remix is his proper label debut!

For those who don't know, FiXT is the label of Electronic Rock maestro Klayton, most famously known for his Celldweller project. Since being founded in 2006, he has expanded the label's reach more and more, creating multiple sublabels in the process. There was Radium for Rock / Metal, Neon for Synthwave and Indie Pop and most recently Noir for the fully electronic side of things. This is a bit of an outdated information already though, since these have now been merged back into one big FiXT label. No matter the exact genres or labelling though, the FiXT umbrella is always great for futuristic melodic music.

If you go through Kaixo's discography you'll see that he has already drifted towards that Future Rock kind of sound with his DnB for a while now, however for this official label debut he really elevated it to another level (I should have used that phrasing for the Elevate Records review). The dutch producer took on the cinematic title track of Soul Extract's latest album Solid State and oh boy, did he ever do a fantastic job. While 6 minutes might seem like a dauntingly long runtime for people used to 2 minute radio/Spotify edits, I can assure you that it's fully worth it to listen to the whole thing. Kaixo took the already quite cinematic production and somehow manages to make it even larger with an introductory Halftime earthquake to full-on DnB carnage shortly after. And what a carnage it is! Not only does it feel like the snare smacks you directly in the face with each hit, the dark and moody synths also bubble up in such an ominous yet energetic way that it enhances the atmosphere even more. Last but not least, it feels like these vocals were made for this tempo, it just sounds so perfect.

Huge remix by an artist you will most definitely hear more of in the future!

Other heavy tracks from this week:

Sophon, Pegboard Nerds - Shine
BADVOID, OLSO - POISON
Various Artists - Joined Forces EP [UTM Records]

3. Nuvertal - Shiva / Anastasia [ProgRAM]

Recommended if you like: Camo & Krooked & Mefjus, The Upbeats, NickBee

Sometimes a track comes along that's just too massive not to talk about, even if you've already got two other review candidates laid out. This is one of those.

Russian multi-subgenre maestro Nuvertal has done it again. With every release he's slowly but surely becoming one of my absolute favourite producers out there. Whether he's putting out liquid, like My Shell Erases on the Urbanization EP (which I adored), or techy Neurofunk goodness, like the Arrival EP on Neuropunk (that I also featured on here), I just can't help but love it. Now he's coming with a hot new double single on none other than RAM Records sister label ProgRAM, which I'm arguably even more of a fanboi of. Seriously, just from the top of my head there have been already like 10 ProgRAM releases that I've featured on here. One of those was actually Nuvertal's last EP on there! I always try to avoid featuring the same people on here too many times and especially if it's the same label, to maintain a certain level of diversity and new-ness, but sorry (not sorry), this is just too ridiculously good.

When I say "this", I am talking about Nuvertal's new double single Shiva / Anastasia. Especially Shiva is just out of this world in both production and atmosphere. It eases us into the madness with some tribal drums and instruments, putting the listener into a trance until the ominous chanting starts and a set of heavy-hitting drums snap us back into reality. The growling bass gets bigger and bigger until we finally arrive at the drop and the all hell breaks loose. Honestly, the back and forth between this mind-bogglingly large bass and the heavy-weight drums is already incredible, but the repeatedly chanting vocal just makes everything even better. Somehow Nuvertal also manages to make the bass even more ridiculously large in the second drop too. If I played this on a large system, I wouldn't even be surprised if it was registered by a seismic activity monitor.

Anastasia takes the energy levels a few notches down and shows us the more deeply rolling techy side of Nuvertal's production. Only relative to Shiva though. While this flipside focuses a lot on the atmosphere, with multiple oriental-sounding instruments soothing us on this journey lead by his signature quick-firing techy drums, it doesn't take too long for the heavy side to burst through. As always, he manages to balance the soothingly rolling liquid side and the bassface-causing heavy side perfectly.

Two sides of Nuvertal's wide spectrum of incredible production, with incredibly effective atmosphere all the way through.

Other techy things from this week:

Grey Code - Headless / Nowhere Ever
Disphonia - Snapshot
Jestah - Armada EP 💎
GEST - Concentrate
Audeon - Obsessive 💎
Meph, Gexan - Hope 💎