Justin Hawkes - Existential [Pilot]

Welcome to my thirteenth album write-up! I apologize in advance for the wall of text that is about to follow. Scroll down for a TL;DR on the LP.

Background

Before I start singing my Hymn of praise about this wonderful album (spoilers, I guess), allow me to take you on a trip down the memory Sunroad, Reaching Farther into Justin Hawkes' backstory than ever before. This isn't just your typical deep Dive, no no, today I will show you Justin's complete Progression from being The Underground's darling to becoming the face of America's DnB scene and one of the main people responsible for the DnB Awakening over there. All the Trophies & Scars gathered over the years, all the Joyous milestones and all the Decisions that lead up to this moment in time, all the Tragedy, all the Humanity, We Are but One step away from it all. Not interested? Well, take your Raincoat and Run Away then, I Won't Follow! Oh, wait, you are interested? Great! Let's go find The Cure for the boredom in our Colorless lives, let's fill this Calm Before we approach The Storm that is this debut album with some obscure fun facts about our protagonist here, let's take a look at Justin Hawkes. Or should I say, That Look?

Typh-fliter (1994 - 2012)

First, we need to go back the good old times of 1994. Pulp Fiction was about to become the biggest movie sensation of the year, Netscape Navigator was close to launching, the Cowboy Dallasses just won an awesome owl or something, but all of that pales in comparison to the main event here, the birth of multi-talented producer and long-lost brother of Boxplot Justin Hellier! Born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia, Justin has been surrounded by music basically his whole life. His dad could liven up any old bonfire with his long-time experience in playing the classical guitar and his uncle, guitarist-singer-songwriter Andrew Hellier, has been setting an example of how to live that musician's life, by touring the country with his rock bands Modern Yesterday and Rotoglow.

Even compared to all of these incredibly musical Hellier's, Justin might be the Helliest of them all. His grandparents owned a piano since he was about 3 years old, which Justin was immediately fond of and later, when he was around 10, his parents bought a YAMAHA Motif ES8 Keyboard for the whole family, on which he then learned to properly play. He then took up the trumpet in a marching band (big up band teacher Jim Paxton!), later also joining a Jazz group for several years. Another few years later he was becoming proficient in the family's favourite, the guitar, and even started picking up all kinds of other instruments like the mandolin. And I'm not even done with his childhood yet!

Let's jump back just a little, to the starting point of the electronic part of his musical journey here. Together with his friend Mark, he would create midi remixes of their favourite songs in Anvil Studio, with Justin's biggest inspirations being Koji Kondo, Nintendo's go-to composer from the early days right up until this very day, and Joe Hisaishi, whose music you can hear in nearly all of Studio Ghibli's movies. Video Game Music in general was and still is a huge source of inspiration for him, with Chrono Trigger probably being the one that shaped his tastes the most. Some of these very early midi originals actually ended up becoming the soundtrack of a Pokémon-...inspired game he and his friend developed around 2008. Hell yeah. Or should I say, hell-ier?

Anyway. It was only when he was around 16 that things really started coming along on the production front. Through Numbernin6's bootleg of The Prodigy - Breathe he was introduced not only to the concept of Subbass, but also to the UKF Dubstep channel. This quickly also lead him to the DnB channel, but he was still a Dubstep head through and through, as evidenced by his incredibly cool shirt that told the world to "Listen To Dubstep"! However, one fateful day he was browsing the Dance Charts for some new music to check out. You know what was at #1 at that time? Pendulum's Immersion album. Even though he hadn't heard of them, he took a chance and bought it. Of course, he became obsessed with them, and along with it, Drum & Bass.

Justin seems to have still been a little unsure what genre to actually pursue with his own music though. When he was 16, i.e. in 2011, he finally took the plunge and started sharing his own creations with the world of SoundCloud, under the name Typhlix. With tracks like Reaching Farther, Loophole and Untitled Drumstep 1, Justin explored all kinds of tempos and genres, but along with the advent of his first DnB banger, Icequake, also came a whole slew of more fast-paced goodness. While Justin never got an answer as to what shoes Skrillex was wearing at the time, he was still able to keep the high DnB pace up with tunes like Deep Blue, Party Bomb, Ice Breaker, released via Smash Recordz, Thoughtless, Cloudburst, Torchlight, via Inertia Records, and his remix of Chrono Trigger's Secret of the forest. Told you he really likes that game.

Taking Flite like a G6 (2013 - 2016)

While Justin was knee-deep in his Industrial Design studies at Virginia Tech, he realised that the name Typhlix falls way too perfectly into the "all DnB artists sound the name" cliché, so a name change was in order. Get rid of the X, throw away the almost as bad y and the attached T, simplify the ph to f, add something at the end so you don't sound like an insect and bam: Flite! With this brand new simplified (simpliflite) artist name, Justin was now ready to take on the world. With an immediate feature on none other than Liquicity's YouTube channel for his self-released vocal-driven liquid debut track Blue Spark, he was arguably already well on his way to becoming one of the big names in the scene. Justin completed this pivotal year with Find What You Love, a collab with one of the only other local DnB producers he could find, Medium Minus, and the Begin EP, a collection of remastered tracks from the Typhlix era.

The following years would prove to be the source of a lot of firsts for him. Not only did he play his very first proper gig at Rock The Blocks Fest, he also tried his hands at running his very own Patreon for a couple months, way before everyone else thought to do it. The real boost in his career came from the releases side though. First came Featherfall on Bass Explorer's label Sup Yo!, with which he received both the honour of his first very own remix from legendary producer and personal hero Rameses B and his very first upload to UKF! Next, Colorless came along, which wasn't just his introduction into the Liquicity family, but also became the first tune of his to be featured on BBC Radio 1Xtra. To round all this off, he gave the world another wonderful double single, Trophies & Scars / I Won't Follow on Sup Yo!, and a whole slew of great remixes and bootlegs, from NCT's Day And Night to Chrono Trigger's theme song. Told you, he really likes that game.

The higher this delightful (defliteful) journey took Justin, however, the more tempted he was to just withdraw from his studies and focus on this music thing full-time. Inspired by his uncle, he was already toying with the idea back when he was getting his first successes, but he patiently waited until 2016 to finally pull the trigger. Now no longer bound to any place of study or work, he and his partner also relocated across the country to the lands of cowboys, steak and outdated graphing calculators: Texas!

Since he was aware that being a full-time DnB artist in the states wasn't quite the most sustainable option at the time, he decided to lay the groundworks for a childhood dream of his: producing video game music! From Forest Temple to Reckoning Of Fates, he built up a massive portfolio of relaxing tunes to grow your crops to and hyped-up music of epic proportions to fight bosses to, all streamed on his Twitch channel. In fact, he had been livestreaming for quite some time at this point. No matter which platform, from the early days on Blog.tv to Livestream.com to the final destination Twitch.tv, he regularly shared his production process with his loyal followers. Additionally, he also gave in-depth feedback to user-submitted tunes, helping countless other producers find their groove. All this prolific activity even earned him the rank of Twitch partner in just a few months!

Fight or Flite (2016 - 2020)

While he was obviously busy venturing out into all kinds of creative endeavours with his new-found extra time, it seemed like he had slowed down when it came to DnB releases, with the only exception being his return to the label that welcomed him so openly in the early days, Liquicity, with a reimagining of his very first tune, Blue Spark. Just a year later, however, it turned out that this tiny spark actually ignited an unstoppable inferno of fire releases, released on some of the biggest labels out there. After celebrating his debut on none other than scene behemoth Hospital Records in January, he returned, all bandaged up, to the city of liquids once more. Not just one, or two, or even four tracks, no, he returned with a full five-track release, his The Cure EP! Not only did the title track from this debut EP become one of his greatest hits so far, he could also cross off yet another item from his bucket list: A Mr.Suicidesheep upload! After another two contributions to Hospital's In The Park and Liquicity's Escapism 4 compilations, he fired off two truly legendary remixes, for Danny Chen's The Unknown and Until The Dawn's We Are One People. Funnily enough, he also released the people-less We Are One on Monstercat just a few weeks earlier. Last but not least, he of course also landed on UKF, with Progression. All in one year!

2017 had even more in store for him though. He started his very own YouTube promo channel Vibrance, allowing him to showcase some of the great music sent in by his stream regulars, scored the short film NAVIS and played at Liquicity Festival for the very first time! Things would just keep on rolling throughout 2018, with his very first BBC Radio 1 Guest Mix, support on Noisia Radio and the birth of Justin's and Ownglow's DnB media brand Skankout, alongside further releases on Hospital, Liquicity and now also Viper compilations, plus a feature with his fellow name-changer in crime, MUZZ. What really stood out that year, however, was the sheer endless stream of flashy Flite flips, bombastically booming bootlegs and remorselessly remarkable remixes Justin was pumping out. From Ghost In The Shell to Skrillex, from Random Movement to Reid Speed, from Clark Cables to T & Sugah and Zazu, truly nothing was safe from him. After coming across one of Justin's tunes on the I Love D&B Spotify playlist, even DJ Fresh got into it, allowing Justin to remix his latest tune Shots. While it would never reach this same level of ridiculousness after 2018, the remixes still just kept on coming and coming, with Matrix & Futurebound, Bensley and Metrik asking him for official ones and RL Grime and Jon Hopkins not really asking, but still receiving some for their tunes.

Sure, his own originals kept on raising the bar further and further, from his wonderful Decisions EP and the Fairy / Joy double single on Liquicity to the moody Abandoned with Dub Elements and of course the masterpiece that is Tragedy, Humanity on UKF. However, his rise as a DJ was the thing that really defined the 2019/2020 era for him. Guest mixes on London-based Reprezent Radio and Camo & Krooked's RadioFM4 show, official support for the Worship gang on their North America tour and an increased involvement with the local community through his work with the Sonar DnB event series, later rebranded to Sanctuary Drum and Bass, Justin was truly everywhere at the time.

Drama and Bass (2020 - now)

Sadly, in this case "everywhere" also includes Twitter. More specifically the EDM Drama corners of the platform. Shudder. A short play-by-play, in case you lived under a rock at the time: DJ Mantra fired off against Justin for choosing a name that is so phonetically similar to legendary jungle pioneer DJ Flight. Flight chimes in herself, adding that she is especially disappointed in all the labels and DJs Justin worked with, for not stepping in sooner. The internet discusses vehemently, to put it mildly. A lot of big names in the scene join in, some supporting the pioneers, some arguing in favour of the new face. Justin, however, stayed mostly silent. While this fierce back-and-forth slinging of insults, further fueled by accusations of all kinds of -isms, as is tradition on Twitter, raged on, he took a step back from the mess and evaluated his options. He had been aware that the name is unfortunate for quite some time already, keeping things as-is was not an option. Starting over with a completely new name after all this time and gathered momentum was understandably very scary too though. After a few days of consideration, Justin reemerged with an announcement: The alias Flite was dead, effective immediately. Like an eagle from the ashes, however, he would be reborn, as Justin Hawkes.

It took a while for the dust to settle again, since Justin had to figure out how to move over at least some of his older releases to the new name, but once he did return, he made sure to come back with a bang. With a strong 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, hurricane Justin first effortlessly tore our roofs off with his D&B Arena debut Lift Off The Roof, before causing even deeper-lying structural damages with his follow-up The Underground. After taking us back to the cheerily nostalgic and uplifting days with That Look on Monstercat, he channelled his frustrating experiences with American ravers liking the music, but being utterly lost when it comes to actually dancing to it, into the absolute dancefloor destroyer IJDK, released on the REAPER-curated Critical Mass compilation. Speaking of the masked menace, Justin of course also continued putting out great remixes and bootlegs, among them a remix for REAPER's Barricade. Who else was graced with his sharp talents? Oh, just Lexurus, London Elektricity and MUZZ. Just your typical names really.

Even though he was back to releasing regularly, the past few years had left their mark on Justin. The numerous once-in-a-lifetime historical events would have been hard enough on their own, but throw the experience of having his name, which is very much tied to his livelihood, very publicly dragged through the mud into the mix and baby, you've got a stew going. This cocktail of emotional turmoil lead Justin to ask himself all kinds of hard questions, from what kind of creator he wants to be to what his place as a human should be in this crazy world. An existential journey he processed by distilling it into his music, leading to some of his most personal songwriting and pushing the boundaries of his own sound. The result of this? His debut album, Existential.

Resources

Track Breakdown

Congrats, you've made it to the Track Breakdown!

1. Existential

Ping. Another disaster. There have been so many lately that you struggle to muster up an appropriate reaction. On your way to the office, you just stand there in the middle of the sidewalk, dissociating, until your surroundings devolve into non-descriptive background noise. Is there even anything we can even do at this point? An otherworldly ensemble of strings begins to swell up. I mean isn't it too late now anyway? One by one, the music in your head escalates. Even if we tried, I am certain we would be overruled. A deeply bellowing chant begins to rattle you to your core, before an incredibly powerful group of brass instruments complete the orchestral arrangement, entirely overwhelming your senses. Face it, we are all doomed.

Stop. Breathe.

The arrangement fades out. In a stunning display of emotions, Justin fills the void with his angelic voice. Lyrically, he takes us into a more personal direction. Even when faced with numerous Existential crises, the details of which I'll let you fill in the blanks for, our protagonist could always count on one thing anchoring them: You. Could be a romantic relationship, could be a pet, could be literally you, i.e. Justin's listeners. Even then, he questions himself, wondering whether the lyrical you would continue to be there for him, even when there are storms raging on in his mind. The more our protagonist lays their soul out bare, the more the now very synth-heavy composition rises, before fully breaking down in the drop. One after another, we are hit with bombastically distorted tsunamis of bass, contrasted by a steady rhythm of bouncy, always upwards-pointing synths interjecting each and every time. Even through all the negative things life relentlessly throws at us, we still continue bouncing on, until eventually only the uplifting synth remains. Sure, it's battered and bruised in comparison to before, but it still keeps on keeping on, ending this emotional ride on a hopeful note.

Forming meaningful connections in this world is one way to get out of these kinds of mental health dilemmas. You know what also works sometimes though?

2. Better Than Gold (feat. Andrew Hellier)

... Getting lost in a good ol' cowboy fantasy! So get your cowboy hat and boots on, it's time that we pay this goshdarn old town road a visit, on Better Than Gold.

One of Drum and Bass' best features has always been that it fuses so well with so so many other types of music. From its early Reggae and Dancehall influences to the Jazz-, Funk- and Hiphop-inspired gems that the Liquid scene has brought forth, from the relatively recent trend of Techno-inspired 4x4 switchups to facets of new-wave subgenres from other parts of the electronic music spectrum, like Future Bass or Colour Bass, being woven into our sound, it seems like literally anything will work at 174BPM. Building on the work of his initial inspiration for pursuing DnB, Pendulum, Justin has set out to show the world that even Country Rock is no exception.

To make this inherently fun genre fusion that basically no one has been asking for, but to whose existence I am deeply grateful for, truly special, Justin recruited two extraordinary musicians to help out. First, there's Andrew Hellier giving it his all on the vocals. Yes, that's the very same uncle that inspired Justin to take the leap to becoming full-time musician all those years ago! That's not all though. While Justin could handle the guitar just fine on his own, he reached out to none other than Guy Hellier, his actual dad, for those little bits of extra twanginess that only Papa Hellier could perform. Not only is it just super sweet that the whole family got involved in this wonderful piece of American-as-hell(ier) art, it also resulted in one of the best tracks this year, nay this genre, has to offer.

Even if you're not a big Western fan, the multi-layered arrangement of various different guitars and mandolins will transport you right into the world of sheriffs and saloons. Each lyric is drenched in romanticized Wild West era swagger, elevated into perfection by Andrew's impeccably old-school American delivery. What starts out as a brisk walk down a lonely road, full of snippets of cowboy wisdom turns into an intense fight for your life in the wilderness, with both the guitars and Andrew having their Rock levels turned to 11 and beyond. All of this wonderful rising tension culminates in a beautifully disgusting drop, in which said guitars, now twisted into machines of devastating yet meticilously clean distorted bass, set the tone, while Justin takes the drums on a cross-country journey from Funky-Fresh Town to Synco-break-tion City to Rock'n'Rolling, USA.

3. Black Bloc

Politically-charged and musically-soothing, we are trading escapism for activism on our next stop, Black Bloc. You might read this and think to yourself "damn, even DnB has become political now", but if you had paid closer attention, you would know Justin has always been open about his disdain for this flawed world he is living in. I mean, who could blame him, considering, well, everything these past few years? This time the anxiety isn't transmitted via some wonderfully depressing lyrics like on the Climate Change themed Calm Before The Storm though, Black Bloc manages to tackle the feelings Justin has been going through completely instrumentally.

We open to an ominously looming, pulsating ball of energy coming closer and closer. Helicopters approach from the distance, slowly devolving into individual gunshots, while this swelling heartbeat overwhelms our senses. Everything fades out, leaving only a chipper futuristic drone of synths flimmering about in 3D space, with multiple melancholic piano melodies filling in the rest of the void. Slowly but surely, you can hear something first gently stomping, then full-on sprinting towards you, until you are forced to confront it head-on. In a seemingly never-ending back-and-forth, a wave of positively-charged, uniquely-sounding and earworm-inducing synths, mirroring the piano melodies from earlier, continuously crash against an unwavering wall of various different techy sounds, both brutally bashing back and relentlessly shooting into the masses.

4. Inheritance

Even though his last experience with the pioneering era of DnB was rather unpleasant, to say the least, Justin decided to incorporate some key elements of this inherited sound on the fourth track, Inheritance. Sure, he has played around with a lot of different rhythms and drumworks on his earlier work, but never before have his drums sounded as syncopated as on this one. Okay maybe on Break The Loop, but that's it! While seemingly inspired by the old ways, he did transform it into his sound. Even during the intro, when the old-school drum loop is slowly introduced, Justin is already building up a typical Hawkes-mosphere with his beautiful synthwork and an incredibly vibey vocal sample you can't quite understand. This all comes to a head in the drop though. Not only are the drums now amplified tenfold in their punchiness, we are also treated to short, addicting bursts of distorted bass, each culminating in a tiny robotic elephant grunt at the end of their short lifespans.

5. Hold Me Down

After this trip to the futuristic past, it's time to break free. From conventions, from expectations, even from DnB. After a quite minimalistic yet wonderful piano-driven intro, our fifth stop Hold Me Down holds back nothing at all and launches right into a truly stunning Midtempo drop. While the drums are light and breezy, the basses and mids are busy tearing down our walls of defense. Sure, the sound design is nothing short of majestic, but I just wish someone would show me how to skank to this slow, not hectic enough rhythm! References aside, it really is something to behold. Shortly after, Justin himself joins in on the fun with his own, simply delightful vocals. In a performance that is showing more vocal range than ever, Justin muses about wanting to live up to his numerous names and fly up high to live out his dreams, but an unnamed force is constricting his movement. Whether he is talking about certain expectations coming from our scene, his family or, well, society, or whether his struggle is more internal, we don't know, but either way, he is now ready to set himself free from all of this and soar. Get 'em, Justin!

6. Passion (feat. Kat Whitlock)

Change. However scary it might be, sometimes it's simply necessary. To get out of roadblock, to reach new heights, to keep growing. Even things that might seem impossible at first can be achieved with enough time, energy and willingness to change. All this and more is explored passionately on track numero seis, Passion. For this, Justin and Kat Whitlock, the Austin-based singer-songwriter he recruited as a vocalist here, strayed even further from the Drum and Beaten path than usual, by exploring the world of Melodic Dubstep for the very first time! You heard right, Justin goes back to some of his earliest planted roots by going for that sweet, sweet 2011 static blue UKF Dubstep logo vibe! Even though this is quite a different direction for the both of them, with Kat usually being involved in more Rock/Pop-y productions, they managed to create an entirely too catchy anthem of a tune. While Kat puts on a phenomenally passionate performance, Justin fills out the rest of the arragenment with some truly magical melodies, heavy, stompy Dubstep rhythms and a second drop that will make you pull a rather large bassface, resulting in one hell of a banger.

7. Neverafter

After this trip down memory lane, it is now time to explore another fascinating facet of Justin's music, on Neverafter. While the title sounds like the tagline for a spooky sequel of a Disney movie, you will quickly realise the actual inspiration has got to be the wild world of Video Game Music. Right from the start, Justin takes us on an awe-inspiring adventure, going from experiencing the heavily reverberating echoes of some sort of cavernous structure to frantically sprinting down the only pathway we can find, in the hopes of finally making it out of here, before we are reminded by our inner voice that we are still needed here. We scramble to slow down, just barely stopping in front of a cliff, revealing a breathtaking yet incomprehensible landscape, unlike anything we've ever seen before.

You hear the void below calling for you. Promises of a better world, of a beautiful utopia, lie on the other side of this bottomless pit. While hesitant at first, like any good hero, you are reminded of your duty to continue your quest by the ethereal voice echoes inside your head. You jump. Through the dark clouds, you fly towards your goal, with the wind blowing past you so forcefully it starts to form an intricate melody. A melody so spine-chillingly beautiful, it makes you forget all your problems. However, thanks to your inner voice guiding you through this storm like a lighthouse, even the turbulences you experience on the way are of no match to your cunning. The further you go, the more you are drained of energy and yet you never give up, right until the end, where our happily ever after awaits.

That's what listening to Neverafter is like. Basically. The powerful yet eerily soothing flute melodies give off such strong Zelda vibes that I can't help but think of it every time I listen. I wouldn't even be surprised if he constructed it from old N64 samples, it is that close to this adventurous yet mysterious videogame feeling for me. It is front-to-back wonderful.

8. Cadence

We continue even further on our journey into Justin's past with Cadence. Since we've already explored the Dubstep angle and the video game aesthetic a bunch, we have to dig even further for the inspiration for this nugget of creativity: the marching band! By incorporating the kind of drum cadences he had become familiar with during his time playing the trumpet in said band, Justin was able to craft something so rhythmically unique that you can't help but pay attention. While Cadence is still very much a DnB track at the end of day, the unusual types of drums used, the satisfying way they are layered and the sheer quickness of those drum rolls make it feel like a completely new experience. After continuously building the hype to the point where you are fully ready to enlist in the army or at least join a gym and throw some ropes around or something, Justin switches it up into this incredibly nasty, ever-growing pulsating beat, rolling on top of a steady stream of rolling drums, acid-inspired 16th stabs and equally as fast vocal chops. Both drums and basses are simply impeccable on this one.

9. Dreambend

We've spent enough time in the past now, it's time to move forward again! To not disturb the fabric of space and time, we only jump forward a couple of years at a time though, which means our next track Dreambend lands right in the middle of the early Flite days. That's right, it's time for calming chords morphing from pretty pianos to euphoric synth pads and back, it's time for atmospheric synths floating through this picturesque auditory landscape, it's time for some warm and soothing basses to hug your soul, it's liquid time. While I've basically already listed all the main ingredients of this track, it's the way Justin effortlessly slides over from one fine-tuned combination to another that makes this one special.

10. Hymn (feat. Audioscribe)

Jumping back another few years and we have arrived at 2020! Marking the start of our favourite bird of prey's flight on the Pilot airlines, it doesn't surprise anyone that Hymn, with fellow US-based producer Audioscribe, was included on this long player, even if it is more than two years old at this point. Not just that though, it's also one of the finest tunes he has put out so far, plain and simple. I'm sure you have all heard and thoroughly enjoyed it at this point, but it's still worth pointing out once more just how much of a masterpiece the All-American ensemble managed to put together here. Take two pinches of hype-building drums being transformed into hawkishly fierce bass stabs, mix in beautiful piano and glockenspiel melodies until you can start hearing a majestic synth melody that'll make itself at home in your head, heat it up some with powerfully rolling drums, with additional bleeps and bloops sprinkled on top, which over time overtake the rest of the composition for the second half of our time together, and finish it all off with a simple yet elegant vocal. It's not often that a track earns itself a title like this, but Hymn pulled it off.

11. Arbiter (feat. PAV4N)

While 2020 Justin wanted to bring the world together with the world's first DnB hymn, it has been a challenging few years since then and frankly, it's time to let loose a bit. Smash something. Scream. Just general cathartic stuff. After working with his vocals for his remix of MUZZ's Warehouse, Justin just knew who he had to reach out to for this type of track: 4NC¥ label head, founding member of Foreign Beggars and one of the most iconic and legendary MCs of all of electronic music, PAV4N!

After a brief surprisingly tame intro, we are immediately launched into the carnage that is Arbiter, with PAV4N spitting heavy bars live from the underbelly and Justin making each line hit extra hard with even heavier Half-time beats underneath it all. Once the whole venue is ready to commit to this Hiphop aesthetic, Justin pulls a fast one on us by rewinding us right out of the slowness into the fastness, introducing our disgustingly dirty main melody in the process. Shortly the whole building is jumping up and down in anticipation, but no one could ever be prepared for just how sharply these two would be tearing through our system, like its policy. As we enter the drop, the aforementioned nauseatingly nasty melody is now even more shamelessly sickening, fiercely foul and ravishingly revolting, while still managing to be so crazily catchy that it drilled itself into my head effortlessly. The perfect combination of melodic and filthy. Soon enough, the melody drops out, leaving PAV4N enough space to join back into the mix to deliver one of the best verses I've heard all year. In the second half Justin fulfills the promises of Half-Time goodness he has established in the very beginning, proving that this particular sickness works at every tempo. Incredible tune honestly.

12. Lotus Children

After such a wild ride, wouldn't it be nice to relax a little bit? Great question, and exactly what Justin thought too, which is why we're now taking things to the Techno tempo, with Lotus Children. At first, however, we are treated to a thick atmosphere full of technoid bug sounds, terrifyingly droning basses and a faint rhythm in the distance. Since we don't want to be eaten by the bugs, we approach said melody until we fall into what seems to be a fully-isolated yet futuristic tribe's ritual. To fit in, we dance along to the many rhythmically intertwined drums taking control of your body, while the more weighty drums shake us to our core. What an experience.

13. Heliocycle

Time for something beautiful. Time for Heliocycle. Just as the name, a fancy word for rotation around the sun, implies, Justin takes us on a trip through the four seasons on this gorgeous uplifting tune. We begin by easing into the lifeless yet beautiful cold of Winter, represented by somber piano chords, soothing nature sounds and distant drums, but it doesn't take long for the joyous blooming of Spring to approach, bringing delight everywhere with its fun yet futuristic staccato synth melodies. Before you know it, Summer comes bursting through the door with its long days and festivals, amplifying the fun that Spring started tenfold, to the point the synth melodies start to escalate. Pause. In the blink of an eye, it is fall. You know how it is, one day you are complaining about the 30°C weather, the next you're running around with a hoodie and have to turn up the heat at home. While a bit of a sobering experience, it doesn't mean the fun is over already. Sure, things are slowing down, like this track's percussion in the second half, but there's still plenty of things to experience. I mean there's the trinity of holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas! However, time does fly during all of this and soon enough, you are back to sitting at home, under a ton of blankets, heating up your feet at the fireplace.

14. Tragedy, Humanity

I know, I know, Tragedy, Humanity is not necessarily new or anything, it was released in 2019 after all. But did you really think Justin wouldn't include his most beautiful tune, one of the finest tunes DnB has ever seen, on here? Did you really think a tune with songwriting as divine, with a composition as elegantly multi-layered, with progression as masterfully executed, with production as tear-jerkingly stunning and with a backstory as thought-provoking as this one would be left out of this saga? The feelings that went into this masterpiece are arguably even more applicable today than they were back then! Some of the main themes Justin wanted to convey is that we should remind ourselves of our past more often, that we should acknowledge the importance of the struggles that brought us here, both individually and collectively, that we should make sure that our trajectory on our Mother Earth is in our and the planet's best interest. If this tune isn't worth a relisten, then no tune is.

15. The End Of An Empire

We have reached the end. The end of our time together. The end of this album. The End Of An Empire. While this album closer's title might sound a tad over-the-top at first, you will quickly realise that it has fully earned this level of drama. On this roughly 6 and a half minutes long Post-Rock ride, Justin really pulls out all the stops. Things do go a bit overboard at first, with our protagonist's head swarming with noise, but once they take a deep breath, we slow down a bit with some truly emotional piano work, on top of a loungey cajon-esque drum beat. Soon enough, this feels-inducing composition is joined by his trusty guitar, wonderfully wobbly synths and soothing strings. All of the meticulously interwoven instruments, all the built-up emotions, all the different styles we experienced today, they all culminate with a truly goosebumps-inducing last drop. Just wow.

Conclusion

Existential isn't just a collection of 15 extraordinarily beautiful, exceptionally creative and extremely well-made tunes, it is also Justin Hellier's most personal and honest work yet. The experiences gathered, the feelings felt, the world view developed, everything Justin has been through on this decade-long musical journey, even events that happened during his childhood, it all helped shape this masterpiece. From deep cuts like his early affinity for the UKF Dubstep channel paying off with Passion or his time in the marching band allowing him to create the deeply unique drums in Cadence, to his uncle Andrew and just his life in Texas in general inspiring him to create the world's first Country-Rock-DnB fusion, literally everything leads back to something personal. Justin had already been on proverbial fire from the get-go, but this album is a milestone on a completely new level for him. Easily one of the best albums this year.

While I wholeheartedly recommend listening to the whole album, my personal favourites have got to be Neverafter, for its sheer beauty, Arbiter, for the pure hype I experience every time I listen to it, Cadence, for its unique take on drums, and Better Than Gold, for going all-in on an entirely too fun concept.