Picks Of The Week (22.10.22

1. Moleman - Space Cadet [Selfreleased]

Recommended if you like: Nelver, Fred V, Smote

So what do we have here? Moleman? I don't think I've come across this surprisingly non-DnB-y name before. Am I about to showcase some brand new talent? Not quite!

Fact is, Moleman isn't a new name at all! And I don't mean that in the usual sense, where I start talking about some obscure previous project that has been active for 10 years before this one, no no, this particular project has been going for years and he's had his fair share of success. He has just been absent for long enough that he was already on hiatus when I arrived in the scene a couple years back. Alright, so what did he do then?

Well, our UK-based protagonist, Charlie Cox, has been producing under the name Moleman since around 2010, for starters. After his very first track, an entry for DJ Fresh's Gold Dust remix competition, he started dropping music left right and centre on DJ Vanish's Velcro City Records. In 2011, way before he himself performed the vanishing act, he founded the underground Liquid/Dancefloor label Subsphere Records, which had a hand in the early careers of some actual scene behemoths like Feint, Keeno, Whiney, Stan SB, nowadays more commonly known as Fox Stevenson, and Bustre, nowadays going by Konkai. In 2016 he created another outlet for music he believed in, Fat Tape Records. The twist? All music released on it would be royalty-free, allowing everyone to play them in their stream without fearing copyright strikes. Lastly, he also created another alias for his more creative musical endeavours, Flowen, for anything not just outside of DnB, but outside the spheres of most other typical electronic genres too.

He's had a relatively steady stream of releases right up to 2018, but then, when the world needed him most, he vanished. After four years of radio silence, he returned last month, with the stunning Lost Control! Now it's time for the follow-up, Space Cadet and let me tell you, this one's a beauty.

Fitting for the track title, we kick things off with some nondescriptive space radio chatter and a couple of soft lasers. Things might be a bit scary out here in this vast nothingness of space, but the longer our astronaut looks, the more overpowering the sheer beauty of the cosmos becomes, making them forget any doubts they might have had before. Before the cadet knows it, they are soaring through the void, with shining stars, white dwarves, quasars and all the other space related words I definitely know passing them by. Sure, the aforementioned short atmospheric vocal snippets and the pew's were already quite beautiful, but the real highlights have got to be the wonderfully smoothly rolling drums and the entirely too lovely main melody he pulled out of his mole hill for this. Man, just the melody makes me want to listen to this one over and over and over again.

From his beauty of a comeback release, to this gorgeous continuation, one thing is clear: This soulman is on a roll, man. Yes that's the best puns for Moleman I could think of. Space Cadet is just too distracting in its delightfullness for me to properly get in the stupid pun mode!

Other liquid things from this week:

Hiraeth - Soul Searching
DRS - Del-Rok-Ski LP
Alexvnder - Perception EP
Clusion - Confessions 💎
Maykors - Elephant Dreams EP
Bdj - Running Back / Chant Down Babylon 💎

2. Default Noise, Madrush MC - Shots 💎 [In The Lab Recordings]

Recommended if you like: Enei, Kasra, Trex

Okay, this time I will actually introduce you to an actual new name on the scene: Default Noise!

Fabi Stoll, the person behind this particular madness, crashed onto the scene just a few years ago, as part of the wave of incredible Austrian talent that has been emerging from Innsbruck recently, alongside the likes of Puzzle, Vortex, Apollo, Dapreme and DANEY. Speaking of, Default Noise actually used to be a collaborative project between Fabi and Daniel "DANEY" Gabl, before Daniel decided to pursue his solo project instead in 2021. Not just that, Default Noise actually started out under the name of Tropical Minds, before pivoting to this new name in 2020. Don't worry, I'll stop this confusing backwards storytelling now. The first few years of this project were filled with Free Download self releases, from banging originals like their debut track Granulate or To The World to riveting remix competition entries for Jade's Man Eating Lizard Dragon, Teddy Killerz' Shine and Zombie Cats' Flava. In 2021 Default Noise became a part of the In The Lab Recordings family, as one of the earliest entries in the label's now long-running ever-expanding list of insane music by even more insanely talented newcomers. From Wave Function to Temptation, Default Noise has basically become one of the label's core artists. So it's only logical that his newest stomping addition to the label, Shots, is put under the spotlight today, earning itself the title of this week's Hidden Gem Of The Week™️!

With certified badman Madrush MC on the mic providing the track with a slice of his gnarly voice and even gnarlier lyrics, Shots was already well on the way to being a proper banger even without hearing anything else from the instrumental yet. However, Fabi of course didn't rest on these laurels and instead decided to build an instrumental that matches, nay exceeds, the degree of raw dirtiness of the vocal, elevating the track to some truly bass-face worthy levels. Right after Madrush's opening monologue, Default Noise unleashes wave after wave of earthquake-causing bass, increasing in intensity with each passing second. The drop sees said ear-massaging waves reach their outrageous peak, playing ping pong with an assortment of quite uniquely sounding stabs on top of some seriously snappy snares. While this formula certainly works, Default Noise still decided to break the mold a little for the grand finale by briefly switching over to a hype-inducing 4x4 beat, guaranteeing that the listener is left with a case of the neck cramps, from head-nodding too much.

Damn, I haven't thought of good puns for this one either. Let me just shoot a few from the hip. Default Noise? More like assault of joys. Eh, I gave it my best shot. It's a banger is what I'm trying to say. And a free download too!

Other similarly deep and/or neuro-y things from this week:

Various Artists - Atlas / 2 LP
Various Artists - Diffraction Vol. 001 LP
Amoss - Pico De Gallo EP
Annix, Turno, Eksman - Dispatch
Bladerunner, Inja - Rave Eyes