Picks Of The Week (12.11.22

1. LaMeduza - LaMeduza EP [Overview Music]

Recommended if you like: Charli Brix, Shady Novelle, Collette Warren

While it's the producers who give us the titular drums and basses to dance our feet off to, it's the vocalists that elevate these instrumentals to otherwise unreachable heights. They tell us what to do with our desire, they let us know how many touches are required to open and close things, they even keep us updated about whether we've got it or not. However, believe me or not, a vocal can be even more than just a catchy hook that you scream at the top of your lungs at 3am at a festival. Let's talk about someone who always strives for creative songwriting, who continuously turns heads with her petrifying lyricism: LaMeduza.

Even though she's based in Geneva, Switzerland, Kriza Bassanini is anything but a conventional artist. For starters, thanks to her Italo-Spanish origins and the Swiss keeping their options open in regards to a unified official language for their country, the pool of spoken languages she can draw from is way more extensive than most. Not to mention her time as a student at the Institute for Performing Arts in Liverpool. After getting to know DnB through the likes of London Elektricity, she quickly became a fan. Of DnB, sure, but even more so of the vocalists she discovered from all of this, from Diane Charlemagne to Deeizm and Jenna G. Inspired by the soulful sounds and general gravitas of these certified legends, Kriza got to work on her own career in electronic music, alongside her work as a vocal coach. As LaMeduza, she first appeared on the scene in 2009, on Flowrian's liquid roller Into The Storm. At first, she split herself up between DnB and other genres, on the one hand collaborating with Phase and Paul SG, while on the other hand vibing with Silence Groove, Vitodito, Stendahl and many other non-DnB names that I'm not very familiar with. Over time, the balance shifted over to the drums and basses, with her racking up a rather long list of names: Eastcolors, Nelver, Hiraeth, Fragz, GROUND, Dexcell, Monrroe, Whiney, Invadhertz, Skylark, The Caracal Project, Rockwell, Forum, IMANU, even Goldie! Wherever you heard wonderful soulful vocals in the last couple years, LaMeduza probably wasn't far away.

Alongside her usual output, she has been working on a rather special project these past two years: her debut EP, presented by none other than Overview Music! Five tracks, produced by some of her favourite producers, all part of one big concept focusing on the elements. Not only does she put the air nomads to shame with her impeccable ability to bend air, both in the sense that her vocal chords produce some truly incredible sound waves and in the sense that listeners all around the world are left breathless, she also added one element to the typical four that Avatar features: Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Aether. Each element represented by different yet thematically similar artworks, with three outstanding music videos to top it all off. Seriously one of the best art directions I've ever seen in a DnB project. And we haven't even started looking at the actual music yet!

The self-titled EP kicks off with an excursion to the earth kingdom, Terra, fittingly featuring fellow swiss artist GROUND. Even if you didn't know anything about LaMeduza and her craft, simply listening to this opener will already show you why I hold both her songwriting and singing in very high regards. Lyrically, she effortlessly dances on a fine thematic line, with my interpretation wildly swinging back and forth between personal relationships and humanity polluting our planet. Sure, the toxic waste corrupting everything from the underground could be metaphorical and refer to toxic traits of a person, but it could just as well be more literal, denouncing the literal terra-forming humanity has done for capital gain. You know what though? It doesn't even matter what she was going for. The fact that I'm getting these wildly colourful interpretations from her impeccable performance already speaks volumes about the creativity present in her songwriting.

Beneath all this creative genius, GROUND has laid a foundation of solid, hard-hitting deep and darkness. It took a lot of willpower not to write "laid the groundwork" there. Earth puns aside, the instrumental the Swizzard has come up with really is astoundingly banging. Not only did he leave plenty of room for LaMeduza's stunning performance, he also threw us all right down the deepest of the deep waste disposal mines with some of the nastiest and coldest synth stabs I've ever heard. Especially in the second half, when everything that remains is toxic waste, both instrumental and vocal work in perfect harmony, creating a truly chilling experience. Easily one of my favourite tunes of the year, every single second is perfect.

I wanted to do a "but then everything changed when the fire nation attacked" transition here, but truth is, the extremely high quality of the opener is kept up on Fuoco, Italian for fire, featuring her real-life flame Phase. Thematically, the lyrics paint a vivid picture of someone rushing into things and consequently burning out in a storm of consequences, one of them being briefly becoming Spanish in the second half. Or Italian? Or am I just really bad at understanding her English there? My non-existant ability to identify languages aside, we're once again confronted with a theme that could apply to a myriad of situations, two of them being relationships and, well, our treatment of the planet. Yep, I'm keeping the interpretation up for as long as I can, it's just too intriguing!

Sure, even when rushing things, everything might start off well enough, but it won't take too long for the cracks to appear. That little spark glimmering in the dark? Ah, don't worry about it, it'll go away on its own. It became bigger? Look, it's still manageable and kind of enchanting to look at, as visualized by Phase's slowly-building snake-charming melodies and LaMeduza's change from introspective spoken word to majestic vocal performance. Then, the fire that is the instrumental begins to swell more and more until, boom, lightning strikes and all hell breaks loose, in the form of a storm of relentlessly hard-hitting drums. While musically this tsunami of energy is very much enjoyable, thematically we definitely don't want to reach that stage, no matter which interpretation you choose.

Next, we've got Vento, Italian for wind, featuring up-and-coming Belgian producer Solace. Fitting for this more floaty element, LaMeduza performs her lyrics in a more delicate way, almost whispering her soulful poetry into your ears. While I don't have as much of a clear interpretation image in my head for the lyrics of this one, the way she's performing these lines, on top of Solace's dramatic instrumentation, still makes me feel like I'm listening to something grandiose, with a higher purpose, that isn't just a club banger. After a Bond-esque intro, we drop into an earthquake-causing rolling drop, which slowly but surely turns more dramatic again, both due to the marvellous vocal performance and the occasional strings coming back in. Following an honestly wonderful breakdown, Solace switches it up by introducing ominous synths rapidly going up, down and back up again on the melody ladder. At nearly 6 and a half minutes, this is a proper journey of a track, but trust me, it's a runtime the two of them have earned.

Only one of the classic four elements remains: Acqua! I don't think I need to translate that one for you. With Belgian trio ~~infernale~~ aquanale Bredren on the ones and twos, everything is a little deeper than before. Whether LaMeduza is tackling doom-spiraling, deep oil drilling or simply performing lyrics that fit with the general incredibly subbass-heavy vibe of the track, I will never know. What I do know, however, is that it works phenomenally for the track. On addictively wobbling waves of some of the deepest bass I've heard in a while, every single one of her various lines about going under water just works. Especially the going deeper, deeper and deeper part is one of my absolute favourite parts of the whole EP and will not leave my brain anytime soon. Everything from the muffled subbasses to her gloomy vocals just gives off this feeling of slowly but surely getting lost underwater. I'm not a diver, but I imagine the heavy pressures you would experience in the deep blue sea feel similar to the ones my ears are going through in this track.

Last but definitely not least is Aether, featuring Mr. Moustache aka Waeys. Kind of a made-up element, but I'll take it. After two tracks that I couldn't quite put into my EP theme box (which I blame on myself), this one sways back hard into at least one of my interpretation corners: the environmentalist one! With lines like "what have we done", "the more we consume, the deeper we fall" and "nothing can justify our actions", I feel pretty confident about it this time. Framed as a heartfelt apology to our dear mother (earth), LaMeduza really puts her heart and soul into this EP closer. The performance isn't just oozing with emotion though, the lyrics are also all wonderfully written, with my personal highlight being the clever framing of the "what future? / what future lies ahead / lies, lies" section. For this sorrowful ode to mother earth, Waeys pulled out the big guns. Yes, I'm of course talking about absolutely beautiful pianos, smoothly flowing drums and a warm blanket of bass.

That already brings us to the end, sadly. I hope I could convey just how great this project is, from art direction to lyricism to vocal performance to instrumentals. While I feel like I'm still missing a couple puzzle pieces to complete the thematic picture, I still immensely enjoyed thinking about what the lyrics could mean. It really is one of those projects that you need to sit down for, properly taking in each element (hehe, get it?), to fully experience its greatness. One of my favourite EPs of the year. That's like the third time I'm saying that about an EP on Overview, but I still mean it. They're just that good, what can I do?

TL;DR: Lameduza? More like Awesomeduza!

Other deep and dark things from this week:

Various Artists - Soul Music 2022
Various Artists - Deep Dark Soul, Vol. 1
GEST, DJ Marky - Ruckus
Exult, SMP, Sydney - Dream Walking
Satl - Gloom LP