Picks Of The Week (10.12.22

1. HighThere - Lost To History EP 💎 [Hanzom Music]

Recommended if you like: Symplex, Cyntax, Traced
Listen: Spotify | SoundCloud

Hi there, handsome! Today's first pick and also one of our Hidden Gems Of The Week™️ comes from the darkest corners that my home country has to offer: Berlin!

Residing in said pile of filth (I actually like Berlin but I'm embracing the meme now) is our man of the hour, Jan Wortmann, best known as HighThere! After being introduced to the genre through the wonderful world of videogame music at 14 years of age, Jan, understandably so, got more and more into the game, until eventually becoming a DJ in 2011. But wait, he didn't have a DJ name yet! Luckily, when it came to decide, he remembered something from a trip to New York a couple years before: He bought a fun little pink vanity sweater that he wore all day long, drawing the attention of all the burnt-out, depressed New York-ians just trying to walk here. Inscribed on the sweater? "High There!", of course. What did you expect? Anyway, over the following years, he's made a proper name for himself playing basically all around the country, but he had even bigger ambitions: he wanted to become a producer! In 2017 the time had finally come and HighThere unleashed a wave of self-releases onto the scene, from originals to bootlegs of all sorts of legendary german pop artists. Slowly but surely he started accumulating releases on underground DnB labels like Darkside Records, Dutty Dubs Audio, Neurofunk, What Else? and Empire Recordings. Still not quite satisfied, he also became the label manager of german underground Neuro label Banana Bass Music around that time.

Today, however, we're here to celebrate his biggest release in his career so far: The 3-track Lost To History EP on none other Cologne-based Hanzom Music! Fun fact: this marks the fourth Hanzom review of the year, the highest amount of Hanzom content I have put you through in a year, ever since we started doing this. No regrets!

We start this journey through the fire and filth with the title track, Lost To History. With a proper documentary-style vocal sample setting the mood, it doesn't take long for you to realise you're in for a banger. After taking his time to build up a wonderfully ominous atmosphere, HighThere fulfills said banger expectations with some foul, heavily distorted bass, metallic melodies straight out of a steel factory and drums that don't play around at all. A very chonky tune, to quote a friend. Next up we've got the end of the world as we know it before us, on AC130! That's at least the feeling that the air sirens and the vocal sample screaming about the titular AC130 bomber flying above cause in me. That, and a flashback to a couple days ago, when we've had a nation-wide alarm system test day in Germany. What that testing day didn't have, however, were HighThere's big reece basses getting you all hyped up, this relentless 8th note bass rhythm or that absolutely nasty chainsaw massacre of an industrial-sounding melody.

Last but definitely not least, we've got the mightiest beast of them all, The Komodo Dragon! With Hanover-based and very much underrated fellow producer Smeerlapp on the feature, we're in for a truly wild one. On this massive 6 minutes and 30 seconds joyride, the devilish duo pulls out all the stops: The nature documentary sample, highly hype-inducing drumrolls, an even sharper, seemingly neverending series of bass stabs, with all kinds of maniacal machinery interspersed, an infectiously catchy rhythm and abundant variations all throughout. Classic Neurofunk banger this one!

HighThere introduces himself to the Hanzom family with his best work yet, full of beastly basses and deadly drums. Wonderful stuff!

Other Neurofunk from this week:

Various Artists - Evolutions Remixed, Pt. 2 [Blackout Music] (!!!!)
The Clamps - All For Us EP [Kosenprod] (!!!)
Various Artists - 100 LP [Abducted LTD]

2. Heath Karing - Suddenly Slow (NOVALU Remix) 💎 [H.Karing]

Recommended if you like: Tom Finster, Maysev, Cuepric
Listen: Spotify | SoundCloud

It's about time we talk about NOVALU. Some of my German ~~stalkers~~ followers might recognize the name already from my various Baesse.de spotlights on him, but he deserves a proper deep dive, as this week's second Hidden Gem Of The Week™️!

Leipzig-based producer Anis Heit has been known under many names since venturing out into the world of production for the first time in 2018. First came andrsn, which was quickly abandoned in favour of a more unique name, No Value. Drum and Bass was his first love, but his second love was experimenting in other tempos and genres. To be able to freely express himself there, another alias was born, probably inspired by how a German would pronounce Pythius: Püthüs. Together with his mate Cuepric, whom he also shares a studio with, he created another, more Techno-focused project, XENONAK, a name which you might remember from Neonlight's Sprech Funk remix EP. This year, however, saw him return to his Drum and roots, with an uppercased rebrand of the old alias, NOVALU, and a series of seriously stunning self-releases. I especially want to recommend Dematerialize to you, which properly cemented him as an artist to watch for me.

That's not all though! According to his various definitely true™️ artist bios, he also managed to reach some properly high ranking positions in Yu-Gi-Oh Anti Meta Tournaments, all while winning multiple platinum records and Grammy awards. After being born in Mississippi, he moved to Helgoland, where he fought to preserve the marsh fritillary with the proceeds of his local club nights, before beginning a months-long training process for the Curling international championship, in which he won the Bronze medal. Afterwards he returned to the US, where he set up a residency in Vegas, which high-ranking critics crowned as the "Best Bachelorette Show In Bautzen". Lastly, he's also got over 20 fragrances that are being sold in more than 80 countries all over the world! It's like he has lived 5 different lives!

For this week, however, NOVALU decided to go back to where it all started. Way back in 2018, probably somewhere between Helgoland and Vegas, Heath Karing introduced him to the wonders of music production and now, four years and a couple of production collaborations with Heath later, NOVALU brings his DnB charm to the Karing original, Suddenly Slow! Of course we've still got the straight-up beautiful vocals of the original in the mix, but this time around they're pushed to pure bliss status with the stunning atmospheric, string-like synth stabs floating from left to right and some comforting warm bass underneath it all. After a slight delay, in which the vocal are given the full spotlight, we are launched into the drop, with NOVALU conquering our hearts and causing goosebumps all-around with a seriously delightful blanket of synths. Even though we've only got the one drop, we're still in for a real treat in the second half of the tune, with NOVALU pushing and pushing and pushing Heath's passionate ending verse to new heights of emotionality.

If you're looking for something with seriously strong levels of experimental productions that still retains a magnificent level of musicality, NOVALU is the man for you. While this one certainly leans more into the musical aspect of things, it still has the signature surgical precision in its sound design and just general extremely high production levels that I have come to love from him.