Picks Of The Week (12.02.22

1. Finalfix - The Devil's Advocate: Arrival EP [Hanzom Music]

Recommended if you like: Cyntax, Freshney, Gydra

You know what we haven't featured on here in way too long? Something from my favourite underrated Neurofunk label from Cologne, Hanzom Music!

Lucky for us, Hanzom just premiered the first entry of a three-entry EP series by none other than Finalfix! Wait, you don't know who that is? We gotta (final)fix that knowledge gap immediately. While he has certainly blown up a bit in recent years, with most of his Spotify releases only starting to roll in two years ago, Shant "Finalfix" Madenjian has been producing music since around 2011 already, if not earlier. The first remnants of these very early productions of the producer from the beautiful Belgian town of Bruges can be found on his YouTube channel, with the Darkstep tune Parasite being the first. However, it wasn't just doom and gloom (or gloom and doom, for that matter) he was putting out, even back then he was oscillating between Neurofunk and more soothing Liquid. After a fabulous flurry of free Finalfix fabrications (I wish there was a better word for "productions" starting with f), he finally fixed up a signed release in 2015: Black Killer on Black Inferno Records. From there, he went on to release on the newly-founded Raving Panda, Histeria Records, Rustout Records and even produced a track for the Belgian hiphop group Koeferbak Funk.

2020 is when his music really started getting traction though. Not only did he win the Metallicity remix competition on Othercide Records (with an incredible entry, might I add), he also started a collaboration with german label Hanzom Music with his Tremors EP, which I actually featured on here back then, and released various other tunes on the likes of Close2Death, Neurofunk, What Else? and Code Smell. Now, he returns to Hanzom with a ton of new music, all surrounding one specific theme: The Devil. Basically a full-on concept album! However, to make it all the more devilish, he intends to torture us by releasing the music in chunks, EP by EP. Knowing there's an amazing full Finalfix album sitting on a hard drive somewhere, but having to wait months to get it, he really knows how to make us feel like we're in hell. My over-dramatification aside, let's talk about the first entry in this incredibly promising The Devil's Advocate EP saga: the Arrival EP!

On the EP opener, the title track Arrival, Finalfix shows us that he knows how to make an entrance. For the introduction into this biblically hellish world, he recruited dutch MC and vocalist Leroy Heavix as the growling voice of the Devil himself. After the shadows have finally been broken, we realise that this calm yet ominous atmosphere won't stay like this for long. As the Devil laughs his evil laugh, the floodgates open and Finalfix unleashes a relentless barrage of some of the most hard-hitting, most evil-sounding Neuro basses. What elevates this from a normal kind of banger to a true Beelzebanger™️ is the way it progresses through all these different melodies, rhythms and atmospheres. Each Devil's laugh marks the start of something new, as if he is leading his various creepy creatures into battle in waves.

After this fierce battle, it's time to settle down a little on Idle Hands. The Devil isn't just chaos and destruction, no no, he's more insidious than that. Even when you're just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful vibes, he finds a way to infiltrate your mind. The Devil finds work for idle hands, after all. The longer we chill, the more ominous melodies are creeping in. While still quite wonderful to listen to, there's a certain creepiness factor to them, as if we are slowly being corrupted. Not just that, the non-straight-forward drum rhythms of the beginning, meandering like an idle mind might, turn into a fast-paced rolling set of high-precision drums the longer we are subjugated to the temptations of evil. I absolutely love how these synths sound and how Finalfix worked them into the track, it's just incredibly satisfying. One could say that it's so beautiful, the Devil may actually cry when listening to this.

Now we're going back to a story as old as time itself. Well, as old as the bible. I'm of course talking about the original sin, the story of The Forbidden Fruit. This time Leroy Heavix as the Devil, disguised as a snake in the Garden of Eden, is seducing and taunting the protagonists to finally eat the fruit God told them not to. Immediately after they seemingly give in to the temptation, all hell breaks loose. Not just hell is being broken at that point though, the beats are pretty broken too. After this initial assault of rhythms and snares, we actually get to hear the apple-biting act in full. Hearts pumping, rain slowly starting. The apple is bitten off and a storm starts thundering in the background. Not just the literal storm though, the snare storm returns too. Wild tune!

At the end of this cinematic ride we're now stuck in Purgatory. Spending eternity listening to Finalfix? Could be worse I guess. On this EP closer Finalfix is taking us on one last Neuro-filled joyride before this part of the series is over. On the surface it might be "just" a rolling Neuro banger, but the Devil's in the details. There's so many great production details in this that make the whole thing feel like a perfect closer to this first stop in this saga. The Devil has arrived, deal with it.

Finalfix delivers once again, proving that the Devil really does have all the best tunes.

2. Myselor - Rebirth EP [Blackout Music]

Recommended if you like: Neonlight, Finalfix, Kit Jones

Speaking of unique Neurofunk, let's talk about Myselor's newest offering. Double Neuro week, let's go!

While I have talked about him and his artist background on my last feature of his double single Evolution / Need on here already, I'll still give you a brief background on Mr. Myselor: Berlin-based Greece-born producer Dimitris Chasouras has been putting out music since nearly 10 years now, first Glitchhop/Neurohop and later Drum & Bass or more specifically Neurofunk, released on the likes of Red Light Records, Cause4Concern and, after winning Black Sun Empire's remix contest in 2020, Blackout Music. Fun fact: Since 2020, he also releases Ambient music under his Syban alias. Told you it was gonna be brief. Now he's back on the almighty Blackout, with his five track strong Rebirth EP!

We open with the title track Rebirth. As the name suggests, it basically acts as the announcement of the new Myselor Sound™️ that was started on Evolution. Just like its spiritual predecessor, it plays around a lot with the combination of classically funky Neurofunk elements and unique melodic elements, resulting in a quite uniquely sounding, but still powerful banger of a track. On Purpose Myselor continues the general direction of this new sound design, but goes a completely different route when it comes to the song's basic rhythm. Pretty much everything is structured around the stream of relentlessly hard-hitting triplets chugging along, giving the track a really unique kind of flow. The way the melodies in the background are sliced apart by the triplets is just too much fun! Even when it drops into half-time for a little bit in the second drop, this rhythm still has a whole lot of energy behind it.

Next up we've got my absolute favourite track from the EP: The Feeling Expands. Right off the bat, we're already treated to a wonderfully melodic introduction, but it doesn't take too long for the Myselor carnage to bring some chaos into this wonderland. Even so, that first drop has a kind of beauty to it that I can't get enough of. It's that response part of the call-and-response that really speaks to me, you know? However, it's the second half of the track, when the feeling really expands, that really solidified this as my favourite. Not only is the buildup to the second drop more beautifully serene than ever, the drop completely blindsided me with how nice it was too. It's most definitely the most relaxing and pleasant tune I've ever heard on Blackout.

Track noúmero téssera is Discovery. Once again, Myselor pivots to a sound we haven't really heard from him before. This time it's a techy yet bouncy, fast-paced yet minimal roller of a track, on which Myselor effortlessly weaves together various speedy melodies, first one by one and later all together, as if he's chopping together 3 different tracks on his decks. In the second drop the minimal wubwub is turned into a more heavy-hitting unique double-stab, with the aforementioned surrounding melodies taking a step back. Lastly we've got Move On, where Myselor takes us on an 4x4 journey filled with quick-firing acid-y synths. While mostly quite minimalistic, he still manages to keep it interesting all the way through by going through various ups and downs, both in the form of the musical scale of the bouncy acid synth and in the amount of other elements coming in and out.

All throughout this EP, Myselor manages to find new interesting spins on his current sound by viewing it through various unique lenses, in the form of different rhythms and levels of melodicality, giving every single track a distinct yet familiar feeling. Must-listen for every Neurofunk fan willing to explore new sounds.

If you're somehow still in the mood for Neuro after these two, here's some more from this week:

Teddy Killerz, Celldweller - Clone
Decades, oneBYone - Stazis EP
Noisia - The Resonance II
Stonx - Locked Up
DJ Fresh - Dancing In The Dark EP
Confusion - Perplexed VIP