Picks Of The Week (19.02.22

1. sammythesinner - back2you [Dark Machine Recs]

Recommended if you like: Bou, Alcemist, goddard

It's safe to say that Australia is bursting with talent when it comes to DnB. Especially the Southern Hemisphere's DnB capitol Perth has brought forth a whole slew of talented producers over the decades. To prove to you that I'm not just saying that because of Pendulum, let me introduce you to one of the newer shining stars of their scene, and today's Hidden Gem Of The Week™️, breaking through to us Europeans: sammythesinner!

Sammy "the sinner" McGlashan has been an active part of the local scene ever since she's started DJing "in the backwoods of Bunbury" (just quoting here, don't bury me you Bunburians) at age 15. From that point on, she slowly but surely made a name for herself as a talented selectah for all kinds of genres. Well, not really slowly, as only three years of ferocious DJing in all kinds of places later, she already started appearing on the lineups of events like the Wonderland Festival. The surely part still fits though.

Just a bit over a year later, in 2016, she then finished her Diploma of Sound Production at the Perthian SAE Institute, giving her a solid foundation to start her production career on. While she was still very much a "DJ first" for most of this and the following time, she was really starting to hone her production skills more and more. In 2021 she finally unleashed her debut release via ONELOVE, which lead to her gaining the attention of a certain ShockOne. Not only is she now debuting on his Dark Machine Records label, as of last week she's also part of the same agency as him, the Seismic Talent Agency!

Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about that aforementioned Dark Machine debut, back2you! For this milestone Ms. Sinner takes the route of chill-yet-heavy, cute-yet-facemelting type of UK DnB that the likes of Bou and DnB Allstars have popularized over these last few years. During the course of the buildup, a lovely vocal sample goes through all kinds of different combinations of low and high pitches, while a gentle wall of bass gives the listener a sense of security. Once the sample finds its correct high pitch, however, it only takes a few seconds to reach the drop, where that security is immediately blasted apart by an earth-shatteringly large bass. This rumbling and the vocal sample start playing off each other like a well-oiled machine, which in combination with the great set of clean steppy drums and a few smaller vibey wubs provide such a catchy sense of rhythm that it just immediately sticks in your head.

With catchy, clean, modern vibes like this, I can guarantee this won't be the last we hear from her. Amazing release.

It's hard to recommend exact similar releases from this week, but here are some that I feel fit too (even if they're different):

Sigma, Taet - Can't Get Enough (Sigma VIP)
YAANO - Lust / Feel You
REAPER - WARNING
Watch The Ride, Emz - READY4DEM
Psynchro - Illusory World / Echoes

2. A.way - Mindless EP [SINFUL MAZE]

Recommended if you like: gyrofield, Niallo, Notequal

I guess I'm on a sinful roll this week!

This time the sinful music is coming straight out of the far away land of Slovakia though. More specifically, out of Trenčín, where newcomer A.way has just dropped an amazing EP, my second Hidden Gem Of The Week™️. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, let's first ask the question burning on everyone's (well, mine) mind: Who is A.way?

This particular producer's journey as A.way was kicked off on the interwebs during the later lockdowns of 2020, with a whole bunch of bootlegs and self-releases. One of the first of his releases was a "hybrid trap" bootleg of Boombox Cartel - Máquina with his mate Akuto, which got the immediate support of the likes of Oliverse, Moore Kismet and Mylky, instantly catapulting him straight into the electronic scene. Over the course of the following self-releases he showed time and time again that he knows his (A.)way around production in a lot of genres, but especially in Drum & Bass.

Czech-Slovakian newcomer label Sinful Maze, seriously one of the best in the game for techy Neuro (A fact I'll never stop repeating), took notice of this and got in touch with him straight a.way for a full-on EP. You guessed it, it's the one we're talking about today, the Mindless EP! As a little preview of what's to come, they put out another amazing Free Download of his, The New Era In Drum & Bass, which I fully recommend to everyone who enjoys this EP. But we're not here for that, let's talk about the release!

The four tracker is kicked off with the melancholic slapper that is Equilibrium. Right from the get-go, a beautiful vocal sample accompanied by a warm embrace of background bass sets the mood for what's to come. After a short while, however, A.way hits the overdrive button. The pauses between each line of the vocal sample disappear, an additional rhythmic vocal chop comes in giving it even more momentum, the drums speed up until... we fade out. Only the vocal remains, but before it can even finish it's line, we're thrown right into the techy, steppy drop, complete with hard-hitting metallic drums and a back-and-forth between heavy bass stabs and the vocal chops. The second drop adds even more drama to the whole thing by delaying things a little bit further. I don't often mention outros here, but I feel like this one deserves a mention, simply for how lush and relaxing of an ending to this romp of a track.

After such a chill outro we now take it up a few hundred notches on the speed scale, on the fittingly-titled Critical Tempo. First, the glitchy system is calibrating itself to match our desired outcome, but soon after a simple yet atmospherically effective vocal sample begins to lead us to the whirlwind of a drop. While focused on fast-paced stabs, the track still plays around a lot with its rhythm, leading to a lot of fun syncopated hits that keep listeners on their toes. It's not just pow-pow-pow though, A.way throws in a few beautifully moody synth melodies too, which, together with the aforementioned vocal, makes for a great otherworldly atmosphere.

Next up we're entering the wild world of Kingdom, a collaboration with the way too underrated Notequal. Just like for its predecessors, A.way chose a moody vocal sample that immediately makes it clear that this is gonna be quite a banger. If you are still not convinced at the buildup stage, you will be once the drop fully hits. Not only is the call-and-response between the amazingly menacing tornado of huge basses and syncopated rhythms on the one side and the fast-paced techy roller with face-scrambling stabs on the other extremely effective, the switchup to an even heavier version of the initial response part also hits just as hard, if not harder. Over the course of the track we're also treated to a half-time version, which makes the lead into one last full-time drop all the more banging. Especially with the way this last drop is delayed with that burst of high-pitched machine gun fire. Most definitely my favourite of the EP.

Lastly we're shedding some Tears, both of sadness that this EP is now close to over and of happiness because it has been quite an engaging journey. To close it all off, A.way takes us on a full-on Halftime trip through glitchy bleeps and bloops that are arranged in such a way that they'll surely rewire your brain at least a little bit, with the signature atmospheric vocal guiding us through this madness.

All in all, this EP blew me a.way! And I'm not just saying that so I can make the pun, I actually really like it.

Other techy things from this week:

Vici - 4pm Break
Tryst Temps - Panic EP
IMANU - A Taste Of Hope Remixes
Trex - Colder