Picks Of The Week (26.03.22

1. State Of Mind, Smooth - Runaway Train [Blackout Music]

Recommended if you like: Neonlight, Phace, InsideInfo

All aboard, the hype train!

We've been waiting for this one quite a while, haven't we? As "that State Of Mind & Telekinesis dub" it has been making the rounds for quite a while, with the earliest confirmed plays of it going all the way back to Blackout Budapest 2019. Before we dive into this absolute belter of a track though, let's quickly give the involved artists a bit of a spotlight.

Let's start with State Of Mind, also known as Stu Maxwell and Patrick Hawkins. The Kiwi producer duo from Auckland has been tearing up dancefloors since around 2003, which, fun fact, amounts to nearly 2 decades now! While it apparently took a few years of touring to make a name for themselves, once they did break through things arguably became pretty huge pretty fast. Thanks to their local promoter providing Total Science with one of their demo CDs, they ended up on his label Computer Integrated Audio (with a little number called Sunking), followed by releases on 31 Records, Technique, Viper, Shogun and Subtitles. And I've only scratched their releases up until 2006 so far! Around this time they starting becoming close with the emerging dutch Neurofunk dons Black Sun Empire, leading to a ton of releases on their label Black Sun Empire Recordings, before finally fully signing with their brand new label Blackout Music in 2013. Besides various singles and EPs on the aforementioned labels, including a few Eatbrain releases too by the way, they also managed to pump out five (or four, depending on how you count) albums over the years: Faster Than Light in 2009, Nil By Ear in 2011, Eat The Rich plus Remixes in 2014 and finally Land Of The Blind in 2019.

It's safe to say they're basically one of the biggest acts in Neurofunk and have been since more than a decade. Not just that, they're also very much responsible for a ton of my absolute all-time favourite DnB sets so far. They were basically one of the first Neuro acts that I ever saw live, at my first Let It Roll if my memory serves right. Which it often doesn't, but I digress. After that first taste, I was always considering going to another floor whenever they were on a lineup for a party I was attending, because, I mean, I've seen them like how many times? now and surely there will be some sort of diminishing returns stuff going on at some point, right? Wrong. Every single time I still went to go see them for one reason or another and ended up cursing my past self out for doubting them for even a single second, since they just absolutely smashed it again and again and again. They are my absolute favourite DnB act and I can't wait to see them again. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest, back to artist backgrounds!

The other half (or third I guess) of this collaboration is none other than Luka Smooth Per! Straight outta Prevoje in Slovenia the prolific producer has been going at it since around 2009, with his debut releases being distributed on local label Drumwise before he was snatched up by Futurebound for Viper in 2010. After a whole lot of releases on the hugely successful serpentine imprint, Luka went on to fill up his sticker album of labels with releases on RAM, Liquicity, Eatbrain, The Prototypes' Get Hype and Rampage Recordings. That's quite a range! That's not all though. Since 2010 he also puts out even heavier DnB as Telekinesis with his mate Markoman, with releases on Breed 12 Inches, Bad Taste, Close 2 Death, Blackout and, once again, Eatbrain. While the collaboration with Markoman came to a close a few months ago due to personal reasons, Luka is still keeping his options open about continuing the project on his own. But only once he has finished his upcoming debut solo album! Considering all the different styles and subgenres he has effortlessly transformed his own sound into (just look at the list of labels above), this one is guaranteed to be one hell of a diverse listen.

That's future talk though, let's get back to the reason why I brought you here: the release of Runaway Train, on the mighty Blackout Music! The track begins innocently enough, as we awaken from a deep slumber in our car with an alarm faintly ringing in our ears. We're still a little confused, our brain needs a few seconds to recover from last night. This damned alarm keeps getting louder and louder too, but we can't seem to find the source of it. It's not the usual kind of alarm either, it reminds you more of a railway crossing sound than the typical alarm... Wait, where the hell are we? We turn around and see what appears to be an out of control train heading straight towards us! You know what, it doesn't matter where we are right now. Panicked and with nowhere else to drive, we put the pedal to the metal, beginning a wild goose chase between this lunatic of a train conductor carelessly and relentlessly chugging along and us doing our best not be smashed to pieces.

It's one hell of a wild tune is what I'm trying to get at here. Not only is the intro simple yet incredibly effective and more hype than I thought it would be at first, the call and response between the Unconscious-style melody that's been synced up to the excellent bass constantly chugging along and the classic State Of Mind bass piping up all the time also provides the song with a way too catchy hook. The fact that the very cleanly produced set of drums only come in a few seconds into the drop isn't just great for giving the aforementioned other elements some extra space to stand out, it also makes for one hell of a great rave moment. Not to mention that moment when the railway crossing sound comes back into the mix halfway through! Each section of the drop lures you in with a new set of rules about how everything flows together, while still operating in that same framework. In the second drop they even temporarily get rid of the second hit of each of the main melody notes, giving the whole thing a more chopped-up flow.

One of the biggest tunes of the year and one we will hopefully hear at a lot of raves!

Other great Neurofunk/high-energy tunes from this week:

I.C.U, Replete - Push The Button / Resurgence 💎
CPTL PNSHMT - Artifact EP 💎
Profuze - Apocalypse EP 💎
Catch-22 NZ - Malfunktion / Break It Down

2. Hyukari - Silent Light / Sea Of Ink [Skankandbass]

Recommended if you like: Misanthrop, Circumference, Tom Finster

Let's talk about one of the most underrated, if not the most underrated DnB producers out there at the moment: Hyukari!

Not a whole lot is known about Mr Hyukari. The few artist biographies that mention more than just the word illuminate written in a cool font, mostly only mention that he first emerged on the scene by winning the Rampage X Monstercat remix competition for Murdock's collaboration with Veela called In Touch, together with German multi-genre producer duo Beatnostic. You won't be able to find a whole lot of traces of that anywhere though. However, you will find that the track has been reworked as a full original called Your Touch with The Arcturians replacing Veela on the vocals, this time released on RAM's 2021 compilation. Those with great memory might remember that that's actually where I found out about Hyukari, documented in this review of both the compilation and the Destinations Vol. 2 EP on Pilot that he appeared on in the same week. While he has put out a few other (equally interesting and unique!) tracks from other ends of the endless lands of the electronic music spectrum, the enigmatic producer hasn't put out that many tracks on the DnB sides of things, except for his excellent shortlisted entry for Sub Focus' Stomp remix competition. The good news is: last week he returned with a brand new DnB double single on the wonderful Skankandbass!

Wait, before we jump into me raving on about said release, I want to dive into the artist background some more. However, I am also aware that is supposed to be an anonymous(ish) project, so I'm going to keep it vague enough that you won't be able to find him that easily! He's German, probably from around the Hamburg area, loves video games, Porter Robinson, deadmau5 and dragons, works together with multiple artists that start with "Yu" and has been producing since he was around 16 years old, if not longer, under a separate alias, complete with a whole discography of originals, bootlegs, orchestral stuff, anything really. In other words, he didn't quite pop up out of nowhere, his hard work over the years is just starting to pay off in spades now!

Which brings us back to the new double single! Hyukari opens the release with Silent Light and one of the best intros I've heard in a long while. Right from the start, the atmospheric synth melody is already simply delightful, however, its the progression of said melody that truly makes this intro for me. In an extremely short amount of time, the melody goes from outer space analogue synth vibes to some of the most dramatically engaging stuff I've heard in this genre. The instrumental stops for a moment to allow a hand pan to shine for a short bit, before it all culminates into one big beautiful blast of colour. After a while the intro melody returns in between the volcanic eruptions of bass, only to drop out and be replaced with an acoustic guitar in the breakdown. Don't get too comfortable though, because the second drop is imminent! Slowed down to half-time, Hyukari now has the time to throw some truly alien sounds at us that will fully mangle the last remaining parts of the listener's brain. Incredible stuff.

On the flipside we've got Sea Of Ink, which starts off considerably less dramatic than its predecessor. Turns out that this particular sea isn't just calmer and that's it, it's more of a "calm before the storm" type situation, you know? The storm being that absolute slapper of a drop that Hyukari just sucker-punched us with. Fast-paced rolling drums, with the snare creating an infectiously catchy syncopated rhythm, forming a symbiotic relationship with the beautifully glittery synth sometimes just shortly appearing on the side, sometimes relentlessly pounding your head in. Don't forget about the rumbling bass chiming in every now and then too! There's a ton of little sounds and melodies here and there, but I'll save you from the endless paragraphs. However I have to mention the Virtual Self-esque breakdown, because that stuff is excellent. Yet again, insanely good.

I can't recommend this one enough. With tracks like this, Hyukari honestly has the potential to become the next big thing. He already kind of is in my eyes.

Other weird and techy things from this week:

Puzzle - Yellow 💎
Chords - Tooley Streets EP
The Upbeats - Not Forever Reimagined LP
Various Artists - Onyx Presents: Lapidary LP