Picks Of The Week (07.05.22

1. Various Artists - Future Stars Vol. 3 💎 [Korsakov Music]

Recommended if you like: finding brand new sick underrated Dancefloor and Neurofunk artists

I was thinking about talking about Noisia releasing their last album or some other big artist making moves this week, but you know what? They are probably already getting attention as-is. We had a whole megathread about it after all. How about we talk about some great new artist discoveries this week instead?

Well, one label who does a consistently amazing job at gathering them all together is Dutch not-quite-Neurofunk-but-still-very-hard label Korsakov Music! They've always been a great source for all the best Dancefloor from a wide roster of talented established artists, but ever since that one faithful day during the very first lockdowns of 2020, when they publicly asked for submissions for a brand new compilation focused on the hidden gems™️ of the DnB scene, they also became a bastion for underground Dancefloor(-ish) DnB. That compilation came to be known as Future Stars, a series that has now reached its third edition this week! While there are some genuine success stories coming from this series, like PRFCT Mandem or Sovryn, there's also a ton of other smaller artists that might not have become the next huge thing right away, but definitely have the potential to make it huge if they keep up the quality presented on them, including the likes of Cyntax, Kaizen Flow and Artino.

Let's talk about some of the newer ones then, shall we? As always with these huge LPs, I mean this is like 20 tracks after all, I'll pick and choose my favourites to go more in-depth with, with a quick rundown of the other tracks. As you can probably imagine from my description of the compilation's concept above, this will be my Hidden Gem Of The Week™️! Alright, let's head to the stars!

First up, it's Binary with their banging Neurofunk slasher Timeless! Wait, you don't know Binary yet?! Okay we definitely need to fix that knowledge gap real quick, you've been missing out on some real high quality Neuro! As the name suggests, Binary are a duo, but what might be less easily deductible is that it's a duo consisting of Dutch producers MissionControl and Kappie. I won't blame you for not knowing these previous aliases though, I'm in the same boat here. Since I'm not home this weekend, I haven't had the usual resources to stalk out their entire life available this time, so there's always the possibility that they might have known each other for longer, but what I have gathered is that they've started putting their musical ideas together back in 2017. With their talent for in-your-face Neurofunk, they've quickly managed to score releases on labels like Red Light, Axon, Kill Tomorrow, Abducted and, as fate would have it, 0101Music. I honestly believe it was their main goal with this project to get on that label, it's just too perfect.

So what have they brought to the table with this new tune Timeless then? A bloody beautiful Binary banger, of course! After a wonderfully ominous cinematic intro, composed of a calming yet creepy melody and the still drowned-out bass trying to break through from down below every now and then, the devilish duo initiate hyperdrive mode. Not only is the bass now out in full force, devouring everything that dares cross its way, we're also treated to a relentless machine-gun-like firework of 16th notes. Binary simply know how to please my Neurofunk-demanding brain.

Let's keep the energy levels high and talk about one of my favourite artists to bring up when it comes to underrated producers: Jenske! Mr. Kallan White is part the blooming Perthian DnB scene, doing his part to fill in the huge shoes that Pendulum left behind. Like a lot of his peers (peerths?), he started out by working up his way up the ladder as a DJ, but soon realised that having his own tracks to play out would be way more fun. The first few tangible fruits that he harvested on his journey as a producer came to light in 2017, with some releases via local label Gorilla Tactics and his first radio play, in the form of Triple J playing out his remix of "I Can't Wait To Be King". Yep, the one from the Lion King. If that doesn't convince you then I don't know what will. Anyway, he kept on releasing a few things here and there, sometimes via Gorilla Tactics, sometimes on his own, until I stumbled upon him self-promo-ing his tunes in a DnB Talk thread about unknown Dancefloor artists. I was, and still am a little bit, floored that someone whose tunes are this banging isn't more well-known. Luckily, this is now starting to change, with him becoming a regular on labels like ProtoCode and Grand Theft Audio in the last two years.

So let's talk a little about the main reason I've been hyping Jenske up so much ever since I discovered him: His music! Similar to Binary's album opener, Jenske's Altered Future quickly makes it clear that this won't be some feel-good summer anthem that you can play for your parents at the BBQ. This time the melody isn't even pretending to be anything other than evil and that bass that's bubbling up slowly but surely seals the devilish deal. As promised in the intro, the drop gives us a now-clear but disgustingly sinister salve of bass, which smoothly alternates between various different but extremely fast rhythms, each more catchy and bassface-causing than the previous one. Jenske delivered a crazy banger, just like I was hoping for and/or expecting.

While we're talking about new Oceanian talent breaking through to the European scene, why not shine a little spotlight on the two they call Melt.? Like a lot of the newcomers I talk about on here, they're from the beautiful island that's arguably one of, if not the best DnB scenes of the world right now: New Zealand! While I have gotten to know the duo from Dunedin (Duonedin?) through their contribution to the excellent onesevenfour Vol. 1 compilation and the diverse Dancefloor-focused electronic music they've been putting out since then, there are various other venues they're pursuing their musical career in. Not only are they a resident at the local Catacomb Night Club, they also host a show on Pulzar FM!

For the tune I'm talking about today they have recruited the talents of fellow Kiwi producer Sean Richards, a still quite fresh newcomer who has taken the leap from ghost producing for others to releasing his own tunes in 2020, including various collaborations with vocalist Rei, and South London-based Jasmine Knight, who blessed the track with a emotional yet catchy as hell vocal performance. I'm getting ahead of myself though. Unlike my two previous picks, this quadruple collaboration Carry On is a straight-up dancefloor festival anthem! While there's definitely a big focus on the aforementioned amazing vocals, the instrumental is also carrying a whole lot of uplifting energy by itself already. Big punchy dancefloor snares, bouncy basses giving the whole thing a fun rhythm, mirrored by the sleek synth melodies that pop up every now and then. It is the satisfying symbiosis of instrumental and vocals that really makes this track for me though. All in all a very fun and cleanly-produced main stage anthem, probably my favourite of the album!

For this last one we jump back to where it all began: The UK. This time we're talking about not just one, but two great artists I've been following for a while now: Kaizah and Perplex! While Tech-House lover turned DnB enthusiast Kaizah hails from the one and only London, where the Bass Camp Ldn event series that he co-founded in early 2020 is also based, Perplex is still tirelessly representing the Neuro sound in a place it's not nearly as appreciated as it should be. I'm of course talking about Roller Central, sometimes also called the DnB capitol of the world, aka Bristol. Both of them try to raise the median energy levels of the scene one track a time, leading to Kaizah releasing on the likes of Invicta Audio and Bass Rabbit Recordings and Perplex going on to feature on Grand Theft Audio and Nu Venture. The one label they have in common and that is responsible for me knowing them in the first place, however, is none other than Toronto Is Broken's YANA Music. Shout-out to the Hoffmann gang.

So what have these two forces of (ya)nature cooked up together? An (yan)absolute slapper, of course! On When The Drum Rolls the duo prepare us for the inevitable banging drop with the catchy titular vocal sample lodging itself right into my brain further and further down, one chopped-up loop at a time. Once the vocal has reached peak deepness, they replace it with a deeply headnod-inducing funky Neuro flow on top of a deep swirl of bass, with an occasionally occurring tsunami wave of brain-tickling sounds rounding everything up. Of course the vocal returns in full force afterwards, did you really think they wouldn't use it to its fullest effect? An all-around banging tune that puts the funk into Neurofunk!

Of course there's way more tunes than that though. Want some more sick slapper straight outta Oceania? Go check out up-and-coming duo Mish & Green's weapon of mass destruction Spitfire, underrated veteran Dead Zodiac's cinematic neuron-rewiring cyberpunk trip to Mecha City or complete newcomer Vulteur's hard-hitting jump-starter Get Em Up featuring none other than Camo MC! If you want the hardest of the hard Neuro of this album, Visceral's pots and pans massacre Drop Em, Corrupted Mind's and The Music Therapist's whirlwind of a tune Dark Aether, Dropset's deeply distorted banger Spectre or Unsub and n0isemaker's relentlessly forward-pushing Pure Heart Dirty Mind could be of interest for you. For tunes that are more on the chill side of things, relatively speaking of course, there's also Noclue's minimal yet heavy stepper Little Friend, Mutagen's deep and dark Monument and Tong8's actually quite chill liquid journey Chance.

A ton of new artists providing us with a bunch of banging tunes. What more could one ask for? Korsak-off? More like Korsak-on fire!

Other neuro and heavy dancefloor tunes from this week:

Noisia - Closer LP
Fourward - Unbreakable
Various Artists - Evolutions Remixed, Pt. 1 [Blackout Music]
Crissy Criss, FuntCase - Malfunction (Neonlight Remix)
Armodine - Release My Anger
Gydra - Caterpillar EP