Picks Of The Week (28.05.22

1. Carrier - By The Machine EP [LUX Music]

Recommended if you like: Joe Ford, Ripple, Dr. Apollo

I'm obviously a big Dancefloor guy. However, that isn't just limited to the big anthemic Worship or uplifting Liquicity brands of Dancefloor, I'm also counting the uniquely techy Dancefloor stuff the likes of Ripple or sometimes even Joe Ford put out. This week saw the debut EP of a Dutch up-and-comer that aims to carve out his own niche in that very interesting sub-sub-genre: The By The Machine EP by the man with some of the most glorious hair in all of DnB, Carrier!

Backstory time? Backstory time. Luca Heuvel, now known as Carrier, is an Amsterdam-based producer, DJ, model, actor and event organiser. Phew, that's already quite the list, let's focus on music aspect first. At only 16 years of age Luca already started organising his own raves, but since he didn't know a whole lot of DJs that he could convince to play at those, he had to step in himself and started spinning everything from Glitch Hop to Funk to DnB. Under the moniker of Karanetics you could hear him playing everywhere from his High School's parties to parks and tunnels all over the area. After a bit of pure underground work, the rave organisation became official with the birth of the Basspark brand in 2015. Not only did Luca get artists like NCT or T & Sugah to headline his events within the first year, he himself also played at events organised by NOX or LiftOff, quickly becoming a staple in the Amsterdam DnB scene, both as a DJ and in the event industry in general.

While his fascination with the technical aspects of music began way earlier, with him starting to dabble in it since at least his edit of Mefjus remix of Sequenz in 2016, it was really his studies of Electrical Engineering at the local HvA Techniek that properly kickstarted his journey into the wild world of DnB production. Ever since starting said studies in 2017, he has been trying to find ways to incorporate what he's been learning into his own musical output. Sometimes by "creating his own analog 3xOSC Modular Synth from transistors and potentiometers", sometimes by playing around on a copy of Logic on his dad's Mac, he slowly but surely managed to create his own sound. A few years later, in 2020, he finally unveiled his debut track Matroska on High Tea's Rooibos compilation, the first fruit of his musical career so far. Or should I say, carrieer? Wait, why should I ever say that? Because he renamed himself to Carrier from that point on, of course! A year later he released Get It on the excellent Aurora compilation, debuting on none other than up-and-coming Dutch label LUX Music, which has now also become the home of his debut EP, By The Machine!

Fun little extra info time? Fun little extra info time. Even if you haven't heard Luca's music or seen him DJing yet, there's a good chance you've seen his face around. How, you ask? Well, for one, he's currently one of the faces of Liquicity Merchandise and ... Philips Sonicare. You do tend to smile a lot at Liquicity events after all. You might have also seen his hair at the dutch Coiffure Awards in 2015. Or, even more likely, you might have also seen him act in the television drama #tagged, premiered at the 2018 edition of the Netherlands Film Festival. Even if you haven't seen him in any of these, surely you will have seen him as an extra in music video of Jonna Fraser's Dutch summer hit Party. Surely!

Actual music discussion time? Actual music discussion time. We start off with the leading single of the EP, Fantasy. For this anthem of a track, Luca reached out to Manchester-based multi-genre vocalist Nikki Simmons to recreate the vocals he heard in his brother's Professional Dj's Volume 4 Hardcore CD at age 6, originating from the track Da Edge - I Believe, to be more specific. What a deep cut. Not only did Nikki do an honestly amazing job with this expertly done recreation of the vocal, they also fit so damn well with the vibe of the instrumental that Carrier came up with. One by one, the already quite unique-sounding bass waves crash into you, with futuristic melodies bubbling up right out of darkest depths of the machine. The drop turns the futuristic funk factor up a few notches, with the aforementioned basses going down a uniquely groovy rhythmic lane, while simultaneously doing an entirely too catchy back-and-forth with this perfect little synth melody. Seriously, that short snippet is so damn good that when I went to a concert last week I still had it stuck in my head during the entirety of the show. However, even when the melody is left out later in the drop, the basses still do so much with their rhythm and unique sound design that it keeps you glued to your headset. Or speakers. Or phone, I guess. The track is rounded off perfectly with some stylish guitar jamming coming in for the last part of both drops, with an especially satisfying finale.

On our next stop we dive down into the deepest mechanisms of the titular machine, on the title track By The Machine. On our way to the drop we pass various different soundscapes, with relaxing lo-fi piano hip hop beats turning into an seemingly upgraded version of it, with clearer sounds and additional beautiful strings, before the futuristically techy sounds of the Machine™️ come in and consume it all with its menacing growls. You can even hear the police passing by, that's how evil the machine is! Once we've arrived at our destination, we start trudging through the murky, muddy, molasses-filled inner rooms of the machine. A deeply wobbling bassline acts as our companion throughout this trip, while we hear various technical sounds, which experts also call "bleeps and bloops", being sparked left and right. In the second drop we're slowing things down even more by jumping into a deep puddle of Half-Time, but soon enough we're right back to our familiar sludge.

We triumphically emerge with a hell of a catchy melody, on Turrican. That isn't just a random track name though, no no, it's a game from the 1990s for the Commodore 64! The triumphant synth melody at the start? A faithful modernisation of the game's title theme, Shoot Or Die! Which, funnily enough, seems to have been a very early form of DnB in itself, just very 8-bit-y. Over the course of the buildup this uplifting theme is slowly but surely corrupted by the Carrier Machine™️, in a good way of course. A whole lot of simultaneously super-clean alien-sounding and yet also bass face causing synth work, one of my favourites bits of guitar work on the EP and of course a flow that's just so damn uniquely funky that I can't help but vibe with it, all coming together into one great package of a tune. Lastly we've got the main theme coming in once more all its glory to blast down any remaining bits of any listener's doors of apprehension with a melody so triumphant you'll feel you have won something.

Only one more track and we have finally conquered the machine: Let's talk about Wayment. As the already quite sad name (to save you a Google: it means grief) suggests, this one isn't quite as uplifting. After an atmospheric intro we're dropped into this groove of the signature techy futuristic synth we've gotten to know over the course of this EP. The longer the drop goes on however, the more the futuristicness is faded out. First by replacing more and more parts of the groove with a guitar, then by going into a full-on melancholic liquid section. The breakdown lets us know that this is far from over though. All our built-up grief bursts right out of us in the second drop, this time in the form of Luca bombarding us with even more alien-sounding noises, before going back to the more subdued versions of the drop.

A whole lot of great different vibes, held together by the common thread of Carrier's unique fusion of guitars and well-produced techy soundscapes, built upon some really fun old-school references. An amazing debut EP, in other words!

Other maybe not quite as techy, but still great Dancefloor things from this week:

Vypes - Brand New VIP 💎
Itro - Familiar EP
Various Artists - Elevations 01 EP
Voicians - Huri-Khan
Savix - How You Do It