Picks Of The Week (25.06.22

1. sastruga - Cassiopeia / Searching 💎 [Selfreleased]

Recommended if you like: Synergy, Camo & Krooked, Skylark

German DnB seems to living through a beautiful renaissance lately. Sure, the likes of Phace & Misanthrop, Current Value, Neonlight and Zombie Cats have been holding up the flag of exceptional german DnB production for ages now, but these last few years we have seen a steady supply of new talent bubbling up, each bringing a level of sound design, musicality and creativity to the scene you might not expect at first. I've already told you all about Tom Finster, Hyukari and Matec on here, so let's add another one to this list of rising German talent: sastruga.

Wait, what's a sastruga? "A wavelike ridge of hard snow formed by the wind"? Well, yeah, those are surely also fascinating, but I'm of course referring to David Werth here! However, let's first talk about the time before Mr. Werth became Mr. Weather phenomenon. Let's go back, to Bautzen. You see, this little town in the very east of Germany was once the home of a young DJ known as Solar. His musical journey started out in the vast worlds of slow Drum and Bass, or as its more commonly known, Dubstep, right at the height of this particularly aggressive genre's popularity, 2012. While he was having fun learning the ropes in the lands of slowness, he decided to go full-throttle for once and started creating his first DnB track: TP Anthem. As those of you who are more familiar with the local "places to be" will have noticed already, TP of course refers to the Bautzen Theater Platz (translated: theatre square). He showed snippets of it to his friends and they were so enamored with it that he decided right then and there to dive deeper into this D&B production thing, with TP Anthem being his first public release in 2015. Just a year later (!), one of his tracks, Endless, was played on none other than Noisia Radio! Already back then, one thing was for certain: Solar's future was bright. Get it, because the sun is also quite bright. Comedy achieved.

Anyway. Solar didn't stay in Bautzen forever. Just like a certain someone who is writing this paragraph right now, he went to a bunch of events in one of the biggest DnB cities in all of Germany, Dresden, during these formative years. It doesn't come as a huge surprise then that he eventually started moving his operations over to the big D down at the Elbe river. He channelled the DJing experience that he gained during his Bautzener years and started reaching out to the Urge To Move lads, who were and still are running some of the biggest DnB events in the city, and soon enough, he had become a regular at the local events. After a few years of that though, it was time for something new. Not just "move to a big city 40 minute away from me" new though, no no, more like "move to a whole 'nother country" new! Lisbon was his first out-of-the-country destination, followed by Barcelona another few years later, where he is still living today.

During all this tumultuous life-uprooting, he was starting to build up more and more momentum with his long-running series of self-released free downloads, landing him releases on Pulsation Records, Lost The Plot and even Prolix' Trendkill Records! However, when 2018 rolled around, he felt it was time to let the Solar name rest and choose a name that was a bit more SEO-friendly. Thus, sastruga was born! He kicked this new alias off in style with "November", which has been followed by a whole slew of self-released multi-genre experimentation. Only in 2020 did he come back to the holy lands of DnB with Night Shift, but his real comeback seems to be scheduled for this year! First he hit us with the absolutely excellent Ambivalent, now he's back with a brand new double single of outstanding quality, which is also our Hidden Gem Of The Week™️: Cassiopeia / Searching. So let's talk about this one a bit more then, shall we?

Cassiopeia opens up this little chapter in the world of futuristic German audio engineering with an incredibly beautiful drumless atmosphere that really earns the track the association with the famously gorgeous greek goddess. A loud wardrum snatches us from this heavenly state right back down into a mysteriously moody drop. Minimal drums swinging back and forth act as the backdrop for a stunning symphony created by this continuously-going, mesmerizing rhythm of synths, while the brooding bassline chimes in every now and then to complete the picture. All throughout the track, the synths' rhythm and melody keeps on evolving, exploring new sonic realms every 22 seconds or so.

This release has to offer even more than "just" stunning atmospheric vibes though, we've also got a right ol' banger on here with Searching. Right from the start a blunt snare, a simple but catchy synth melody and a relentless loop going from left to right and back again set the tone for what's to come here. Soon enough, a satisfyingly distorted growl kicks off the drop, beefing up all the elements introduced in the buildup and slamming them right into your ears in the process. This whole composition is just so precisely arranged, with each melodic or rhythmic element being brought in at exactly the right moments and places, that I couldn't help but fall in love with it. The second drop even gives us some fun rhythmic switchups in the form of a whole lot of syncopation, rounding off this techy banger perfectly.

From musicality to technical expertise, everything is on point. I'm excited to see where this snow ridge is going to take us next.

Other deep and techy things from this week:

Justin Hawkes - Black Bloc
Wingz - Ethereal EP
Nami - Space Walk
Current Value - Resolution EP
XAETIS - Acceleration EP

2. A-Audio - Who Are Ya Bros / I Need You 💎 [Liquid V]

Recommended if you like: Simple Souls, DJ Marky, Motiv

The temperatures are regularly crossing the dreaded 30°C mark, the sun is already shining when you come out of the club at 5am and the humidity is reaching critical levels. In other words: Summer is here! Summer isn't just the time to sweat like crazy though, it's also the time for getting a tan in the sun, while listening to some relaxing liquid DnB. One label that has filled my summer liquid playlist up with great vibes over and over again is the one and only Liquid V, which brought us some great new material this week, from a name you might not have heard of before: A-Audio

So let's give a little glimpse into who is behind these wonderfully relaxing sounds then! This Coventry-based duo consists of Jason Foreman and Dave Thomson, names you might not recognize at first, but have a lot of history behind them. So much history, in fact, that I won't be able to get into it all on this format. Let me try to give a quick rundown though!

Jason Foreman is also known as DJ Addiction, of Carlito & Addiction, whose discography goes back to 1996, which, fun fact, was more than 25 years ago now. With early releases on genre-defining labels like Moving Shadow and Good Looking Records, you can truly say he is one of the pioneers of the liquid genre. After a while, however, his passion for DnB production subsided a little bit and he stepped away from it for nearly a decade, while still playing the occasional DJ set. On his full return a few years ago, he became a regular on Jumping Jack Frost and Bryan Gee's label V Recordings and its liquid-focused sublabel Liquid V, with a few Spearhead releases here and there. Dave Thomson, on the other hand, is the man behind a whole mountain of musical projects all over the DnB and Dubstep spheres, starting with 42floor. From there on he became a part of the Grime R&B and Hip Hop group DMD, through his work as a teacher he got to know Paul Johnson, with whom he he worked together on various projects including his live act 91db, through which he then met 2SuckaDJs, one of Jason's non-dnb projects during his hiatus!

Fast-forward a few years and Jay and Dave sat down together to work on a brand new project. To be able to freely explore all corners of the DnB scene, without any ties to the usual "Addiction sound" that has defined Jay for most of his career, they wanted to create a completely new and fully anonymous alias. Enter: A-Audio! This also gave them the opportunity to let the music speak for itself, to experience the artist's journey from the ground up without it being succesful just because of previous projects' successes. In 2021 they started sending out the first batch of tunes they had finished to people everywhere and soon enough they had the support of none other than Bryan Gee! Not only did their releases start rolling in on Emcee Recordings, Villem's MURKT, Co-Lab Recordings and Influence Recordings, they also scored third place in Rebel Music's incredible Dub Wars series. If you're wondering how I know all of this if it's supposed to be anonymous: A year later, i.e. at the start of this year, they started to be a bit more open about their history, speaking about it in detail on UKF and returning to labels like Liquid V once again. Which is exactly where Jay and Dave's new double single was released this week!

While earlier releases by the duo have certainly aimed at a deeper overall sound, they seem to have now managed to merge that deepness with the sunny, smile-inducing vibes of the DJ Addiction era. Who Are Ya Bros, for example, has a bassline that's as pleasant as it is making walls shake wherever it's played out, on top of which an excellent composition of uplifting trumpets and soulful vocal samples gives it all a big push into the summer pool party direction. Since we're already in a summer mood now, A-Audio decided to give us a whole lot more in that department with I Need You. Perfect usage of some incredibly soulful vocal samples, a piano that has played itself into my hearts in just a few seconds, rolling drums keeping the vibes flowing, just pure nostalgia wrapped into one hell of a tune.

Immaculate vibes, big basslines, rolling drums: Summer is here!

Other liquid tunes from this week:

Hiraeth - Deep Blue
Sl8r - Cleo
Wilkinson, Issey Cross - Used To This (Logistics Remix)
Nymoz - Land Of Ideals 💎
K Motionz, Tempza - Breathe
Submorphics - Lucinda