Picks Of The Week (13.08.22

0. Tom Finster - Year Of I LP [DIVIDID]

Recommended if you like: Vorso, Buunshin, The Caracal Project

Don't worry, I won't write any more than I already have over on the album spotlight thread, this is just a reminder that you should go and listen to it already! You won't regret it!

Other techy, moody things from this week:

IMANU - Empress
Rend - Altered Flow (Remixes) EP 💎
Alora - Light Of Dawn EP
Wooflet - Untethered / One Mind 💎

1. Smooth - Scorpion [Evolution Chamber]

Recommended if you like: Pendulum, Kill The Noise, The Prototypes

No matter which kind of raves you go to, there's a very good chance you will hear at least one banger by Smooth in the mix. Maybe Higher, if we're talking about opening sets or liquid evenings. Or maybe Make Me Move, if you're at a Liquicity type event. Or Spectrum as an epic opener for a heavier Dancefloor set. However, if the heavier styles are present in any form or shape, it'll probably be Runaway Train. What I'm saying is, this guy has range unlike anyone else in the game. His diversity in sound, from tunes that make you drift away to those with the phatness levels turned up to 11, have made him a regular on huge labels like Liquicity, RAM Records, Eatbrain and basically everything else. It's especially the phatness part of the equation that's been bringing me a whole lot of joy lately. As you can read over on my review of it, he and State Of Mind already released one of my absolute favourite Neuro tunes of this year a few months ago, the aforementioned ever-present instant classic Runaway Train. Now, he's stepping into the grand halls of Magnetude's, Receptor's and Task Horizon's Evolution Chamber for the very first time, taking a timeless style of the early days of Dancefloor DnB and running it through a few iterations of Neurofunk evolution. The result: Scorpion!

As you might already be able to tell from the arachnid title, the originators of said timeless style I was referring to were Pendulum, among the likes of Fresh and Breakbeat Kaos in general. I would also accept The Prototypes as an answer though! Especially in the buildup, the combination of styles is most prominent. With a funky Reggae guitar strumming along on a Halftime rhythm, hints of our main melodic theme slowly start creeping in, really building up that threatening atmosphere. At its height, the rhythm drops out, leaving only the menacing horns and main synth melody. But wait, what's that? Smoothly cutting through the jungle of this weird and lurid landscape of another planet, it's another sadly all but forgotten relict of the olden days: the documentary sample! I love this trope so so much. Basically all my favourite tunes have some Attenborough-type person educating me about the dangers of some animal or how black holes are threating the galaxy as we know it. While we are being taught how dangerous this particular titular specimen is, especially the stinger, we get this uncomfortable feeling that something is watching us. And it's coming closer. Right as we learn how dangerous these beasts can be, even in death, one of them jumps out and attacks us, launching us right into the absolutely ridiculous drop.

With all these references to the Knife Party era of popular electronic music, one would almost expect a full-on Dubstep drop here and you know what? You would only be half wrong. Obviously it's DnB, otherwise I wouldn't really talk about it here. However, it also radiates that early 2010s energy so much that it almost feels like it was taken out of a time capsule. On the one hand, you've got this Pendulum-esque synth that's so catchy it will be effortlessly burning itself into your head right on the first listen, with a rhythm so funky that you just have to dance to it, but soon enough, it's contrasted with this truly nasty, high-intensity and high-velocity Neuro switchup and before you can even finish your little dance, all your brain power is refocused into your head, for bassface creation purposes. This call-and-response restructure keeps us going throughout the drop, but Smooth has way more tricks up his sleeve left. Roughly every 22 seconds, Luka throws yet another variation of the established formula at us, sometimes focusing even more on the quick-firing Neuro madness, sometimes channeling all energy into making the funky synths hit as hard as they possibly can. It never stops! It's great!

If you are nostalgic for early Pendulum, but want it to be way more Neuro-y, this one is for you. Absolute stomper of a tune.

Other heavy stuff from this week:

CaitC, Jetyx, Raid:Zero - CaitC Remixed EP
InsideInfo - Seducer / Man With A Bomb
Freaks & Geeks, Flowdan - Run The Show
Dead Zodiac - Forward March
HRSPX - Onia EP 💎

2. Kutlo - Variations EP [Hoofbeats Music]

Recommended if you like: Camo & Krooked, Alora, Dossa & Locuzzed

EPs are great! Sure, a banging single is cool too, but these longer formats allow artists to do way more, like showcasing sides of their creativeness that you wouldn't normally get to see, telling a coherent story and more, all at the same time. Yes, I know you can also do that with albums, I just spent a month writing about one after all, but EPs are also a great way to explore these kinds of things. Don't believe me? Well, allow me to present an example then. Let's talk about the Variations EP by Kutlo.

First, we gotta clear up our artist history though. Martin "Kutlo" Kutlák is a Slovakian DnB producer, nowadays based in Bratislava. After hearing DnB for the first time while cruising around in the world of Need For Speed: Undercover around 2008, it didn't take too long for him to start experimenting and dabbling in the genre himself. The first DJ sets of his started appearing online around 2011, with the first few fruits of his production career cropping up just two years later in 2013. Over the first few years, his music could already be found on basically all the underground labels active at the time, like DNBB, Ammunition and NeurofunkGrid, but things only really kicked into high gear when he was approached by Let It Roll for their 2017 compilation.

Not only did he start working as a label manager for Drumatch in that same year, the list of labels Kutlo became a part of after this also reads like a Who's Who of Neurofunk labels: Kosenprod, Mainframe, C4C, Kill Tomorrow, High Resistance, Eatbrain and Blackout! Even outside the realms of Neuro, his clean production was appreciated more and more, leading to regular releases on Deep'n'Dark DnB powerhouses Overview Music and Delta9. Speaking of appreciation, all of these releases, plus his skills as a DJ, ended up winning him a ton of awards at the CZ & SK DnB Awards over the years, from Best Producer to Best DJ!

There is one stop on this wild and successful journey through the labels that I've kept from you so far. Mostly because I've never talked about them here before and wanted to single them out a bit, but also because it's the label this EP is released on. I'm of course talking about Hoofbeats Music! After starting out somewhere around the late 2000s as a group of humble event organisers, the brand grew and grew until they became known for hosting some of the best DnB parties in Czech Republic, regularly booking talents from both the sheer endless pool of Czech DJ talents and a long, long list of internationally revered artists like Dimension, State Of Mind or Phace & Misanthrop.

In 2016, team members Qo, Computerartist and Joshu4 got together and founded Hoofbeats Music to further support all the members of the now quite big Hoofbeats Family. While most of the early releases were provided by the founders themselves, just a few years later the list of featured artists included more and more people, from the aforementioned Kutlo to the likes of Holotrope, Gancher & Ruin and A-Cray, among quite a few others. Sure, it might have started out as a purely Neurofunk thing, but over the years the Hoofbeats family have also given other styles shelter in their stable of sounds, like Variants' brand of melancholic liquid or Changing Faces' straight-forward uplifting Dancefloor bangers. Similarly, Kutlo has spent the last few years expanding his sound from the usually heavy, face-melting and/or techy kind to something more diverse, an effort which has now been accumulated into this brand new seven-tracker, fittingly called Variations.

After the introductory Nocturno prepares our minds for the journey through the countless beautiful soundscapes we are about to embark on, we kick things off properly with One More Chapter. The music box melody from the intro is back in full force, but is soon enough replaced by a flurry of synths, increasing and decreasing the speed at which they operate at, from once every beat to so fast you can barely distinguish the singles notes from each other and back again. This stunning intro then leads us into a proper wall of synth type Schnitzelpower-esque drop, with some really heavy-hitting staccato stabs bursting through every now and then, keeping things fresh all the way through. Honestly incredible songwriting and sound design! We continue on this high with the equally delightful Porcelain, featuring the marvellous vocals of Anna Vaverková. After one of the most powerful and chill-inducing buildups I've heard in a while, we drop into this melancholic yet heavy anthemic drop that just makes you want to close your eyes and sing along to it at the same time. Then, switch! Instead of just the melody, we drop into this back-and-forth between it and a whirlwind of Neurofunk madness. One of my favourite moments in DnB of the year.

Static takes things into a funkier, steppier, more bassface-causing direction. Especially when that second melody comes in halfway through the drop, it just becomes impossible not to nod along to the sheer flow of the tune. After this earthquake of a track, we go back to some more loveliness on the vibey arrangement that is Fragments. Everything from the piano-driven intro to the clouds of synths bouncing around just gives off this wonderful feeling that everything will be alright in the end. In the second half things even get rearranged a little bit to be more syncopated, turning heads one last time before going back to floating on bubbly clouds.

Speaking of floating, next up we've got Distance, featuring an honestly incredible vocal by TIMEA. While we sit in awe of her multi-faceted emotional performance, Kutlo works in more and more piano and guitar melodies into the mix to match the energy, until everything is washed away by the waves of basses, streams of rolling drums and an atmosphere full of masterful melancholic melodies. It is such a vibe. Once again we've got another switchup in the second half, this time Kutlo pumps the breaks hard, launching us straight into a Halftime version of the drop. Lastly, we get some closure with the EP closer Closure. Just like on its predecessor, we are treated to some smoothly rolling drums, wonderful melodies and bass waves, but things are arranged in such a way that it has way more of a "closing chapter" feel to it. The drums are even smoother, the melodies more present and the waves smaller, everything is just lovely.

Whoopsie, we're at the end and I still got all these Kutlo puns that I need to use. Okay, allow me real quick: This EP is all highs and no (Kut-)lows. I am Kut-loving this EP from front to back. This is the pinnacle of his artist Kut-a-lo-gue. I might have gone too far in a few places there, but the sentiment is real. This EP is more than just a collection of tunes, it's a snapshot of the extremely high levels of production, sound design and songwriting Kutlo has achieved over the years. Each track is of supremely high quality and deserves all the love and attention it can get. So go listen to it already!