Picks Of The Week (31.12.22

1. Hyrah - Foregone EP 💎 [onesevenfour]

Recommended if you like: Dawn Wall, Hiraeth, Edlan

While there have been a couple of "bigger" releases this week again already, it was still a bit of a quiet one, full of annual/best of/general various artist-isms. However, in that relatively small batch of new DnB there were still some real gems in there. Let's look at a particularly underrated, not super well-known one. A Hidden Gem Of The Week™️, so to speak!

This week's gem is coming straight out of the capitol of the genre, Bristol. That's what people on the internet are calling it at least, I've never actually been. I should probably go there sometime if I wanna keep using that phrase. Anyway. This lovely city in the south west of England doesn't just harbour some of the brightest talents in the deep, dark and jump-up-y areas of the genre, no no, as our protagonist for today Harry Morgan aka Hyrah shows us, the city also has the ability to foster amazing liquid talent! After starting out around 2019 by participating in and winning a couple of mix competitions, Harry, who started out with the alias MORG, became a bit of a fixture in the city's underground scene, with sets at the legendary Lakota, plus regular appearences in the Mountain and no_one event series, which sometimes even took him from DnB's capital to that of the country. That, plus guest mixes for Anarchy Audio and Nu:Motive Promotions, cements my impression that it really was MORGIN' time during that period of time. However, the pandemic slowed things down a bit, bringing Harry to the realisation that it was time to kill his old alias, resulting in Hyrah seeing the light of day! I'm sure you can still find the old one in the morgue though.

Aside from my desire to make puns with it, what separates the two aliases the most, is that Hyrah isn't just a DJ alias anymore, no no, Harry has now started producing too! In June 2021 he participated in and was short-listed for the Living Like This remix competition from the baddest, most loco baller of the hour, Vibe Chemistry. Motivated by the early success, he sat down to figure out his first proper release. After a bit more than a year of tirelessly working on his sound and polishing it to perfection, he is now ready for the real deal. Through sheer chance (their words!), the now supremely high-quality tunes made their way to none other than onesevenfour, who immediately signed him for an EP. They have always had a knack for finding and showcasing exciting talented newcomers, and that only became more clear since the last time I talked about them here, way back in 2021. This week, Hyrah joins their at this point frankly humongous list of great singles, EPs and compilations featuring the likes of Artsea, Brainwork, Moekel (my beloved), Supercurve and many more with his debut EP, Foregone! So let's talk about that!

The esoteric EP opener Echoes kicks things off with an enourmous amount of exquisite vibes, with a wonderfully echo-y atmosphere, emotionally extremely effective vocals, expressive piano melodies and an ever-evolving bassline working together in perfect harmony creating a lasting first impression. Seriously, when I heard this for the first time, I was already sold on the rest of the EP. I just knew that if the opener is this lovely already, whatever else the artist would come up with would be equally delightful. Just one track later, on Quantify, this first instinct would be proven right. While it shares some similarities to its predecessor, namely its beautiful piano, a bassline that keeps you hooked all the way through and the astronomically high quality of production in general, it exudes a way more melancholic emotion with its arrangement. Everything is deeper, sadder and even more fitting for staring outside the window on a rainy Sunday. Not to mention the outro, when Hyrah takes the plunge into the lower BPMs, giving this already perfect soundtrack for a lethargic day a sweet little cherry on top.

Don't drift away too far just yet though, we still got two more gems to go, starting with Foregone. Right from the start, we are introduced to one of the most wonderful parts of the whole EP that I can only describe as a sequence of synths, chopped up into something that resembles a strangely soothing choir. There's probably a fancy production word for it that I don't know, but whatever you want to call it, it's just gorgeous. Not long after, Hyrah brings in more goodness, like the sparkly background bling, some truly mesmerizing vocals and, to my delight, piano chords that will warm up even the coldest of hearts. Speaking of marvellous piano melodies, our last stop on this wintery journey has a real Surplus of them! You know me, I can literally never get enough of those. Infused with a couple jazzy elements, but otherwise quite minimalistic in its approach, this EP closer gives the pianos full creative freedom, resulting in probably the moodiest track of the EP.

As someone who listens to a lot of releases, including many debut ones, let me tell you: this is one of the best debut releases of the past few years. It's so good that it immediately invites questions about past aliases or other sorts of involvements in previous projects. From what I can tell though, this really is just the result of tireless work, endless polishing and an ear for great melodies. I can't wait to hear more.

Other lovely liquid bits from this week:

The Vanguard Project - Vows / Stronger
Waeys, flowanastasia - Set The Vibe
Halogenix - Lost Friends
Peter Lix - Pipe Dreams
Skrillex, Pinkpantheress, Trippie Red - Way Back