Picks Of The Week (09.12.23

As we roll into that most specialest time of the year, when we freeze our butts off at home while all the usual headliners fly away to spend the hottest Christmas of their lives in Australia and New Zealand, I thought we should take a look at what kind of talents the local scenes over there have been producing! Something we usually never do on here, after all.

1. SCARFIE, Christina Harrison - LIFELINE [Tenfold Records]

Recommended if you like: YUSSI, REPAIR, Ruebik

Let's start with New Zealand!

If you've kept a bit of an eye on the heavy Dancefloor side of SoundCloud, you will surely have seen one of the many, many insanely heavy bootlegs that John McDonald, better known as SCARFIE, has shared these past few years. Whether it's Sam Smith, Daft Punk or Earth, Wind & Fire, basically no one was safe from his bangerification. However, while that would sound like the typical start for new producers in our scene, it's not even close to where it all began for him! No, young John McDonald didn't have a farm (Scarfie-i-ie-i-o), go away, you intrusive joke thoughts. Back in late 2015, early 2016, John actually got his start as a Trap and, from what I can tell, all sorts of other heavy EDM genres, producer! As SCARFɆ, his many originals and, to be fair, also bootlegs, already made some serious waves in the underground, with his first breakthrough moment, the Future Bass-y anthem Stay The Night, arriving only a year later. Towards the 2020s, however, he started getting more and more enamored with both the drums and the basses.

By this point already rebranded to SCARFIE, John kicked his DnB spree off with the incredible MOMENT NOW in 2020, closely followed by a whole slew of bootleg action. Not only did he put his truly heavy stamp on the aforementioned more poppy tunes, all sorts of Dubstep artists like Virtual Riot, Zomboy and Spag Heddy, legendary Kiwi Dramandbassadors Lee Mvtthews and even the Crazy Frog also got the SCARFIE treatment™️. And there's still more I could mention! Back on the non-Bootleg releases side of things, John aimed for quieter tones, with his remix for Sweet Mix Kids in 2021 and the Forever double single on Boy Records the year after. As you can imagine though, this resulted in a lot of pent-up energy just waiting to explode into an onslaught of Dancefloor bangers, and this year we got exactly that! With the capslock key firmly activated, the orange enthusiast pushed out everything from uplifting anthems like LOSING CONTROL to absolute filth like PRESSURE.

Now, he is joining fellow uppercase fans REPAIR and PONZ on rather prominent Kiwi and South African agency Tenfold's label Tenfold Records, closing the year off with a wonderful mixture of both heavy and beautiful, LIFELINE. With Christina Harrison, one of my favourite vocalists in the whole scene at this point (this is like the third time a tune with her ends up on here), once again giving it her all with another marvellous performance, the vibes are already off the charts even without any instrumental involvement, but, of course, SCARFIE knows exactly how to refine this gold nugget even further into a proper gem of a tune. Everything about the composition pushes you forward, from the clean drums to the gnarly bassline that reminds me of the good ol' early 2010s "wall of sound" type bangers, but way heavier, while still retaining a great sense of melodicality. All put together, this of course results in one hell of a tune.

Like clockwork, the orange fanatic delivers yet another banger. I'm lovin' it.

Other heavy stuff from this week:

Pendulum - Anti-Hero (triple j Like A Version) (I love it so much)
Kaixo - From Void
Various Artists - Neuropunks LP
State Of Mind - Ice Cold / Amerika March
Notequal - Discarded / Tumble
Gancher & Ruin, Raizer - Seven Nation Army (yup :D)

2. Fitch, Emile Battour, Riverine - Slow Down [TMRW Music]

Recommended if you like: Grafix, Lexurus, Ripple

Now, Australia!

More specifically, Brisbane, where Mitchell Hughes, more commonly known as uplifting Dancefloor aficionado Fitch, has managed to stand out from the sea of talented artists with a unique talent for only the most heavenly of melodies, especially in the past year. Things weren't always like this though. I mean, of course, would be wild if they were. What I'm getting at, however, is that his humble (pun intended) beginnings in 2016 were way filthier than you might expect! Dirty DnBootlegs of Kendrick Lamar, Boombox Cartel, Skrillex and Zomboy weren't the only thing he was dabbling in though, he was also very active in the Trap and Dubstep game! So much so, in fact, that he even started his own Trap-focused duo with his mate Sock (probably not an actual sock) called Something Else, whose bootleg of The Chainsmokers' Roses actually got recognition from the unhealthy duo themselves! The more the years went on, the more he tried his hands on all sorts of other genres like Future Bass, but, as you can imagine, DnB soon returned to take back the throne.

From 2021 on, to be specific. While his initial releases on Dim Mak and onesevenfour were certainly more in a liquid vein, you could already tell that he is more than just adapt at working with great melodies. Then, in 2022, it was time to unleash some bootlegs. Oh, did I say some? I meant, a ton. Oasis (you can guess which one), Kanye West, Flume, The Killers (yep, even that), Alesso & Sebastian Ingrosso, Florence + The Machine, you name it. The skillz earned during this particularly bootleg-heavy era proved to be quite valuable though, as 2023 ended up becoming his biggest year for (non-bootleg) releases yet. Not only did he get signed to "Australia’s home of electronic music" TMRW Music, on which multiple of his most successful tunes thus far, including the criminally catchy anthems Sweet Disposition, Spring and Teenage Crime, were released on, he also returned to onesevenfour, remixed L D R U and BAVHU, collaborated with Hexl and REPAIR, and released on Tenfold Records. Oh hey, I remember them!

After finally breaking through a particularly persistent creative block, Mitchell posted a clip of an instrumental to his story, simply proud of what he had achieved. He wasn't even looking for any vocalists at the time, as he was fine just doing some vocal chopping on the tune, but then both Emile Battour, Melbourne-based music producer, multi-instrumentalist and writer for all sorts of big artists, including Australian platinum-certified rapper 360, and Riverine, Indie/Alternative vocalist working on an album of his own and prolific Pop music producer, who, funnily enough, also produced some beats for 360, slid into his DMs to ask if they could also work on the tune. So he just got both of them involved! While he already worked with each of them separately, with Emile appearing on Sweet Disposition and Breathe Again and Riverine having sung on Always and Spring, this was the first time these three talented people all worked together on a tune.

And boy, did it ever pay off to bring both of them in! On the resulting tune, Slow Down, the trio invites you to step back from the stresses of the hectic everyday life and reflect a little, on both the year we've just passed and on life in general. On top of a frankly stunning composition of lovely synth plucks, catchy vocal chops and fast-paced yet hard-hitting drums (I see why they both wanted to work on this), the absolutely sublimely performed lyrics encourage you to close your eyes and drift away a little, resulting in a simply delightful tune that makes you feel like you're watching a wholesome montage of your life lately.

Gorgeous, dreamy, and a whole bunch of other positive adjectives. Just wow.

Other uplifting and unique stuff from this week:

T & Sugah, Snnr - For You
Kalixto - Watch Me 💎
Yerite - Waiting All Night 💎
Dim Bolt, Marge - Rising
DIVICIOUX - Secrets In The Shadows
Circumference - Descend