Picks Of The Week (25.03.23

0. Telomic - Arrivals LP [Liquicity]

Recommended if you like: S.P.Y, Monrroe, Edlan

In case you missed it, I wrote a whole essay about Elliot Berger aka Telomic's absolutely wonderful debut album Arrivals!

The TL;DR of the whole thing is basically: Sensational vocal performances across the board, all sorts of lovely progressions and an extraordinary amount of straight goosebumps moments. So go check it out already!

Other liquid things from this week:

Various Artists - 500 LP
Leniz - Different Perspectives on Reality LP
Peter Lix - Echoes Of My Mind
Qumulus - Bittersweet

1. Various Artists - Neuroheadz Presents: Headz Up Vol. 1 💎 [Neuroheadz]

Recommended if you like: Gydra, Pythius, Traced

While the UK is basically the go-to place for most of Drum & Bass, there has definitely been a distinct lack of Neurofunk in the past few years. The home country of subgenre pioneers Ed Rush & Optical had already lost its #1 status to Eastern European countries like Czech Republic or even Central European ones like The Netherlands, but the past few years have been looking especially grim. That's where the Bristol-based Neuroheadz come in!

The story goes something like that: Ben Killey had always been a huge fan of Neurofunk, going back to at least the early 2010s, but when he eventually got a job in the industry, he was open for all sorts of other things. While a lot of his time was spent working with the Jungle Cakes crew, he was also one of the drum-and-bassterminds (this sounded better in my head) behind Suck My Donk. Throwing the occasional Neuro rave with the donk gang was already great fun, they managed to get the likes of Gydra, Mob Tactics, Zombie Cats and even a whole Eatbrain Night to come to Bristol after all, but Ben craved more, especially after lockdown. In 2021, Ben decided to convince Suck My Donk and the Oh My Gosh Sound System to organise a cheeky little rave together, with the likes of Prolix, Konquest, Transforma, himself and a couple of his equally Neuro-obsessed mates being responsible for the bangers. The official event name? Neuroheadz. Both the experience itself and the feedback from others afterwards was so strongly positive that Ben knew he had to pursue this further. Not just "further" as in "do more of these events every now and then", no no, way further than that.

Just a couple months later, Ben officially founded the Neuroheadz collective. Together with social media maestro Mike Simpson and a whole lot of other mates, Ben would set out to expand into every direction possible. Mike began curating a banging series of guest mixes under the GET FUNKED banner, which saw the likes of Despersion, MEL, Traced, TR Tactics and Cyntax jump onto the channel for a good hour of neuro-fun each. After around a year of dropping these guest mixes every single Monday, Mike apparently thought he wasn't at full capacity yet so they replaced it with two new series: NXT GEN, for up-and-coming DJs, and LABEL TAKEOVER, which you can probably figure out yourself. While this was all happening, the event series continued breaking every expectation one might have had, with the likes of A.M.C, Neonlight, State Of Mind, Pythius and Merikan having joined or soon joining the long list of headliners they have presented everywhere from Bristol to Manchester to Reading! Especially their crown jewel, the Neuroheadz Festival, deserves an extra mention. With basically all UK-based neuro artists you can think of and a bunch of sick international headliners, they have caused some serious carnage over in Malmesbury in its first edition last year and this year is only going to be crazier.

And that's somehow still not everything! As you might have guessed from the fact we're talking about them here, they also started up a whole label operation in the same year! Announced after the ape-themed rebrand in June 2022, the Neuroheadz label officially kicked off their series of single releases in July, with releases by everyone from newcomers like SETE, Suspect, Vircz and GU:STUFF to more established Neurofunkers like Foks, Prdk and Traced. This multi-pronged expansion into the scene and their unabashed love for all things Neuro lead them to quickly gain dedicated followers travelling all over the country just to support the movement. For instance, Albi, who is also heavily involved with all things Neuroheadz, Oh My Gosh Sound System and Suck My Donk, even got the logo tattooed! This combination of high quality events, pushing under-represented artists and newcomers via guest mixes and now also through the label, and the accumulated passionate family of bass fanatics have all lead to Neuroheadz being rightfully nominated for and even winning 3rd place in the Best Newcomer Label category in last year's Drum&Bass Arena Awards!

After working on one of the big compilation albums for Jungle Cakes, Ben fell in love with the idea and knew Neuroheadz had to eventually pursue it too. Guess what we're talking about today? Alright, same rules as always, highlights first, overview at the end - go!

Pick 1: Avile - Death Toll

First up, Avile! Hailing from all the way up in Bergen, Norway, Jon Tangen Rasmussen aka ΔVILE aka Avile is one of the many international imports the Neuroheadz have brought into the mix. Since 2017, Jon has been trying his hand at all sorts of genres, from Big Room to House and even Hardstyle. I so wanted to say it took "avile" for him to cross over to DnB, but the reality is: his love for the drums and the basses would already shine through as early as 2018, with bootlegs of Die Antwoord and Virtual Riot and originals like Recognize. (a)While this EDM/DnB duality would remain his modus operandi for the first few years, there was a real turning point ahead. 2021 already saw him flexing his Neurofunk muscles, with a couple entries to the second Disciple Remix Competition, but it was 2022 when things really got going. Not only did we get releases on Neuropunk's PATRONS LP and Abducted's 100 compilation, late 2022 was also the time his illegally sick Beatport Hype Chart-topping anthem Criminal hit the shelves!

Headz Up includes not just Criminal, but also a brand new banger to feast our ears on: Death Toll! In classic Eastern European (relative to the UK, even Norway falls under that umbrella) Neuro fashion, we are treated to a truly weighty freight train of a tune, relentlessly chug-chug-chugging along with its truly (a)vile bassline. After a while (I can't stop saying it) of Avile straight-up bassacring us with his filth, a cheeky little melody joins in on the fun, which soon turns into a sick guitar riff to finish us completely off. Gonna (a)file this under absolute morrpølse, which Google tells me is Norway's equivalent to "banger".

Pick 2: Stonx - Wikkid World

Straight outta Stonxdon in the UK, we've got our second pick for today: Stonx! The long-time mates James Clarke and Oliver Barron have been really stonxing up the place as of late, so it's only sensible that we finally talk about them here. Ollie has always had a knack for the musical, playing in D&B metal band Shellshock UK for instance, but James had other demons to conquer first. After almost dying from alcohol addiction induced complications at the age of 27 (not even exaggerating here), James fortunately made a full recovery and is now celebrating 5 years of sobriety, in no small part thanks to hanging out more with Ollie, who has always been living that sober life. In 2019, the two mates decided to join forces and started putting out tune after tune on their own, via their self-founded label Stonx Music. They were plucking away on their own for a while, but eventually decided to join the Teddy Killerz Patreon to polish their bear market into a bull one, with 6 months of 1-on-1's. Trying to do both stock and teddy jokes here, bear with me. This lead to releases on not just Neuropunk's PATRONS compilation (our sponsor for today it seems), but also Drevobos, Xylo, Abducted and, of course, Neuroheadz, while still regularly appearing on good ol' Stonx Music.

The thing is, over time, Stonx Music became so much more than just a platform for them to release on. The biggest key for this development was probably the Stonx Discord server, where up-and-coming Neuro producers could and can find tons of like-minded people, helping each other out in these scary early stages of their career. Every single artist featured on the label, from Raspber to M4, from Avile (oh hey!) to Skorpion has been an integral part of the nurturing community. Oh, before I forget, the dynamic duo also got their weekly Stonxcast podcast on Best Drum & Bass, on which they showcase the latest and greatest of the underground Neuro scene. So many community vibes!

From such wholesomeness we transition over to some rather wicked weirdness on their contribution to Headz Up, Wikkid World. With a straight-forward vocal sample violently confirming what most of were already thinking, that this indeed is a wicked, wicked world, Stonx invite us to take part in their soul-liberating Neuro dance ritual. As if communicating in Morse, the fully stonxed-up bass cuts back and forth between short calls, long responses and even longer distorted downward spirals, forming one catchy as hell sequence of events. Throw in some truly alien-sounding laser beams, incredibly punchy drums and a progression that keeps us on our toes, and you've got a banger on your hands.

Pick 3: Xylym - Children Of Ecstasy

For our last pick we stay in the world of wickedness, with none other than Xylym! Formerly known as Asylum (this information should help you pronounce his current name), it comes to no surprise that sometimes London-, sometimes Jersey-based producer Mitchell Hughes has always wanted to make music for the clinically insane people out there. In a good way! A couple years after deciding to pursue the hobby of electronic production way back in 2009, he wanted to take this whole thing a little more seriously and moved to London to enroll in a music production course. 2018 wasn't just the year of him finishing up his studies, it was also the year he released his first album, Cursed Tales Of Robotic Snails! While already quite phat, it took another few years for him to cross the next barrier of releasing on other labels, but once he did, the floodgates were fully open. Following his first label signing on Close2Death in 2020, you could suddenly also hear his twisted sonics on Neurofunk, What Else?, Protocode and, since last year, even on Dutch Neuro behemoth Blackout!

With his, as expected from the crazy scientist, incredibly heavy contribution to the LP, he seeks out to make Children Of Ecstasy out of all of us, and man, did he succeed with that. I mean, who even needs drugs, when you can have this? Not only are the basses overwhelmingly large on this particular one, Xylym presents us with quite the lovely drum arrangement too, always keeping the bass company throughout all of its evolutions, accentuating each pause and injecting each bass attack with loads of extra energy. The Xy is the Lymit with this guy.

Conclusion

Okay, this has gotten longer than I anticipated. Just trust me that the other 18 tracks are also all quite fire, yeah? Cheers mate.

TL;DR: With 21 truly naughty tunes from 23 outstanding bass-loving individuals, Neuroheadz once again make an excellent argument for another Best Newcomer Label nomination.

Other Neuro things from this week:

SLWDWN - Revenant EP
Teddy Killerz - Riders In The Sky
Redpill, Black Sun Empire, Virus Syndicate - Executionist
Task Horizon, Julia Marks - Synesthesia