Picks Of The Week (01.04.23

1. SubMarine - XIII EP [1985 Music]

Recommended if you like: Koherent, Halogenix, Klinical

Time and time again, Alix Perez' 1985 Music and German deeply talented tech wizard SubMarine show us that those British hippies got it all wrong, some of us actually live in eerily monochrome submarines! While I wouldn't fully put it past me to randomly drop stupid jokes on you without context, I actually do have a reason for this attempt at humour: SubMarine has returned with a banging new EP!

First things first though. Who is this underwater craft that gets me all hyped up? Jonas Briere! Or Jonaz Beér, sometimes. Straight out of Cologne, Germany, Jonas has been putting in the work to create a richer, deeper catalogue of tunes for the scene to enjoy since at least 2013. Nurtured by a family full of music enjoyers™, with his father serenading the household with his pipes and showing off his bass talents, and his grandpa honing his horn skills in all sorts of orchestral arrangements, Jonas was inspired to pursue music himself very early on. He played drums every now and then, but what really caught his attention in the end was electronic music. In 2010, at only 16 years, Jonas ventured out into the world of production and just a couple years later, in 2013, the first fruits of his labour could already be tasted on Cologne-based label Bassliebe. The more he got into production, the more he got involved in the local scene, until he and a couple of mates decided to start their very own event series unlike any other: D:FRNT! Since its conception in 2014, they have been collaborating with all sorts of fellow Cologne-based collectives like PLAY! and the aforementioned Bassliebe, gave a platform for the city's sickest talents and invited the likes of QZB, DLR, Bredren, Alix Perez, Halogenix and Calibre and even got the enigmatic Money Boy to give a heartfelt shoutout. Well, until it ceased to exist, on my actual birthday, funnily enough, in early 2020. Good timing for an event series, to be honest.

Anyway, back to Jonas in 2014! Not even a year after his early Ed Rush & Optical inspired debut, SubMarine already expanded into the vast world of Dubstep, first on Roll The Drums Deep, then once again on Bassliebe. The latter, or more specifically the track 15 Knots, actually went on to become a bit of a milestone release for the young sous-marinier, landing him his first play on BBC Radio 1 by none other than Fixate! Spurred on by this early success, Jonas put his head down and leveled up his production skills and sound design so far up that he was starting to rival and even surpass all sorts of established artists. So much so, that in 2017 he fired off a flurry of next-level releases, from his contribution to 1985's Folio / 1 compilation to a single on Artikal and a full-on EP on Demand. From there on out, the pressure valves were completely blown off. In the following years, Jonas' genius compositions could be heard on Sofa King, Major League, Flexout, 20/20 LDN, Overview, Midas Touch, Cyberpunk, MethLab and Neosignal. Throughout this odyssey through basically all the best deep and dark labels, he amassed remixes for Bukez Finest, Zombie Cats and Phace & Rockwell, collaborations with Grey Code, Shield and Survey, and even a rarely used separate alias for 80's vibes, J Chrome.

After three years of absence on the label, the nowadays Berlin-based prodigy now returns to his home harbour, the label that brought some of his most creative works to the masses, the one and only 1985 Music! The four-track XIII EP kicks off with a trip down minimal lane, nostalgically called Back Then. Right away, we're greeted by a mysterious, eery melody causing us neverending nightmares on top of some killer kicks and snappy snares, but soon enough the ensemble is expanded to include a murky, meandering bass slowly approaching us. Once we're hit by a modern reimagination of the Block Control vocal sample, the minimaelstrom that is the drop sucks us to the deepest of possible abysses, full of supremely low-hitting basses shaking below and waves of ominous growling growing more and more aggressive.

After this masterclass of progression, SubMarine is kind enough to show us the way out of this mess. On Show Me The Way, Jonas very effectively brings in one element after the other, slowly but surely building up a steady rhythm, until the titular vocal sample activates the hyper-soulful vibe mode. An intimidating yet somehow also vulnerable synth cries out, as if it had reached its breaking point and couldn't handle things on its own anymore. Various empathetic bleeps and bloops, interjecting bass stabs and the rolling drums manage to calm it down at first, but the second half sees the synth erupting even louder and even more piercing than ever before. What a ride this one is.

Having survived this encounter, we're now stopping by for a quick Physical examination. We enter the eerily quiet room and activate the medical machine, which begins to whirr and fire off all sorts of mechanical sounds. An ear-splittingly high-pitched hiss is fired off, marking the beginning of the scan, and a robotic voice starts talking to us. Together with an infectious wob-wob-wobbly bass rhythm, these various bits and bops create an intricately crafted flow, but before we become too accustomed to this, time slows down to a crawl and throws us for a bit of a loop, only to return to the steppy robot and wobby wobs soon after. A proper banger, in other words.

With a Zelda-esque flute intro and some heavily bit-crushed drums we reboot into our physical form, on Mint Lips. What starts in what seems like a whole 'nother, almost video game-y dimension, slowly transitions over the real world with the help of a wonderfully chopped-up vocal. On top of an incredibly low, bubbling layer of bass, our brain tries to make sense of the sliced-up vocals, emphasizing the parts it thinks it understand by mirroring its cadence with some truly vibey synth bleeps. Not only does this result in the tune sporting quite the catchy melody, SubMarine got so, so many more tricks up his diving vessel! Tons of great little moments, like pauses in the arrangement, in which only the vocal gets to continue vibing, switch-ups where cowbells give us a fast-paced alternative rhythm, the synths stabs rising and sinking in their energy level, just so so much gold!

With incredible precision and sound design unlike any other, SubMarine once again steers us through all sorts of soundscapes on this deep dive through the genre. Absolutely masterful EP.

Other deep and dark things from this week:

Various Artists - Deep Dark Soul, Vol. 2
Rohaan, Flowdan - Musket
YAANO - Cicada EP
DANEY - Bun Up The Dance 💎