Picks Of The Week (17.06.23

1. Artino - World Of Lights [Liquicity Records]

Recommended if you like: Andromedik, Polygon, Lexurus

Covering something that isn't even from this week? Unheard of! But if it's something as wonderful as this single, I ain't gonna say (Arti-)no to that! That's right, this week I want to kick things off by shining the biggest of spotlights on the absolutely amazing artist Artino.

Martijn van Baren, the man behind the art(ino), has been pursuing the dream of DJing and producing electronic music since way back in 2012. So like, in school! The list of genres he experimented with didn't just include Tech House, Techno and Trap, he also tried his hands at all sorts of non-T-prefixed stuff, on bootlegs of Pharrell Williams, Alesso, Sam Feldt and dnb legend Tiësto. This sonic diversity didn't just set him apart(ino) as a producer though, he also quickly made some real strides in the DJing game. In 2015, when he was still a Young And Wild 17-year-old, you could find him playing at local events that matched this youthful energy, which allowed him to gain the experiences and build up the talent to participate and win both the UIT and "Kunstbende" DJ contests, with him later also reaching the finale of the Dancetour DJ Clash tournament. Starting in 2018, he deepened his involvement in the scene even further by organizing probably-hopefully legal events under the DJENSEN banner, but you could also find his name on Moonshine lineups, together with NCT, Feint and the artist formerly known as Signal.

Around 2018, Martijn decided to streamline his musical career a little bit, by starting his new The Sociologist side alias, for only the Techiest of Houses, while using his main alias to hone in on his favourite genre of them all. You know, the one involving the drums and the basses. He started putting out original tunes on his own, but thanks to his unique talent for melodies and great taste for vocalists, he soon started rising through the ranks of all sorts of labels. Just a year after becoming part(ino) of Dutch DnBehemoth Korsakov Music via their Future Stars newcomer compilation in 2020, he joined the Liquicity family, with his first of many magnificent masterpieces on their newcomer sister label Ridmic. While they proved to be a great home for his musical creations, he was also expanding his label catalogue further and further with releases on DnB Allstars and even Friction's Elevate. Earlier this year, he even went "back to the roots" in a sense by using all his new talents to put his spin on tunes by Slowthai and M83, which apparently even went a little viral if I'm reading this TikTok profile right.

Two years from his first time venturing into the Galaxy Of Dreams, it's safe to say he has become a real fixture there, with him playing at Family Day Amsterdam and the summer festival in a couple weeks. That's why it's only fitting that with his newest single, World Of Lights, he's now finally joining the main label, Liquicity Records itself! To celebrate that, and his belated birthday a little, let's talk about that!

From the very beginning of his DnB arc, Artino has shown an incredible talent for finding and working with just the right vocalists for his tunes, giving each of them their unique identity and flavour, and this new one is no exception. With an officially uncredited but unofficially absolutely stunning performance, the mysterious Sam Bailey, who I can't find out much about due to his X-Factor winner namesake having a monopoly on search results, smoothly leads us into the more ethereal direction that Artino has planned for this new one. The rather minimalistic intro doesn't just give Sam a big playground to flex his soulful performance on, it also sets the mood quite effectively and allows for the madness to come to hit all the more powerfully. When I say madness, I actually mean extraordinarily beautiful synth work that's so good that it's kind of mad in a way. One after another, waves of synths are built up from lovely to overwhelming the senses, but as if that wasn't already interesting enough, Artino cranks up the filth factor to 11 two-thirds into the drop, resulting in a goosebump moment you can't run away from. And there's even more of that kind of progression to be had in the second half!

Almost overwhelmingly beautiful, in every sense of the word. Mostly the one sense. But it sounded nicer this way for some reason and I wanted to hammer home just how wonderful this one is. One of my absolute favourites of this half-year so far!

Other Dancefloor goodness from this week:

Kx5 - Escape (feat. Hayle) (Tall Order Remix)
Koven, Circadian - The Outlines
Blaine Stranger - NEV3R
Mountain, Lottie Jones - Awake
Natty Lou, Èmilie Rachel - A Lot To Leave
Segan - Unknown

2. Maze, Trinist - Lost Words EP [NCS Arcade]

Recommended if you like: The Outsiders, [BORDERS], A.way

Jump Up is always a bit of a strange subject. On the one hand, its deeply rave-focussed way of production lends itself to some truly fun moments when out at the dance, but on the other hand, it's often a little rough to listen to at home. Unless your home is the rave, I guess. Maybe it's just me slowly learning to enjoy it more at home too, but I feel like there has been a noticeable shift to more melodic vibes from traditionally Jump Up corners of the world, with Belgium being at the forefront of this development. Artists like Primate, Basstripper or even Used might have built the foundation of their career on the "screechy" style pioneered by the late, great Dominator, but over time, they have each developed their own unique style, with some actually really interesting sound design to boot. So let's talk about the latest entry in this great line of incredibly interesting artists with filthy jump up roots (in a good way): Maze!

Mauro "Maze" Depotter has been a certified Jump Up bad boi since at least 2017, with his first releases starting to hit the scene from 2018 onwards on labels like Fatman D's Young Guns, Complex's Good4Nothing and a seriouz seriez of z-suffixed labelz like Bad Habitz and Subway Soundz, all while zigzagging acrozz all sorts of dancefloorz organised by the likez of Invaderz, Night Grinderz and Shockz XL. With some truly filthy beats, an uncompromising energy and some of the most skankable of rhythms, Maze was building himself a name as a real Hidden Gem of the scene. After a couple years of this, however, Mauro decided to depart (depott) from this initial stylistic trajectory, by focussing on the sound design of it all more than ever before, with his marvellous 2022 three-tracker on Rampage's Radar Records. Another two examples of him exploring with new sounds later, one of which released on none other than Gentlemens Club's ClubFriendlyUk, and bookings for the Rampage Total Takeover earlier this year, Rampage Open Air this week and Tomorrowland next month, it was now time for some truly new sounds from the young talent - the Lost Words EP on the fresh (in every sense of the word) NoCopyrightSounds off-shoot Arcade.

For this, Mauro reached to one of the most revered yet somehow still super underrated sound design specialists of the past few years, Joshua Meur alias Trinist! As you might remember from my investigation into his more melodic side project Josh Lovis, Joshua has developed himself an almost outlandishly sounding yet supremely hard-hitting style that lead to releases on the likes of Inspected, Blackout, Halycon and Neksus. With a discography like that, you can see why he would be the perfect person to collaborate with for an extra experimental project and boy, has that initial impression ever proven to be absolutely right. There's another reason why he was the perfect compadre for this project though. Enough teasing, let's lose some words about Lost Words!

Right away, EP opener Would You Ever lets you know that this isn't your usual project from either Maze or Trinist. Glitched-out organs perform their wonderfully catchy main melody, before none other than Joshua himself joins in on the fun with his ever-beautiful vocals usually reserved for his other projects, processed to the point they organically fuse together with the rest of the arrangement. In no time, we are thrown into the drop, where the duo use a lot of negative space to create a hard-hitting rhythm out of the main theme, making every single beat hit even harder, before we are already on our way to our first of many switchups, in which the quickly rolling drums effectively emphasize each hit of the equally quickly (equickly) stabby stabs. Next, we're on mental cleanup duty, deleting that part of yourself that you absolutely cannot stand, on Erase You. Even more so than its predecessor, this one pursues a vibe that I can only describe as "fluttery", drawing inspiration from the emotionally overwhelming world of Hyperpop. Simple, heavily processed, yet still very vibey vocals from Josh, a swinging bass rhythm with lots of break action in between, and all sorts of distortion going on - but in the loveliest of ways. Of course, things are switched up again in the second half, with the melody now constantly "chugging" along.

I know we're already half-way through, but don't you worry, there is still plenty of goodness to come. Everything Will Be Okay. While rather stormy rain is pouring against our windows to the world, Josh cranks up the autotune to soothe our minds a little with another great vocal performance, before maximally distorted melodies start to roam freely on the slowed-down Breaks-type beat. However, in the second half, this foundation is being chopped up to the littlest pieces imagineable and rearranged in a relentless flurry of sound design madness, with the two of them even throwing in a Think break "woo" in there for good measure. Last but not least, it's time to get sad on Lachrymose. Not just because it's the last stop on our journey, but also because that's what Lachrymose means and I didn't know any better way to work that into the text, so here you go. While definitely also oozing the Hyperpop-esque overall emotional tone, thanks to another delightful performance from Josh and more heavily distorted yet emotionally resonant melodies, this EP closer is probably best described as the heaviest of them all. The distorted bass hits even harder than usual, with glitched-out glimpses of the buildup melodies trying to break through, and if that wasn't already ridiculous enough, we are also treated to a sick Half-time drop in the second half, which allows this sound design wizardry to unfold even more than before.

What an experience this EP is! I would say I'm Lost for Words, but that's obviously a lie. Sure, it's barely 12 minutes long in total, but all the unique production elements, the modern genre influences and various switches more than make up for the rather short runtimes, trust me. At the end it feels like you experienced more really memorable moments than with most of the longer projects out there, whill still retaining a high level of melodicality and catchiness to it all. Craving some originality in your DnB? Tri list-ening to this a-maze-ing EP! Don't worry, it's way more original than my shitty wordplay might suggest.

Other unique things from this week:

Meph, Notequal, Konquest - We Are The Darkshire
skantia - Contrast EP
Beskar - Path I Can't Follow / The Prophecy
Shayper - Weight of a Tiny World - Remixes