Picks Of The Week (08.07.23

1. Various Artists - Matter:2 💎 [In The Lab Recordings]

Recommended if you like: [BORDERS], sastruga, Trinist

Hot off their several stage takeovers at Rampage Open Air last week, In The Lab are coming in hot with yet another impressive compilation of ridiculously good tunes, with an extra focus on the experimental side of all things techy. That's right, we're talking about their newest Matter:2 LP!

Wait, you don't know them? Well, you better remember and/or read up on what I had to say about them when I talked about the first Matter compilation, as I'm absolutely not gonna repeat myself here. Today, we're focussing solely on the matter at hand. Absolutely intended that one. As always, I'm gonna give 3 of the 11 supremely underrated Hidden Gem™️'s a proper spotlight, and recap the rest of it at the end. Let's go!

Pick 1: Azumai - Abyss

For quite some time now, the ITL label roster has been becoming more and more international, and no one symbolises that development more than sometimes London-, sometimes Tokyo-based Japanese-Russian artist Azumai! Nowadays you might know him from his recent EP on RAM offshoot ProgRAM, but if you just azzumed that the story of Yuki Azumai doesn't go back further than that, you are sorely mistaken. Back then still operating under the TŁOC moniker, I have found traces of Yuki's musical activity all the way back in 2014, but it wouldn't surprise me to hear it goes back even further! You see, Azumai is a proper staple of the Japanese scene. Collaborations with japanese Dancefloor legends Yellock and Maozon (shout-out to his wonderful twitch streams), working together with regular Audio collaborator and one of the actual pioneers of the Japanese scene, DJ AKi (shout-out to his wonderful twitch streams), on his very own O6S Records, supporting the Teddy Killerz on their tour through the country - you (azu)may even say, he's quite big in Japan.

After a while of pursuing DnB with his aforementioned old alias, Yuki decided to take the Azumai branding he used for DJing all sorts of electronic genres over the years and refocus it to all things drum and bass. Release-wise, at least. The precise production and hard-hittingness of his bootlegs of Buunshin, Alex Parker and Eliminate, his remix for Japan's answer to Pendulum, The Game Shop, and his monumental introduction to the EU scene, Hello with Maozon and Mountain, already showed the world that Azumai is a name to keep an eye out for, but things really seem to have picked up speed these last few months. Not just because of his insane EP on ProgRAM, his Hackney Parrot bootleg was also played by Delta Heavy at Rampage just last week and, most importantly of course, he is now joining the other super talented scientists in the lab, with Abyss!

So what did he bring to the research facility? Probably his most experimental work yet! Dreamlike, ethereal, shape-shifting synths majestically floating through auditory space like one of the more alien-like deep sea jellyfishes, softly diswobbled and heavily side-chained melodies and clappy snares all come together to form an otherworldly symphony of strangeness that I just can't stop listening to. Absolute azumayhem.

Pick 2: Blueboss - Juice

I know ITL have a talent for finding underrated artists in the vast sea of SoundCloud uploads, it's one of the many reasons why they deserve all the love they've been getting. But this particular signing still surprised me with how insanely good yet absolutely under the radar they have been. Straight outta Poland, Blueboss, consisting of Andrzej Dybiec and Jacek Fuchs, have only been putting out music together since earlier this year, after having met at a bar in Warsaw, yet every single thing, every single free download has been an absolute smasher so far. How? Well, it turns out there's a tiny bit more history to both of their musical journeys.

Andrzej, for starters, has been an expert for sound design and just generally music production for ages. First as Johnny Muse, later as Andrzej Dybiec, sometimes as Bez Struktury or The Structure, and lately even as 2JA with a friend who wishes to remain anonymous, Andrzej has been producing House, EDM, DnB, everything really. He not only had several successful commercial endeavours, including but not limited to producing tracks for Natalia Kills, a whole album for the band Mor W.A., and even some literal commercial work, as in advertising, that has been shown nationwide, he also regularly shares the knowledge he gathered over the years by uploading all sorts of helpful tutorials, tips and tricks about production to his YouTube channel. Damn!

And Jacek? Well, while his work in the Ambient scene, as Solomnium goes back to at least 2014, his adventures in the world of the drums and the basses, with him tearing up some dancefloor and creating some bangers of his own under the Medlock Raver alias, seem to be m a newer development. And that's just the stuff I found! If I had more time to break through more of the language barrier, I'd probably unearth even more stuff. It may be unrelated to this particular matter, but Jacek is also very involved in the TV and movie business! Not only has he appeared on all sorts of TV shows, amassing 20 IMDB acting credits, he has also written and directed a couple of movies himself!

As you can probably tell by now, these two are already extremely artistic and talented people on their own - who knows what thunderstorm of creativity will be caused by them working together! Well, let's find out. On Juice, the Blues Bosses kick things off by turning the wonkiness setting on their musical blender up to 11, with bouncy two-step drums laying the foundation for the attack of the huge and clean, yet simultaneously also quite rough bundles of aggression to really hit. Soon enough, however, the duo turns the wonky fader down to zero and switches it up into a whirlwind of niceness, full of euphoric synths and rolling drums, once again showing us who's (blue)boss.

Pick 3: Coben - Ego

Now for a hidden gem I've actually been meaning to talk about for a while already: Benjamin Counsell, aka Coben! Closer to the laboratory home base than the others I've mentioned so far, this lovely chap is hailing from the Scottish capital Edinburgh. While he might be younger than our previous two subjects at only 22, his long-time involvement in all things music and his overall rather impressive work rate means he has already amassed quite the amount of experience. As a guitarist of Edinburgh-based rock band Sintide, he has been enjoying the stage life since at least 2019, which is also when the electronic side of his musical output, Coben, started showings its fruits. With bootlegs of Andrew Huang, Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X, he showed off his Dubstep, House and Electronic skills, but the longer he kept the streak of bootlegs going, the more into DnB he seemed to get, with the likes of PhaseOne, Owl City, Daft Punk, Skrillex and many more getting the fast-paced techy treatment.

Amidst these oodles of style-oozing bootlegs, Benjamin also slowly l started putting out label releases, with his debut Eidyn EP having arrived on Billegal Beats just last year and, of course, there was the formidable Sky God on that one science related label. One thing that really stood out from the sea of releases, however, was his sophomore EP, Culprit, on Low Down Deep sister label Underground Soundz. So much so, that I actually wanted to feature it on here, but I ran out of writing time that particular week. Wanna hear a fun fact? You know who's also a fan of the man they call Coben? Fox Stevenson! Just this past week, Mr. Foxenson actually played a brand new Coben banger to the ravagous crowd at Rampage Open Air!

You know who's also also a fan of him? I am! You know what's a synonym for "I"? Ego! And that's the track we're talking about here! My flawless transition aside, I have to be serious for a second and acknowledge what an absolute Cobanger this one is. Not only is the foundation of it all already wonderful, from the lovely titular vocal sample to the new-school colour bass inspired sound design, the way it's used is also absolutely spot-on, with the colourful stabs causing some proper havoc with their ridiculously relentless ratatatat rhythms, before it all rolls out with an extra vibey section. I hope Coben E-stays in the scene for a long time.

Conclusion And that's not even close to all of it! We've got Spaniard Jey Vinand showing us the way of the fonk on Bansuri, the one and only Elder delivering another lovely summer vibe with Convalesce, multi-genre enjoyer of finales LoveTheEND catching a Crimson Butterfly just for us, schnitzel enthusiasts Acris & Eevian unleashing a rather Ethereal synth firework, Osyrus firing off with so much power that no one will be Left In The Dark about his technical abilities afterwards, Phadix proving that there's more to Life than techy madness, before Niallo swiftly proves him wrong with some Scientifically Unsound bleepage, and K A G E pumps us so full of lo-fi vibes that we can't help but SURRENDER.

This compilation once and for all cements In The Lab as one of the very best of their kind. In the grand world of labels they not only matter(:2), with how often they putting established imprints to shame they should be considered one of the top players.