Picks Of The Week (03.02.24

1. Relict - All For You 💎 [Stoic Music]

Recommended if you like: Waeys, Amoss, Maykors

For this week's Hidden Gem Of The Week™, I'd like to travel to a place near and dear to both my heart and the city I call home: Leipzig! As you've already read on here time and again, the Eastern German metropolis has brought forth countless of talented producers all across the spectrum and today, we'll cross off yet another one from that sheer endless list: Relict!

Despite the name, he's basically the opposite of a relic - fresh, precise arrangements and deep and dark vibes galore. However, as is almost always the case on here, the story of this up-and-comer goes further back than you might expect at first. It was back in 2015 that  "Relict" Graupner started uploading tunes, with his first couple official releases starting to hit the digital shelves in 2017, via Subplate Recordings. Basically right away, with only his second-ever release Paradox, Pascal already attracted the attention of the legendary Noisia Radio, rather impressively kicking off a series of radio appearances for him. Whether it was the WDBH Sample Temple podcast, radio shows for IT'S YOURS or 2 Guys 1 Dub, or a guest mix for C Recordings, you could hear his selections all over the airwaves in 2018. Said skillful blending also bagged him a finalist spot in Dresden-based promoter Urge To Move's DJ competition, with him ending up playing at one of their huge, headliner-filled events, and lead to him regularly slaying Dancefloors at general Leipzig area DnB institutions like elipamanoke, the currently defunct Distillery and Subardo Festival.

So what happened to his releases after that coveted Noisia Radio play early on? For one, he participated in a couple of remix (more like Relicx am I right) competitions, with his 2nd place win in Overview Music's Sustance - Temperance remix competition being the highlight, but alongside that, he also expanded his label catalogue to now also include the likes of Modular Carnage, Diascope, Flexout and, since this week, Berlin-based Stoic Music! So let's take a look at the deeply unsettling new wubs that Pascal cooked up for us this time, on All For You.

The moody four-tracker starts things off with the title track, All For You, setting the tone with some rather unnerving vocal cries and distorted wubs on fast-paced, shuffly drums on a layer of subdued yet heavy bass, followed by the rhythmically engaging basslines, piercing stabs and more steppy percussionery on Noxious. Another step upwards on the energy ladder, Monolith blasts you away with bass so heavy you can feel it rattle in your chest, even when only listening on headphones, and atmospheric oddities that can drive you a little mad in the head, before we close things out with the vibey vocal sample, relaxing melodies and heartwarming basses that make up the lovely little liquid finale that is You're Better Than Me.

Heavy, steppy, roller-y, bassface-y, vibey, this EP has it all!

Other deep and dark stuff from this week:

Calyx - House Breaker / Don't Say Nothing
SONNY, Askel & Elere - Kent
Geostatic - Just Wanna / Echoes Of You
Tee - Neptune 💎
Unglued, Duskee - Minimalizm
Nemy - Escape

2. Changing Faces - Escape [NUFORM]

Recommended if you like: Wilkinson, BMotion, Madface

Now for someone I should have talked about way earlier already: Changing Faces!

This particular story goes all the way back to the distant lands of the early 2010s. Living in his cozy home town of Piešťany, Oliver Vasko was still in his early teens when recommendations from an Electro House obsessed friend of his led him to travel down the electronic music scene rabbit hole on YouTube. Eventually, the algorithm did its thing and showed young Oliver a set from none other than High Contrast playing at a huge festival in Slovakia - a fateful moment that would change the course of his life forever. Inspired by the vibes the Welsh maestro was putting out, Oliver started creating his own spin on things in 2011, with his first release as Changing Faces following just 2 years later, at 17 years of age. On various, already quite wonderful releases on Dirt, Lies & Audio, Fokuz and its related labels, Limitless and Liquid Drops, he breathed some fresh, liquid air (strange choice of words maybe) into the often same-y Jump Up and Neuro heavy sounds usually popular in the area.

Similarly, Oliver was also pushing the more melodic sounds on the Dancefloor, with a more diverse approach to song selection that set him apart from a lot of his contemporaries. So much so, in fact, that his set at the afterparty at 2016's Beats Evolution Conference hyped up UKF's label manager at the time so much that they promptly interviewed him, bestowed the honour of the Ones To Watch label onto him, and got him signed for a couple releases on their label, Pilot Records. Not only did he nab himself the title of Discovery of the Year for the 2017 Radio_Head Awards shortly after, he also started releasing with Soulvent, Spearhead, RAM, the late and great Med School and even the one and only Hospital Records, on which he collaborated with one of his big Liquid inspirations, Logistics.

However, he wasn't quite satisfied with the state of things and so he decided in 2019, early 2020 to switch things up a little. First of all, he started channelling his other early inspiration, Dimension, and branched out into the Dancefloor side of things more (while still dropping the occasional Liquid tune), and second of all, he came out as a transgender man, fulfilling the prophecy that his alias set out by literally changing his face, among other things. The next couple of years saw him putting out tunes on Hoofbeats, Viper, DeVice and BeatsBassLife, doing guest mixes for BBC radio 1, and playing huge festivals like Tomorrowland, Let It Roll, Beats For Love, and a bunch more that I probably forgot. Now, he's dropping a rather large double single with one of the biggest new imprints coming out of the UK right now: NUFORM!

Wait, who and what form? Bit rude to ask it like that, dear reader, but sure, let me give a quick history lesson. Back in 2013, the Norwich-based platform has started out as a promotional channel called Jump Up (DNB) for, you guessed it, the newest, grottiest Jump Up bangers. From what I can tell from the few online sources that I have for this, this didn't lead to anything in particular and they took a bit of a break until they eventually rebranded the account to JumpedUp DnB in 2019. In a way taking the DnB Allstars approach, they started building up a following by posting all sorts of memery related to the drums and the basses, with the occasional free download thrown in. From 2021 on, the floodgates were fully opened on the releases front, with the likes of MONSS, James Hiraeth and Gouki being early ambassadors for the imprint. In late 2022, they took on another new form, to borrow their catch phrase, as they rebranded one last time to the NUFORM we all know today. Not only did they basically have an instant hit on their hands with that one flute song by MONSS as their first release, but in my opinion they managed to keep up the pace nicely with rather huge tunes from DRZ, Serum, KIPPO and Waypoint, landing them a Best Newcomer Label nomination at the Drum&Bass Arena awards in their very first year of existence.

Now, after them promoting Oliver's Prada bootleg, these champions of change collaborate once more, with the absolutely smashing double single that is Escape. We start things off with title track and absolute anthem of the same name. Changing Faces has been showcasing his talent for infectious melodies and vocal loveliness for quite a while now already, but in my opinion he's really stepped his game up with this one. A euphoric synth melody that won't, well, escape from my brain any time soon, a bass that scratches all the right places of said wrinkly organ, a good ol' chuggy rhythm, a vocal I can sing-scream along to at home and soon hopefully also at shows - I absolutely love it. On the B-Side, we've got a more hard-hitting approach to Dancefloor, I Wanna Dance! Instead of a beautiful vocal performance, we've got the titular phrase hypnotising us into beautiful Dance submission. Instead of the more straight-forward sing-alongable melodies, we've got the rhythmically intertwined arrangement of syncopated synth stabs and straight-up slapping drums that gets us movin'. Instead of the usual DnB all the way through, we're getting a fun 4x4 switch-up in the second half. An absolute banger, in other words!

I would never want to escape from amazing music that makes me wanna dance as much as this!

Other Dancefloor stuff from this week:

Andromedik, Grafix - Comedown
Blooom, SGAR - Alone
Freaks & Geeks, Tima Dee - Lost My Mind
Spag Heddy, Micah Martin - Never Thought (Rebel Scum Remix)
Laminar, JYRYMY, Gavin Beach - Hold On (Laminar VIP)