Picks Of The Week (24.02.24

1. Lukher - Be better / Daybreak 💎 [DIVIDID]

Recommended if you like: Mefjus, Camo & Krooked, Tom Finster

Look here! A new, surely soon-to-be notorious, but definitely already quite naughty name on the horizon, and also this week's first Hidden Gem Of The Week™️: Lukher!

While this is, somehow, the Polishman's debut release, he, of course, has been around for much longer already. In fact, his first official upload, a bootleg of deadmau5's 4ware, goes all the way back to 2016! Even in these early days, however, you could already taste all the raw ingredients for greatness - a talent for beautiful melodies, production at a level you wouldn't necessarily expect from a newcomer like that, and, of course, a love for DnB! That's right, while he did stay true to his deadmau5ian beginnings for a while longer in these first couple years, with Monophobia being the second in line to be reworked, said second bootleg saw him dabbling with the drums and the basses. More and more reworks followed, with the likes of Zedd, Flume and Broods getting the multi-genre treatment, and soon after, his artist alias would go through some multiple treatments of its own: from LukEr to Luker, to eventually Lukher.

Alright, but how did we get from the bootlegging to debuting on the Dutch haven for all things unique and weird that is DIVIDID? Well, Lukher wanted to step (Luk)his game up a bit and decided to join the WeAreHumans community created and fostered to greatness by German bass power duo Donkong, also known as Tom Finster and barking continues. See, I told you they'd be mentioned soon again! One feedback stream after the other, Lukher would send in more and more ridiculous tunes, to the point I became almost annoyed at the sheer talent on display every time. Like, how is all this not released on the biggest labels around yet?!

Well, as luck(her) would have it (or as Luk would her it? Okay I'll stop), the Donkongonalese people invited none other than DIVIDID co-founder and head honcho ABIS to join in on their demo listening sesh. Who knows, maybe there's some sign-able tunes in there? Turns out, there were quite a lot! So many, in fact, that they've got a whole partner compilation coming soon (more on that when it drops), but one of them sent in such sick tunes, and so many of them, that ABIS basically had no choice but to get him a seperate spotlight on his label right away. Yep, I'm of course talking about our boy Lukher! Now, after a premiere on Skankandbass, and none other than Camo & Krooked playing one of his dubs at Rampage last weekend, let's finally see what the fuss is all about!

Just a couple seconds into the opener of this two-tracker, Be better, you probably already know why all these legends, and also me, are this hyped up about him. Orchestral beauty, with gorgeous string sections and brass parts that'll make you want to charge into battle, masterfully paired with all sorts of digitally processed heaviness, on a level so absolutely crazy you'd think you're listening to the newest creation of the Schnitzel-powered trio this might remind you of. Similarly, Lukher manages to take this established corrupted beauty and twist it into a truly sinister back-and-forth between seriously naughty waves of bass and heavy stabs giving it all that extra bit of funk, with the second half supercharging all of these already sick elements to bonkers levels of ridiculousness.

If you, like me, already thought Be better was incredible, prepare to be absolutely blown away by the second half of this gem of a release, Daybreak. I didn't know it was possible to be better than Be better, but the mad man somehow really did it. With the orchestral beauty of it all cranked up to 11, all of it more gently built up over a longer buildup with a splendid synth melody peaking through the carefully arranged curtains, my hype levels had reached impossible heights, but if anything, he outdoes my unreasonably high expectations with what's coming next. The intro's lead melancholic yet somehow also euphoric melody continues on, with some gnarly basses to go along with it, before Lukher pulls this rug of massive bass out from underneath us to deliver an everything-obliterating, bassface-causing, fuck-off-prompting response attack. As if that wasn't insane enough: After a brief cool-down period, even more melodic elements come rushing in, emotions running completely wild once the delayed drop hits you. And man, does it hit. It hits you so hard, that even on my 20th listen and even just thinking about it again during the final proof-reading I'm doing right now, my whole body tingles from this perfect execution of a switchup. Pure goosebumps, every single time.

Extraordinarily magnificent, ridiculously heavy, simply special. Easily one of the best releases in a while.

Other techy things from this week:

Sleepnet, Lumen, Noisia - Finality
Sign - I AM NOT AFRAID TO FALL
The Caracal Project - Self Reflections:
Yatuza - Ultraviolet EP

2. Exult - Properly Vexed EP 💎 [Rebel Music]

Recommended if you like: Resslek, Creatures, Kolectiv

Now for something deeper-and-darker, from British up-and-comer and this week's second Hidden Gem Of The Week™️-er, Exult!

As always, every seemingly new name has a bit of a longer backstory to it. For instance, George Burrell's drum and bass journey actually goes all the way back to 2014, when he started uploading his semi-regular always-lush Liquid Sessions mix series on his now-defunct Mixcloud account, but it took until 2017, when his mate, bright Brightonian Silloh, inspired and probably also persuaded him a little to also tackle the production side of things. A couple years of slaving away at his craft in the shadows later, Exult's production were finally unleashed onto the scene in 2020. In that one year, he not only debuted on Sunny Moves's 2020 compilation, he was also part of Kolectiv's massive Give Nothing remix package and won the Replicant remix competition on Counterpoint. That was just the beginning thouhg. Collaborations with the likes of SMP, Molecular, and of course also Silloh, releases on Celsius, Intrigue, Delta 9, Hyperactivity Music, Incurzion, a remix for Deekline - things have been quite swell for man like Exult!

Among all these accomplishments, I sneakily omitted one thing that's been a constant in the musical journey of the past few years though: Rebel Music! Inspired by his work at record shops, distribution and management firms in the DnB spheres, Star Wars fan Ben OB1 very soon got the idea to build up a community of his own, which he eventually made a reality in 2019. Rebel Music wasn't just called that way because he was a huge Bob Marley fan though, Ben really wanted to push the rebellious angle, the stick-it-to-the-man-ishness, the underground feel of the genre as much as possible. Thanks to an artists-first approach, allowing any of their producers to walk away and come back to the label at any point and offering a better revenue share than most others, Rebel Music soon became a proper collective of mates. Not only did he unite the likes of Creatures, Skuff, Whychek, Screamarts, Jestah and Section in his fight against the galactic empire, each providing some heavy duty auditory weaponry, a lot of their regulars were also starting to be represented by the Rebel Talent Agency since its founding in 2021. No wonder they had a lot early support from names like Marky, Fabio and Randall!

You might also remember them from their fun pandemic pastime Dub Wars, which saw all sorts of talented artists like Wingz, Ill Truth and SiLi twisting samples from the likes of Invadhertz and Ulterior Motive and vocals by Visionobi, Collette Warren and many more into genuine Dancefloor destroyers across three seasons. One participant of that third season: Exult! That's far from his only involvement with the rebellious gang though. Not only did he participate in their lockdown streams and Rebel Transmission radio shows, he also appeared on the label here and there. However, he hasn't had a solo release with the gang yet. Until the release of his Properly Vexed EP this week, that is! So let's check out what this rebel has in store for us this time, shall we?

We kicks things off in style with the title track Properly Vexed. With Hertfordshire-based Rebel resident MC Peas spitting some highly flammable bars, you're already more than halfway there on the way to creating a sick banger, but combined with George's rhythmically captivating arrangements consisting of all sorts of fun techy bleep and bloops, unique basses and steppy drums, you get something properly vexing. Sure, there's also a Dub Mix available, but it's the combination of both that makes this tune really shine in my eyes. If you do want some more instrumental action though, I recommend checking out Broken Promises with Flexout-Redacted-Context alumni and multi-genre enjoyer Shaddows (previously also known as Shadows). Unlike its predecessor, this one's full of vibey, heavily reverberated goodness, with big horns blooping around, big basses whomping about and big and small drums flexing all over the place. Oh, you want more bars upon bars? You're in luck then, as we end things with our favourite kind of Peas bringing some more heat to the table, on Vortex! Mysteriously murky bass, techy glitch ripples in auditory space time, snappy drums - yep, we've got another banger (alongside the mashed peas) on our hands.

In other words, another great entry into Exult's consistently sick discography! With how often this guy delivers, they should call him FedExult.

Other deep and deep-adjacent stuff from this week:

Hyrah - Smth Wrong EP 💎
Rueben - Your Move EP
Low:r - Can You Hear Me LP
Particle, Inja - The Message
Kyrist - Arroyo
Rue - Attraction Complex EP 💎