Picks Of The Week (02.03.24

1. Tom Finster - Untiefe EP [Pilot Records]

Recommended if you like: The Caracal Project, Vorso, Buunshin

Tommy! Monsieur Finster! It's been a while.

You might remember my rather lengthy dissertation about my love for Thomas' 2022 debut album Year Of I - and if you don't, just follow that blurple link! Because, while I deeply love talking about him, I'm not gonna recap all of Herr Küchler's backstory on here again, we'd be here all day. Since not everyone follows him as closely as I do (don't look behind you Tom), we could probably do with a little recap of the events since then though, so let's blast through it!

First of all: he completed the Year Of His by moving to Leipzig, becoming a dad and, equally as importantly, releasing on VISION with the boi Rohaan. Not only did he get the full remix treatment, with the likes of Vorso, ABIS and his Donkongolian partner in crime barking continues twisting and turning his wonderful album into something completely new and Erotic Cafe' and ET Fingers taking a crack at his NËUbut Phantom Power, he himself also started up the remix engine, delivering stunning reworks of new studio neighbours Neonlight's Tragedian and SBTRKT's Saya Interlude. Speaking of mixing: he also played absolutely crazy good shows at Let It Roll (with appropriate amounts of rain), Darkshire and NOX, plus club shows in Vienna, Toulouse, Leipzig and many more. Last, but most definitely not least, he's still running the weekly WeAreHumans feedback (and occasionally war-waging) streams with the continuous barking man himself, influencing and helping sharpen the sound of countless of artists, many of which ended up on here lately. With recent spotlights on Lukher, NOVALU, KEELA and Not Fair, I mention them like every other week at this point, and this probably isn't gonna stop either.

As you can guess from the fact I'm talking about him again, Thomas also had some new original Tom Finster music cooking all this time. Relatively shortly after his album dropped, UKF's Pilot Records slid into his DMs to discuss the possibility of a collaboration - of course, Tom said yes! He knew he had to bring his absolute A-game for this special release though. Not only did he spend a lot of time in the musical kitchen (Küchler is suspiciously close to the German word for kitchen), he also recruited the incredible funilab to come up with some feasts for the eyes to go along with it all, resulting in nothing other than one of the most amazing combination of both visual and auditory flavours you'll have ever experienced: the Untiefe EP.

First course: The Hole. Not just any, the hole! While we kick things off with a rather grandiose, orchestral oomph, the arrangement quickly dissolves into all sorts of fluttery little sounds, until only the constant chime of a street crossing remains, as if to give Tom the go-ahead to lay his soul bare once again. Musings about the crippling nature of the titular hole in his chest quickly morph into a declaration of war against this stupid thing holding him back, his rage amplified by enormous war drums and the anarchistic Sinner voice filter returning in style. While the fast, shuffly drums and the massive waves of bass already do a great job to provide us with the energy needed to win against such a formidable foe, it's the second half's straight-up cathartic explosion of bass screaming all the accumulated pain out that really seals the deal. Tom has won, the hole is closing, it's almost over. But right at the end of this emotional, most marvellously beautiful of outros, Tom's anxiety creeps back in to ask one more question: Do you even want to heal your anxiety, your inner pain and trauma as an artist? Doesn't it just cause you to lose your edge, your artistic voice if you're just fully content with everything? (It doesn't, by the way)

Alright, enough interpretative overthinking, let's move on. Whereas the EP opener was still rather rebellious overall, Wish You Were Dead is more haunting in its vibe. In the misty rain we take a walk through the mysterious, rather creepy woods, brought to life by Tom's immaculate string arrangements, to get some fresh air. However, the voices inside our head are still just as omni-present as before. The voices of the people we lost along the way, the ones most important to us, whose essence still fiercely occupy our minds all these years later, to the point we just want to get rid of them through any means possible. An inherently human tragedy, once again effortlessly conveyed with an absolutely gorgeous arrangement of heartfelt vocals, orchestral wonderfulness and call-and-responses between floaty newschool melodicality and in-your-face heaviness.

Next up, something every single Tom Finster song has bucket loads of: Soul. This third exploration of Tom's emotional state sees him taking a look at the complex feelings that come along with an upbringing in the deepest corners of East Germany. As you can see on almost every single statistic, even more than 30 years after the unification of Germany, there's still a clear difference between the two sides. Sure, rent in the East is cheap, but the ripple effects of 45 years of division, the crushing ways that East Germany's companies were exploited post-unification and the depressing rise in popularity of right-wing mentality, especially in the police force, are just too soul-crushing to deny. Soul, the tune, is basically about Tom's eventual realisation that he doesn't want to spend even another minute "in this hell hole" anymore, instead trading it for the big city life in Leipzig. I especially love the last two outro lines calling into question this whole plan, it elevates the whole theme so much in my eyes. To not bum us out too much, Tom packages this depressing topic in a (relatively) cheerful little bop of a tune, with a delightful vocal sample, melancholic yet uplifting synths, a clap-along buildup and just one ear candy moment after the other.

Lastly, we've got Tom's mission statement for this whole project: No Compromise. As a creative of today, you feel all sorts of pressures, but the most restrictive one has got to be the pressure to actually make money with the art you spend so much time and energy on, simply to not become homeless. The anxiety of not knowing if enough people will connect with your creations to put food on the table is the thematic inception for the creative journey we embark on for this finale. Breaky, uniquely rhythmic drums, with a lovely snare that the VISION Radio crew aptly described as "cute", and satisfying bass movements, smoothly progressing until it reaches a simply wonderful climax - but wait, what is that in the distance? It's Tom with a sick rap breakdown outro! I cannot think of a better way to showcase your unwillingness to bend to the scene's wills than this.

Deeply personal, emotional storytelling, delivered via simply fantastic vocal performances and expansive, beautiful, sleak and heavy production - This is art. In a sea of never-ending bangers with twenty fake drops and wait samples, something this polished, this boundary-pushing and this conceptually whole deserves all the love it can get. So go listen to it already!

Other techy stuff from this week:

Finalfix - Patience
[BORDERS], Puzzle - Shine Light
Notequal - Bad Energy / Don't Call
howlan - tearing me apart
DIVICIOUX - Noise Cancelled
Xeonz - Gambit

2. Noise Parfumerie - Another Requiem EP 💎 [Kosenprod]

Recommended if you like: XAETIS, Current Value, Screamarts

Now that we've made it out of the scary Eastern German forest, let's get a change of scenery. How about Japan! Straight out of the bustling metropolis that is Tokyo, Genki Takahshi, also known as fashion model slash Neurofunk destruction machine, and also this week's Hidden Gem Of The Week™️, Noise Parfumerie, aims to not just be the next unremarkable in line to be forgotten about, but wants to bring an uniquely creative ethos of multi-genre chaos and destruction to the genre that's already aggressive to begin with: Neurofunk!

Of course, the full story goes back a few more years though. Back in 2018, Genki started sharing his very first few tunes, already dripping with his signature style, on compilations like Touhou Remix EDM3 and New Invoke Vol. 2. Or should I say signal-ture style? Why, you ask? Because he started his production journey out as Signal! You can probably already tell why Genki is running things under a different name nowadays, but back then, he was still mostly exploring stuff like Bass House, glitchy Electro, Dubstep and Halftime, so the crossover wasn't really there. The whole of electronic music probably has like 10 Signals, one more wouldn't really hurt. However, once Genki started exploring the heavily techy sides of drum and bass more and more, the name became a bit of a burden. IMANU might have already shedded his Signal alias at that point, but it was still kind of weird for him, even if he admitted that he did like the music coming from his Japanese counterpart.

After much consideration and brainstorming, a new name was found and finally unveiled in early 2022: Noise Parfumerie! Not only did his whole visual identity change to focus more on his fashion, his whole sound became so much more refined in its destructiveness that the visual identity tag line of "Unforgettable Sound" (Like A Perfume) became almost a threat. In a good way! Very soon after debuting the new branding, the madness would be broadcasted on all sorts of amazing labels on both the DnB front, from Sinful Maze to In The Lab, and the usually more multi-genre platforms like Electric Wave and hypernight, even resulting in the one and only VISION Radio giving him regular shout-outs. There was one imprint that always seemed to have pushed him to unleash only his most crazy output: french madhouse Kosen! After two already frankly ridiculous EPs on there, the Noise is now getting delightfully smelly again, on Another Requiem!

Right away, we're getting biblical, with EP opener Azazel. You might think this is a lovely little place to roam around in, but the bombs going off in the distance already frighten you a little, and before you know it, an appegiated piano jumps in, instantly making you feel like you've triggered a boss fight. Back-and-forths between a singular dramatic chord and hundreds of little quick-firing, brain-scritching stabby stabs evolve further and further, but it takes until the second half for the whole power to be unleashed. Wild, half-time rhythms with like 5 snares at once hitting you, heavy kicks on the search of their own rhythm, all of which jumping around in auditory space - what a massacre! Speaking of, next we've got Call You Out. Once again being lured in with an cinematic sounding atmosphere and a rather lovely vocal, we are then met with huge swaths of distorted everythings washing over us, introducing us to various different sounds we never heard before, full of ridiculous glitches and what not. What a ride!

A ride that isn't slowing down anytime soon, as we're now due to meet the Killer Queen. The name kind of gives it away that this visit won't be as cordial as you might expect from royalty, but you probably didn't expect it to become this messed up either. Some of the sounds on this I don't even have the vocabulary to describe, I just know it's getting crazier and crazier by the second. The snares are getting clonkier, the rhythms are getting wilder, but then also 4x4, but also Halftime, but then also back to syncopated wildness. Deranged. But, like, in a good way! Lastly, we're ending this lunatic craziness with One And Only Me. Appropriately, it is just as weird and indescribable, but I'll still try anyway. A rather industrial buildup gives way to an infectious, but deeply weird, hammering rhythm with the strangest sound design on everything, which once again evolves to become clonkier, heavier, pots-and-pans-ier, until suddenly, the ultra mega laserbeam is engaged and destroys every and anything in its path.

Uncompromising, rebellious, banging - No one does it quite like Noise Parfumerie.

Other Neuro from this week:

Audio - Invasion
Teddy Killerz - Johera
Dub Elements, MIDNIGHT CVLT, Coppa - Keep The Energy Up
Various Artists - Transmissions Pt.1 💎
Absu_NTQL, Karpa - Strange