Picks Of The Week (20.04.24

1. Various Artists - Rollout Remixed Vol.1 [Rollout Records]

Recommended if you like: Revan, Molecular, Theoretical

Even though I try my best to cover as much ground as possible, at least in the wide but still limited area of "DnB that I like", there's still so much more to explore. To eliminate some of my admittedly massive blind spots in the deep and dark area, let's put a big ol' spotlight on a rather big anniversary project by an imprint whose 360° One Foot Grabs and other rollerblade tricks I totally didn't have to google have been turning all sorts of headz in the underground lately: Rollout Records!

While we're celebrating only the 3rd anniversary of the platform created by Simon Codling here, its roots actually take us all the way back to 2016! Under the banner of Strictly Rollers, Simon started sharing his love for, well, mostly rollers through both his regular Roller Of The Day posts, which smashed the 100 entries mark by the end, and the SRS mix series featuring the likes of Phentix, missledz, Counter Culture and many more. By the time 2019 rolled around, Simon wanted to get even more involved with the scene, now also building up a portfolio of Free Downloads supplied by his favourite underrated artists around, like VEX, Dubbruvas and Dis:turbed. Of course, Simon had now tasted blood and decided to level things up even further, by turning Strictly Rollers into a full-blown label, Rollout Records! Just like their favourite subgenre, the imprint has been steadily rolling out some very sick deep cuts from the likes of Octavate, VEX (again), Drelio and Bassdubbers, and even putting on some rather sick shows at their home turf in Leeds.

Now, they brought on some of their favourite artists of the deep roller scene to reimagine some of the label's biggest tunes so far - a great chance for me to talk about a whole lot of artists I never mention usually!

We start things off with a remix for High Wycombian producer Matt Coyle aka Mrk-One and his trusty mate Alex Prescott, also known as Prez MC, delivered by London-born but Bristol-based Jesse Weisz and Jersey-born but Vienna-based Sam Barnes, better known as ZeroZero. With both of them growing up in quite the musical environment, Jesse playing the piano and Sam both the trumpet and the guitar, and at least Sam already having gained a ton of production experience through his work with Jersey-based duo Terminal State, it makes a lot of sense that they immediately jumped on the collab train as soon as they met during their studies in Amsterdam and that around 2015, the first few bits of their collaborative output as the newly created ZeroZero, already saw the light of day. Whether together with regular collaborator Teknian, with whom they actually remixed the legendary Evol Intent, or on their own, they quickly made their mark on (mrk-one?) the scene with releases on ProgRAM (RIP), SGN:LTD, Fokuz and Cyberfunk. The way they ZeroZeroed in on their sound didn't just impress the underground labels though, they soon found the likes of Dispatch, Rebel, Flexout, Sofa Sound, Truth Hertz and DARKMTTR taking a liking to their tunes, worked together with all sorts of sick people like Ill Truth, Creatures, Kolectiv and Brain, shared their gathered knowledge along the way through their very own preset label OneZero (and various other avenues) and smashed up the Dance wherever they went.

For their remix of Mkr-One's Jaded, they completely flipped the script of the lushly rolling liquid original, injecting it with all sorts of heavily distorted wub action, steppier drums and a general sense of flow that just sticks in your brain for ages afterwards. Considering how chill the original is, it's actually crazy how well Prez MC's vocal fits this new direction. If you compare the two versions, you realise just how excellent of a job the ZeroZero bois did at incorporating it into their new vision. His voice echoes in the background during the instrumental parts, his bars and the distorted rhythms got this fun back-and-forth going, but my favourite part has got to be the little details like that extra glitchy sound on "Snap back" or the record scratch when Prez says "Scratch that". A lot of fun!

Next, we've got a Hispaulistanoan tale of two Garcias: Spanish producer Jose Manuel Garcia Adorna, or Drelio, who's been going at it since 2021 with releases on Parallel Depth, Citrus and Dissonance, has been remixed by probably the most prolific artist around, João Garcia Neto aka Dunk! While the focus on this particular project is still relatively recent, Senhor Afundanço has been around for a long time already. Just like his love for music has always been ranging across the aisle, from 2Pac and Techno all the way to Hype's True Playaz output, the São Paulo based deep and dark master has also been dipping his toes into all sorts of things, like his House and Techno experiments in 2010, but his true passion has always been DnB. Together with his brother Guilherme, he not only started DJing (on CCE turntables!), but also created their own bangers, under the Jam Thieves banner. Across a decade of excellence, they brought all sorts of Brazilian heat to fire up dancefloors all over the world, most notably on Play- and Serial Killaz, but in 2020 João simply had to break free from it all, and start Dunking on the deep and dark scene, this time on his own!

And man, did he ever do that, so many times over. As soon as he started the project, the release madness began (deep inhale): Four Corners, Vandal, Pick The Lock, Skankandbass, ProgRAM (RIP²), Playaz, 31, RUN, Engage, Chronic, Bowlcut (RIP), Co-Lab, SINE, Soulvent, DEM, Impact, Midas Touch, DARKMTTR, T3K and Delta9 (that's not even the end of the list), multiple albums on Dispatch, and more remixes than you could ever count. Just this year, he's already had 9 releases, multiple of which were full-blown EPs. What an absolute work horse!

Who better to remix Drelio's Rave Tools than someone who's got probably more than a hundred of them under his belt at this point? Everything in Dunk's remix is strung together just that little bit tighter, beefed up just a little bit more, the vocals interspersed just different enough, that it almost feels like a continuation or a VIP of the original, just injected with that extra special sauce minimalistic Brazilian energy. A banger, one might even call it.

Next, we jump back over to the UK, where Chris Brown got the remix treatment. No, not that one, I'm of course talking about the Chris Brown from Hull, who's been part of the game since way back in 2012, but has really kicked his musical career into high gear since 2020, delivering some proper tunage on Subplate, Hyperactivity and Rollout, as VEX. That name again! So, who did the remix then? Justin Minor Forms Mann! Musically shaped by his upbringing in London, full of vinyl mixing sessions and visits to London's Black Market in Soho with his brother Karl, and his years-long stint in Manchester absorbing the vibrant electronic scene there, it's no surprise to me or anyone really that he started producing his own chunes at only 16 years of age. At some point, him, his brother and his good friend Tommy Emrich-Mills, also known as Composite, started working on music together, and not much later, Arcatype was born. After their 2015 debut on Ingredients Records, they also brought their carefully assembled sonics to the likes of CIA, Vandal, Symmetry and Carbon.

In the gaps of their relatively sparse release calendar, Justin started his journey as a solo artist, as Minor Forms. The connections he made through the work as Arcatype meant he could quickly amass releases on many of the same labels I just mentioned, but he's also become known to work with the likes of Sofa Sound, Delta 9 and Overview. Collaborations were still very much his thing though, as evidenced by not just his many features with Kublai and Zero T, but also by his collaborative project with Berlin-based newcomer Refine called Re:Forms, through which he expanded his label catalogue to now also include SINE and ProgRAM (RIP³).

While the VEX original™️ Selector is already quite the heavy one, Minor Forms took it to a whole 'nother level! Fully focusing on the rhythmic potential of The Wub, while also adding a ton of fun new details and all sorts of other new stabby sounds, Justin gives the whole concept such a massive push, it crosses over to exceptional levels of heaviness. Or should I say VEXceptional?

For the last stop, we remain in the UK for a bit longer, as we take a look at a remix for Anders Coop Jensen's and George Exult Bunell's project Octavate. After being brought together at DnB Academy's BASSCAMP event in Portugal, where they were tutored by people like Current Value, Molecular and ZeroZero (oh hey!), they quickly started pushing out their own versatile brand of DnB, ranging from deepness on Dispatch and Rollout, to dubby stuff on Jungle Cakes, to rolling vibes on Soulvent, to even some Neuro for the -headz. For this one, Rollout rolled it back to the very beginning of their journey, and got Hereford-based producer Adam Henton, aka Dis:turbed on board - the guy who, together with Array, did the first ever free download for Rollout! Adam got his start into this whole mess by uploading a proper smorgasbord of mixes from 2018 on, but his first productions followed rather quickly the next year. A couple really well performing free downloads turned into releases on Parallel Depth, Fuck About! (RIP) and his very own imprint Identity Records. Established in 2020, Identity hasn't just been a haven for his own tunes though, we've also got up-and-comers like Illament or Resslek and even names that I wasn't aware of at all before, like Recon and Sonic Trace showing off their skills.

So what did Adam the madman do for his remix of Octavate's Teeth N Lips? Well, in the original, you've got this great minimal bassline in the background, with the occasional wub, wrapped into this insanely progressing, very real-sounding (for lack of a better description) drum action. Instead of going that route, Dis:turbed amplifies the menacing nature of the ominous bassline, dis:turning it into this all-consuming cloud of darkness, swallowing up each and every single one of the atmospheric sounds that try to break through and tickling my brain in all the right places in the process. Once again a rather different approach, working super well.

Happy anniversary to the team at Rollout! May your quest for the strictest of rollers, delivered by the sickest of newcomers, continue for as long as the currently seemingly never-ending well of underground sonics doesn't dry up.

Other deep and dark stuff from this week:

Kimyan Law - Coltan
Hugh Hardie - Brawler
Various Artists - XOU001, Pt. 2
Creatures - Creatures LP
Son - Move
Nesbra - Fallen Angel