Picks Of The Week (25.05.24

1. Circadian - Energy In Motion [Sleepless Music]

Recommended if you like: SOTA, Junk Mail, Tantrum Desire

Alright alright, after this one, we simply have to talk about Circadian. Sorry for appropriating your phrasing there, UKF.

While the project has only emerged in April of 2023 and is thus still a rather new name, it's hard to picture the current DnB landscape without crowds all over the world hollering along to Circadian tunes. Circadianthems, as I like to call them. After debuting with the ever-present and already-VIP'd Body Work, which saw so much support across the Dancefloor scene at large it's probably easier to list off the people who didn't play it since its release, we've seen collaborations with Koven, Dirtyphonics and man of the hour and season-haver SOTA, and remixes for Basement Jaxx's legendary Good Luck and Remember off of Friction's latest album, across both Elevate and Monstercat. It's hard to overstate how omni-present and hyped-up every single one of these tunes have been. Of course, there's a reason why this particular newcomer is this amazing.

It's not even any hidden reason or anything, but I've learned that surprisingly few people seem to know this: The man responsible for it all is none other than Brighton-lad Chris Garvey, in other words one former half of The Prototypes! Even if you were somehow not in the know about this, in my ears it's basically obvious from the insanely high production level, the immaculate talent for catchy melodies and the sheer danceability all across the board - but back to the story at hand (don't worry, we'll do a proper deep dive eventually). How did we get here? Well, you see, after years upon years of widespread international success, basically smashing every goal you could possibly have as a drum and bass act together with his Prototight buddy Nick, it was a particularly bad brush with full-blown hospital-visits-causing anxiety, exacerbated by, you know, the worldwide pandemic and all that came along with that at the time, that lead him to pull away from the project.

However, the more fun and upfront nature of the contemporary DnB of the past few years brought him right back in - this time ridin' solo though. Inspired by the strange sleep schedules you end up with as an internationally touring DJ, something he vividly got reminded of during one of the pandemic-era tours through Oceania, Chris decided to rebrand himself as Circadian. Like the rhythm, you know. Now, approaching this whole DnB thing from a whole 'nother (Circadi)angle, he's once again blowing me and the whole scene away with one banger after the other.

The latest one being the already infamous Energy In Motion! In classic Garveyian fashion, we ease into this instant classic's auditory landscape with an atmosphere so thick even your finest machete couldn't make a dent into it. Oscillating synths so entrancing you might space out on the sentence you were gonna write for you review paired with a classic neuroscience-themed documentary type vocal sample lead us into what might be my favourite call-and-responses of 2024, a back and forth I can only describe as BAM BAM BAM DUDUDU DUDUDU. If you don't know what I mean by that, then go listen to the tune already, what are you even doing just reading this without listening?! After teasing us with said straight-up legendarily catchy formula, Chris effortlessly flicks on the hyperdrive (emphasis on hype), launching us into orbit, before unleashing this incredibly addictive elixir of pure madness onto the masses, violently janking us back down onto the Dancefloor again. Plus, that little fakeout on the DUDUDU part of the drop is just delightful! No wonder this one's being released via Wilkinson's immaculate Sleepless imprint, I certainly could not find any sleep since this release dropped.

A (Circadi)endlessly replayable, (Chris Gar)playfully danceable, pure dose of dopameanness. I love it.

Other Dancefloor from this week:

Andromedik, RANI - Bleed The Same
Various Artists - Future Fiire Vol.4
The Prototypes - Hyperspeed
Flowidus - Berlin Sex Club (great track title)

2. MIYAMORO - Your Love / Dream (Enough) 💎 [DIVIDID]

Recommended if you like: Niallo, [BORDERS], The Outsiders

Another week, another out-of-this-world debut release on DIVIDID.

While the W's that the Dutch imprint with a penchant for only the most musically well-rounded, superbly produced and crazily futuristic drum and bass out there have been extremely common in recent times, most of which I featured on here, I will not stop talking about them anytime soon. Not when they're this good and coming from this talented of newcomers. So who's the brilliantly gifted producer debuting on ABIS' watch this time? MIYAMORO, this week's Hidden Gem Of The Week™️!

Of course, you know the drill of these Hidden Gems by now, say it with me: There's always more story to tell, even when it's their literal first release! To cover the whole musical history of the British lass behind this excellent project, Alicia Ann Mills, we need to back to 2020. Oh, wait, that instagram caption seems to be wrong, we actually have to go to 2017, because that's when she started DJing and producing, according to the caption on her Dynamics guest mix. But why does her artist page go all the way back to 2014 then? As is sadly quite usual, with every rebrand, most of the actual information about the previous aliases is simply scrubbed from all the socials, so I'm gonna do what's called a pro gamer move: I'll guess a whole lot. I'm slightly sorry for the incoherence that's about to follow.

While the artist page goes back to a time when Alicia was going by her real name, my first guess is that this page used to be a place for a different creative endeavour of hers, and was simply retooled when she started her career in music. My second guess is that the first artist name on the page, Milque, that was in use from 2015 to 2016, was also still not music related - here we are entering very unsure territory though. What I'm slightly more sure of is that in 2016, with the advent of her second artist name M O N T E M E, we slowly but surely saw some musical activity, but the real kick-off arguably only came when the Miya Moro rebrand arrived in 2018.

As part of Bristol-based collective Concrete Jungyals, she brought her fable for the more eclectic side of bass music in the 160+ bpm ranges to stages all around the drum and bass capital, and even to the sunny shores of Hospitality On The Beach. Plus, 2018 also saw her production debut, Ghost, make a freely downloadable splash on the late and great Fuck About!'s debut release, further complicating the whole timeline here. At the tail end of 2022, Alicia got chosen as one of the mentees for Overview and Dynamics' collaborative Womxn mentoring program, following in the footsteps of the likes of Sequent, [IVY] and many more. Not only was she able to level up her production skills through the countless music production and theory lessons provided by the programme, she was also able to learn about the business side of things, making (what I assume to be) valuable connections across the scene along the way.

Now, after all this mess of a backstory (sorry again), freshly rebranded as MIYAMORO and nowadays Manchester-based, Alicia makes her first official splash on the scene, with Your Love / Dream (Not Enough) on the mighty DIVIDID. A debut so good, she already earned herself a UKF upload! So let's check this one out then, shall we?

Gentle piano chords echoing out into the distance alongside fading memories of children playing outside already prepare us for the emotionally charged journey we are going to go on with Your Love, but only when the wonderfully hyperpop'd vocal sample comes in do we grasp the direction it'll all take us. A controlled arrangement of otherworldly basses and spliced-up-and-back-together vocal bits and bops smoothly flows into the wildfire storm of in-your-face syncopated drumwork and fluttery ray-of-alien-sunshine synth stabs that is the drop. What a statement of intent! Continuing on with the fusion of nostalgic and futuristic, Dream (Not Enough) treats us to sharp string-like stings, another delightfully distorted vocal and warm, vibey bass whomps, while the audio audibly crackles on in the background. Of course, Alicia knows that a dreamy intro is (not enough) for you bass-craving lot, and promptly unleashes a heavily breaky riddim, with all sorts of catchy vocal choppin', brain-tickling vibrating basses and fantastically fantastical synths to go along with it.

Ridiculous rhythmic arrangements, dissonant yet pleasing melodies crafted through mindbending sounddesign, unusual in all the right ways. I want MIYAMORE.

Other techy stuff from this week:

INVOLVER - Lost
DIVICIOUX - Lose My Breath
Maze - You Proved Me Wrong
Dapreme - You
Aksel - FAE 💎
Malixe - Jaded