Picks Of The Week (08.06.24

1. Xylym - Doomsday EP [Eatbrain]

Recommended if you like: Sitri, The Clamps, Prolix

Of course I always try to broaden the subgenre spectrum on here as far and wide as possible, listening to everything DnB-related under the sun and featuring as many different artists and labels as I can, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't still absolutely loving the Neurofunk coming out of Jade's legendary beatforge Eatbrain. Not only are they doing a lot to diversify their output in recent times, with the likes of Screamarts, Clikvork and MIDNIGHT CVLT bringing in different heavy vibes among the usual suspects like Mizo and Teddy Killerz, they are also doing a massive service for all the upcoming artist in the scene with their immense Divergence series, which saw its fifth iteration bulldoze everything in its way across two massive parts earlier this year. Of course we've had the likes of Burr Oak, Gydra or State Of Mind providing some proper filth there, but you know which name (once again) excited me the most on the lineup? Xylym!

You might still remember our little venture into the crazed coated maniac's laboratory back in 2022, when he turned all sorts of Neuroheadz with his epic contribution to the Newcomer-award-winning imprint's first ever compilation, but Mitchell has of course kept up the momentum by putting more and more of his extraordinarily wild ideas to auditory paper, so let's briefly recap what happened since then! With one promo video more entertaining than the other, to the point where I suspect he's only doing this music thing to have an excuse to do fun promos, Mitchell not only released some rather explosive mixtures on Abducted and Hoofbeats, the goateed madman also shelled some of them onto the unsuspecting masses on the Dancefloors of Neuroheadz festival and Ana Crusis' and Vanguard's Halloween Neuro extravaganza. Oh yeah, and he was part of Divergence V, duh! Now, just a little under two months later, the Xylymaniac already returns to consuming cerebral matter again, with the four-track solo outing, Doomsday!

Everyone knows Neurofunk track titles can sometimes be a bit overbearing. Invoking grandiose concepts like the apocalyptical hell on earth or some fantastical yet horrific monster attacks is a bit of a rite of passage. Sometimes these heavy associations are earned, sometimes they are not really. Lucky for us, EP opener Doomsday firmly belongs in the former camp. Not only have we got a truly wonderfully dramatic intro of not just epic fashion but at 2 minutes also epic length, the combo of ethereal choirs, judgement day documentary sample and haunting pianos actually pays off even harder than the wildest of wild expectations raised by said intro. A genuinely humongous wall of bass vibrates every molecule of your being out of its chemically-bound orbit, rattling your soul in a way I can guarantee it hasn't been in a while, but before you can even comprehend what's happening to you, Mitchell violently throws you into a fast-paced chase with naughty bass stabs firing off behind you in insanely quick succession. Not to mention the steppy switch halfway through, the hype as hell-on-earth 4x4 buildup, and many more fun goodies along the way - an absolute delight of a tune and easily one of my favourites of the year so far.

However, we are not losing energy in the followup, Stone Cold Killer, featuring Bristol's finest MC Zeph Miles, who you might know as the host of some of the DnB capital's sickest raves thrown by the wonderful Basscamp gang and his bars on Mojay's latest DeVice tune and, it turns out, Xylym's 2020 Corridors Of Death double single on C2D! Once again, they show us just how well they can work together, with Zeph going a hundred miles a minute with one Zephire bar after the other, and Xylym bringing a dangerous cocktail of the purest energy sure to cause bassfaces all around the country, drums so hard you cannot resist a little skank and a switchup into a straight-up swinging, funky rhythm that gets me goin' every single time.

Retcon takes a similar amount of prisoners (around the zero mark), with the extremely forward-pushing, raw drumwork, the simple yet infectious syncopation-fueled lead melody, and another ever-evolving arrangement taking us deep into steppy territory for that little extra boost of energy creating a super potent chemical reaction in everyone who hears it. Lastly, we end this world's story not with a whimper, but a bang, with Paradox. This time around, Mitchell's raw energy is fused with Luke SCALEZ Scott's very fonky-fresh sensibilities you've maybe already experienced on all the best underground Neurofunk labels out there, resulting in an interplay between a rhythm as heavy in its syncopation as in its sheer weight and one that's pushing the sense of speed to its Xylimits.

If this is what doomsday sounds like, then bring it on already! Wall-to-wall hughe Mitshellers.

Other Neurofunk from this week:

First Person - Disconnected Society EP Remixed
Finalfix, Neolyth - Cerberus
Various Artists - Darkshire Sound VA
Impex - Need More 💎
Various Artists - Next Gen // Neural Shock 💎

2. coil circuit - Elska / Caffeine [VALE]

Recommended if you like: Tryst Temps, Mylo Fane, Circumference

From a repeat customer on this format, we now move on over to one that's already been on my radar as a sick producer for a while, but has amped up the quality of his output so damn much in recent times, that he has become one of my favourite names to read in my release radar: coil circuit!

For once, the story of this particularly talented newcomer does not involve me going through 10 years of Facebook page entries - because Alexander Prokhorov, the Russian lad behind the project, is only 17 years old. While he must've been producing for quite some time during his even earlier days already, with vague mentions of Riddim and Psychedelic Rock works in some posts online, the first "real" output of his seems to have come to light in 2022. On early Ambient tracks like paranoia or his contribution to the colossal remix project of Sorrow's 21.12.2012, a community effort in which he had heavily partaken in, Alexander showed off his musical sensibilities effortlessly, while not shying away from the heavier sounds, like on his Halftime banger Smoke. The multi-genre ride did not break off for a while, with especially his collaborations with Rhino Betatron, Stasys, MANSTRETTA (and that's just one tune!) and Snakeface showing how well his touches can function outside of the established genre boundaries, but more and more, the 170+ bpm influences started seeping in.

Of course, most obviously, we can point to his remix of Sign's Clockwork determines our order as the first DnB release of his on the record, but even a tune that starts off rather slow-paced like journey through our minds on Intrinzic ends up taking a journey up to Breaks-y tempo, with all sorts of wonderfully weird drumwork and incredible sound design to boot. Alex already teased a lot of DnB in both volumes of his circuitry & coils ID showcases, and with the advent of 2024, a lot more of it finally started making its way out into our world! Alongside some multi-genre vibes on his self-released Synesthesia EP, we've got DnB in the form of Eclipse on sanctuary, Control on All172Things, and Chrome on In The Lab's recent incredible VA EP - hell yes. Plus his insanely good 12-hour contribution to Kunas' Chasing remix competition, with which he took the bronze medal!

In between all these sick releases, Mr. circuit also participated in all sorts of online production activities, like A.Fruit's dots Rendah Mag Cypher or WEAREHUMANS' epic team battle against the 400 community. That's right, coil circuit is a regular part of Tom Finster's and barking continues' at this point scene-Donkonquering feedback stream community! I swear this isn't even planned or anything, but the talent being nurtured by the Bierle-obsessed German sadbois is simply so Donkongsistently out-of-this-world, I'll probably continue regularly dropping references to them for the foreseeable future.

This week, Alexander shared the vibiest, most forward-thinking creations straight outta his coil cirkitchen yet, with Elska / Caffeine on Nik P's VALE! Wasting no time at all, Elska rolls into action right away, where a juicy cocktail of short yet all the more sweet bass-powered waves of wind-chime-like bleepy bloops, a pinch of shuffly, techy and occasionally even breaky drums and a shot of background vocals to complete the picture all come together to create a uniquely vibey sensation no listener's brain will be prepared for. From the cheeky bassline and the seemingly live-recorded drums in its intro, one might think Caffeine will go down a more acoustic route, but fret not, dear bass lover, once we arrive at drop territory, the production stimulates the central nervous system into overdrive by skyrocketing over to "crazy out-there" production levels once more. Not only are those same bassline stabs now supercharged, they also fight a constant battle against mind-rattlin', heavily distorted vibrations, waves of carnage bubbling up more and more, and what sounds like some fun reversed sound effects - I love it!

Rewiring my cerebroil circuitry, two outstanding tunes at a time.

Other techy stuff from this week:

Misanthrop - Maverick
A.way - Primal Instinct
VENAL, Imou - Interference 💎
Aku - Painful Thoughts
Sign - Accent VIP
Cutworx - Bone Jacket EP