Picks Of The Week (06.07.24

1. Solomon France - Crisis / Magazine [Monstercat]

Recommended if you like: Boxplot, Mazare, Indie Pop Punk

I try my best to keep expanding the selection of artists I feature on here, for example via Hidden Gem™️ spotlights or deep dives into established artists I had not talked about on here yet, for whatever reason. Sometimes, however, a previously featured artist comes back with a release so bitchin', so far out, so radical that I just cannot help but get out the ol' surfboard and ride the same wave again. Let's talk about Solomon France!

Good-memory-havers will surely remember all the ruckus I made about Monsieur Française's Locals EP back in 2023, even-better-brain-enjoyers will know we were getting wavey with the pure gasøline the surf master himself had been pouring all over us in 2021 already, back when his Colour Bass Jump Up era was not a distant memory yet, and my fellow goldfish brain friends will just have to freshen up on the full lore over in these old threads today. You know what though, I think we should recap what the Newchâteau resident has been up to since all that.

With both his nipples and buttcrack firmly exposed, and both his bread and his management now being fat cats, his slay era has been in full swing. Not only has he been rizzing it up with Monsterkitty regular Just A Gent and most blomiest, surprisingly German shooting star Blooom, he also finally started to Solo-moan into the mic himself! These brand new noises were debuted on last year's New Noise compilation on Dim Mak, but Pilot got a good taste of the future Indie popstar's vocal fry loads too, alongside a couple of RIENKy hijinks on Viper and a minxy remix for Flux Pavillion and his cage.

Now, he's adding yet another rather big feline to his Curricucum Vitae: Monstercat! While crashing on Lucas Hailure's couch during his tour in New Zealand, an email from the monstrosities arrived in his inbox: They needed tracks for the new Rocket League season! Of course, Solomon already had something in mind, but thought, hey, why not try to write another banger with the Kiwi breakbeat breakdown breakout star while he was there anyway?

The result: Crisis! Okay, I have to get serious here for a second. This tune is phenomenal. Right out the gate, 'mon unleashes the most wonderful arrangement of gnarly, glorious guitars with such powerful drum action behind it that I was already fully convinced I would love the rest of the tune as well, and that Instinct proved to be right. Get it, like the Monstercat sublabel it was released on? Eh? Ha! Heh heh. After that brief shot of Indie Pop espresso, we take it down to just a vibey bass guitar and soft background drums, to allow Hailure to smoothly build up the energy with his delightful vocal action. Soon enough, the corners of my mouth are launched into outer space from the sheer loveliness that is the explosion of ingenious drum and guitar chord action and Hailure kicking it up from great to outstanding, with a performance that is currently, and hopefully also in all perpetuity, living rent free in my head. And it just keeps going like that?? With an insane Halftime breakdown and an outrageous guitar solo(mon)? And just, like, being amazing in all of the ways all the way to the end?!

After all this, the B-side has a lot to live up to, but Magazine pulls it off seamlessly. With regular feature guest and songwriter, topliner, vocal producer and -ist RIENK, who you might also know from me mentioning him two paragraphs ago or singing on tunes by Maduk, Mazare, Andromedik and even Pythius, on vocal duties also delivering an intensely catchy, anthemic hip-swinger of a performance, we're already halfway there, and thanks to another unhealthy dose of Indie dreaminess, full of surfy guitar vibes and fast-paced drumminess, the balls have been firmly knocked out of the park again. Ouchie. Plus, I love literally everything about that breakdown, but especially RIENK's powerful screams.

In a teaser post on Twitter, he has called these, alongside Paradise by the way, the best pieces of music he has ever written, and I'm inclined to agree. I mean, it only makes sense that he would come up with some solomonstrously good tunes for his debut on Solomonstercat.

Other Dancefloory vibes from this week:

Maduk, Lexurus, Crooked Bangs - Follow My Heart
Oliverse, Ellii - wish.
Leemo, Faye - Out Of Time
Tengu, Betts - Light The Fire
Sly Chaos - Let It Burn EP

2. Drumsik - Thought you'll never ask [Plat:form]

Recommended if you like: Buunshin, Maysev, Tom Finster

From a repeat offender to a name I am actually surprised I never managed to feature so far: let's talk about Drumsik!

Toronto-born, but Belgrade-raised-and-based, Andreja Mavrenovic started his musical journey at the age of 7, with the purchase of his very first guitar. Throughout his later school years, electronic music seemed to overtake anything else on his agenda though, and soon enough, he was suckered so deep into it that he got into production! I haven't found much about anything in between, but around 2018 Andreja decided his drum and bass creations needed a name to be released under: Drumsik! Just a year later, his first few EPs full of liquid goodness with a touch unique techiness were starting to drop on none other than the legendary Bad Taste Recordings, but it was 2020 when things really got rolling, in many ways. Well, two ways. I apologize for misleading you about the number of ways. His slightly heavier collaborative effort with Bohemian, which is also where I hopped onto the Drumsik hype train, got an upload on Blackout's YouTube channel, his excellent Noise In My Mind EP full of techy rolly bangers got spotlighted on Noisia Radio not just once but twice, Madman got premiered on René LaVice's BBC Radio 1 show and Mind got the Blackout treatment as well.

Still underrated like crazy, at least in my eyes, Andreja continued to drum up some more sik support with his productions, with two tunes off of his 2021 Shatter EP getting the René LaVice treatment again, but after that, it was studio hiatus time. That is, unless you look at the other projects he had going on at that time: Not only had he started playing the guitar for Different Kind Of Jazz, all this time he had also been producing jingles for commercials and podcasts, writing music for short films and all that kind of jazz - you know, making a living with his sound engineering skills. Of course, we're interested in the drums(ik) and the basses here, so we jump forward to 2023, when he showed off his new sound, chiseled into more technically advanced form than ever before! Right away, his return from the hiatus, a double single on OH DELA, got premiered on Drum&Bass Arena and VISION Radio, and his return to the soulful liquid vibes, his self-released Soul Tapes EP, even earned himself a UKF upload!

Even with this kind of scene-wide support, which is the main reason I cannot call him a Hidden Gem by the way, I still am of the firm belief that Drumsik's music is entirely too underrated and deserves to be pushed on all possible platforms. Czech Republic based label Plat:form agrees! :Formed in 2021, which is also when we first took a look at the exciting then-brand-new imprint, the gang consisting of Rido, Phonetick and Holotrope has been tearing up the scene with one banger release after the other, from both the aforementioned assumed label operations team (there's still not a whole lot of info about Plat:form out there) and other friends like Thez, Malcuth and Seekraze. While not necessarily the most prolific label out there, each and every release they push out into the world manages to be of such high quality that they have become a regular on VISION Radio, and, might I add, deservedly so. Plus, the semi-regular Plat:form Podcast mix series they've got going is also wonderful.

... and so is Drumsik's newest chune on the plat:form, Thought you'll never ask! In fact, it's arguably one of his finest works so far, and remember, I was already a huge fan of his before! The buildup atmosphere, with lo-fi footstep type clappy snares ominously approaching and synths I can only describe as supernatural floating around, is not just eerie, it's a blood-curling soundtrack that causes my brain to flash all sorts of uncanny liminal spaces at me. Before we are out too cold, however, Andreja turns on the heat with a truly massive, supercharged synth that just oozes melancholic otherworldliness, while all sorts of jaggedy twitches and sharp twists bleep in and out around you and proper unique little snares keep you swinging forward. Of course, this doesn't last all too long either though, and we are thrown back into the abyss of audio crackles, all-around unidentifiable sounds and analog frequencies slowly but surely overwhelming your senses, until the larger-than-life synth walls take charge again, this time even more gargantuan, somehow.

Listening to it again and again for this review, I am still, or rather even more so than at first, in awe of all the little details, the quality, the sheer talent on display here. Breathtaking.

Other techy/unique vibes from this week:

DIVICIOUX - Holding On 2 U
Camo & Krooked, Mefjus - Lies
Various Artists - Matter:3 💎
Bungle - Flashback
Hyperlynx - Haunted / Purgatory