Picks Of The Week (03.08.24

1. Tom Finster - Untiefer EP [Pilot]

Recommended if you like: Fade Black, Buunshin, Camo & Krooked

Roughly half a year on from his stunning Untiefe EP, which we dissected in-tiefe on here, freshly-crowned Central Germany's Best Producer Thomas Küchler, aka Tom Finster, takes us another few stations deeper into his artistic soul, with his new Untiefer EPilogue on the lovely Pilot (an EPilotue?). As you might know, it's a little unusual for me to go back to an artist we've already talked about in much-deserved detail so soon, but with tunes like this, I've frankly got no choice but to draw up yet another love letter to DnB's most talented, most humblest, most artistically honest humans around.

If you don't know what I mean, just listen to mini-EP opener Hey Now. While I would love for it to be a Smashmouth cover, we actually arrive to the scene to hear Tom pleading with his significant other in the middle of an emotionally tense argument. Same vibes basically. Just this little intro already showcases the wonderful excellence dripping out of anything Tom is artistically involved in, with a woodsy atmosphere to die for, piano organ synth chords evolving into an orchestral wall of pure emotion, and a heartfelt and intimate, once again outstanding vocal performance by the man himself, but the culmination of all this tension, the drop, is something to behold as well. The disagreement blows up into a full-blown argument, an aggressive back-and-forth between intensely fierce stabs on one side and uniquely melancholic pondering, that leaves our protagonist with blades in his back and a whole lot of talking without a clear answer to the actual problem, which escalates right back into the whirlwind of misunderstanding, before we slowly unravel from the madness of it all with an outro that is just straight-up lovely.

Next, we've got his and his Donkongenial human partner barking continues' most mindblowing protégé yet, Lukher, turning the underrated Untiefe original No Compromise into one of the, if not the, uncompromisingly hugest tunes of the entire year. Before I get into it, however, can I just say how amazing it has been to witness this talented as kurwa yet incredibly nice newcomer's rise in our little scene? Not only has he now managed to snag himself a UKF premiere with this one, I've also heard so many established to straight-up legendary artists at this year's festival circuit playing out his music - I'm just so happy to see him being recognised like that! Now, let's take a lukh at this newest one: Built around mostly the higher-pitched, titular snippet of Tom's Hip-Hop-infused vocal, Lukher decided to tackle the original's uniquely composed, more subdued stream of ear candy with so much force, that we end up becoming witnesses to an explosion of pure sound-design energy unlike anything else. Where the original takes us deep into our protagonist's inner artistic workings, Lukher instead lets out a straight-up mental scream of artistic expression, shouting the impossible to ignore, elephantesque trumpeting of his impossibly huge creations out into the world. After such an emotionally and physically exhaustive (in a positive way!) experience, we slow down into the superbly vibey House-y second half, showing just how wide-ranging Lukher's production skillset is.

We let the EP come to an end with an extra special reimagination of Wish You Were Dead. In this Reprise closing statement, Tom cranks up the vibe factor to a billion, easing us into this particular version with a lo-fi aesthetic I cannot get enough of, full of heavily audible audio crackles and distantly artifact-filled vocals, before bringing it back to the front of it all, together with a most wonderful piano and an orchestral arrangement so intricately detailed and larger-than-life that it wouldn't even surprise me if he got a full-scale symphony orchestra to perform this one. Considering he is the only credit, however, it is probably all him, which is just crazy to me.

At this point, and of course just in my humble opinion, no one in the scene can hold a candle to the music coming out of the WeAreHumans camp. Tom Finster is simply one of the most technically proficient, most emotionally honest, most artistically laser-focused producers in the drum and bass scene right now, and you would be a fool not to check his stuff out at least once.

2. Eluun, Tryst Temps, Fryware - OMEN / ICARUS / HERSEY 💎 [DIVIDID]

Recommended if you like: Maysev, Aegis, [BORDERS]

From one returning champion we jump over to the next, perhaps lesser-known repeat offender on this format: Eluun! Perhaps you will remember Mona L'Huillier's exciting moniker (monaker) from her uniquely melodic contribution to Blackout's third Adaptations compilation earlier this year, or maybe your mind remembers the little deep dive into her backstory we did for exactly that release - if none of this applies to you, then let me show you what wonderfulness this week's Hidden Gem Of The Week™️ is capable of, on her brand new triple single on seriously one of the best labels around, the one and only DIVIDID.

This new batch of niceness starts off with OMEN, a collaboration with fellow Frenchie Tryst Temps, who we owe a bit of an introduction to in my opinion!

While definitely breaking through on a whole 'nother level these past few years, Tristan Valentin has been putting music out there since way back in 2015, with the earliest still-online pieces, from around 2018-ish, already releasing under the Tryst Temps banner. Just sometimes spelled more french than other times, or sometimes with a dash in between or something. As part of the Contrasted Collective, he also started making a name for himself on the DJing side of things, and in 2019, his first official releases started rolling in. After a debut on EXOTIKS, the carousel took him to the likes of 4NC¥, Hyperactivity, Impact, Vandal, Delta9, Kosen and, most recently, Overview's DOMAIN, collaborating with exciting names like The Clamps, Matec, Opsen, Exept and Horde along the way. Some collaborations proved so fruitful, in fact, that Tristan created full-on aliases for them, like the more jumpy Deadboyz with LoveTheEND or the all-around sick Broma with Vandal's very own SKS, and I haven't even mentioned his Hiphop production work for High C yet!

In other words, it's safe to say he is spreading anything but tristesse in the studio, and the collaborative creation we're taking a look at today, OMEN, is yet another example. Even just the intro is dripping with lovely atmospheric bits, but once the wonderful vocals, which might very well be Eluun's very own, come into the mix, things are being shaken up a bit. Vocals are getting chopped up, while we flow through violently rhythmic syncopation action and electrifying stabs - and then it hits. Immensely vibey spouts of all-encompassing synths flood your senses, as slightly more straight-forward but still just as interesting drum work and stuttery glitched-out lances of sound design niceness push your body into all sorts of directions, before the vocals jump back into the action. So so good.

We continue with the goodness, on an Eluun solo outing, ICARUS! Not only are we pushing for a more uplifting sound in general on this one, the title-referencing whisper launches us straight into the Halftime stratosphere, where we're greeted with heavenly synths that manage to convey both the dramatic gravitas and otherworldly beauty of the pearly gates. Some exceptionally dreamy vocals, the source of which I am now not sure at all anymore, slide in to bring us down to earth, or at least closer to the ground, before things start escalating more and more until those very same synths become the driving force behind an all-out full-time attack on our minds, with all sorts of large bass cuts interjecting and different melodies coming together to form one hell of a finale.

Lastly, Eluun finishes things off with HERSEY, featuring another particularly exciting newcomer in the techy spheres, Fryware! Since this is our first time meeting him on here, let's take a brief look at his journey so far as well!

With a base of operation right in the middle of the wool capital of The Netherlands, Tilburg, Jeffrey Haster has been involved with music from quite an early age. After getting his start with the good ol' piano, he eventually got into electronic music via his dad, but it was arguably Trap Nation that fully captured young Jeffrey's attention. Slowly but surely, genres started being explored in every possible direction, so when it was time for his very own productions to be created, his inspirations ranged from Flume to SOPHIE all the way over to Noisia, resulting in all sorts of ear candy all over the spectrum under the name of JFRY. A lot of Future Bass later, the drums and the basses started seeping into the tunestream, and from 2022 on, he decided to ditch the previous direction and instead take this DnB thing all the way, starting anew as Fryware. In that short amount of time, we were already blessed with plenty o' sickness on the likes of Skybass, High Tea, In The Lab, Stellar Audio, a remix with [BORDERS] for Wiguez on NoCopyrightSounds, and even some Neurobreak action on Symbiotik!

Now, he enters the DIVIDID cosmos on Eluun's mini EP's closing track, HERSEY! One by one, melancholic bleepy bloopy pairs of three scaling up and down, a high-pitched, airy vocal snippet and a softly rumbling engine that does not seem to want to start, become part of this loopy arrangement of a buildup, until an exceptionally hype fake-out drop with an even shorter vocal loop brings in the previously distant, but now undeniably truly menacing waves of bass growing further and further, eventually crashing right into us poor unsuspecting listeners and kicking off a series of overwhelming sickness. With the engine now pumping at full strength, the duo switches over to a completely different gear, as flurries of 16th note stabs battle it out with the pulsating bass waves, both completing a melodic journey of their own in the second half before we fade out nicely.

Wonderful vocals both chopped-up and in one piece, growling basses that get your body moving in strange ways, deeply moving synths from another world, arrangements you don't stumble upon every day - I love all of this Eluunacy.