Picks Of The Week (10.08.24

1. Interrex - Escape [WOM Recordings]

Recommended if you like: Dimension, [IVY], Mandidextrous

Even though it has become so common place that you basically cannot escape (heh) it anymore in Dancefloor sets, I still love myself a good 4x4 switchup in my DnB. It's just so much fun! So today, I want to tell you something about one of the perhaps lesser known pursuers of the fours and the floors, and simply one of the sicker Dancefloor newcomers around: Interrex!

Let's back up first though, who are we even dealing with here? British lad Liam Jackson is the main man behind the moniker, but to tell the full story, we have to jump back way further than even the start of Interrex. Back in 2011 (!), Liam already started putting out all sorts of heaviness as Delicacy, sometimes delicately stylised as DELICACY. While Dubstep was for sure the main focus, we also got some equally dainty genres like Deathstep, Heft (?) and Glitch Hop over the years, with other notable highlights including an early release on Dirt, Lies & Audio, his third place at Prime Audio's 2016 remix competition for his reimagining of 12th Hour's Orbital Strike, and his Hip-Hop explorations with C Silver. Plus, he was also helping run the SuperDub promotional network! However, in 2017, Liam became fed up with the whole Dubstep thing, and not only started drifting towards Bass House and all sorts of other genres, but decided to publicly declare the official end of Delicacy.

Lucky for us, he already had something else a-brewing: Interrex! Since 2016, in fact! Unlike his Dubstep efforts, however, this one was not a strictly solo affair, but it's a little complicated. Okay, yes, from day one, Interrex has always been described as a new DnB duo, but it was never really clarified who the other person is. From various bios I managed to piece together that his partner is from Canada, and since his friend Nathan, the admin / co-owner of SuperDub Promotions, is both Canadian and has shared a few posts about the Interrex project, he is my educated guess for now. Either way, the wording in the most recent bios suggest that it's 100% Liam's baby at this point in time anyway, so it doesn't really matter all that much.

With that kinda-convincing Interrexplanation out of the way, let's finally talk about the actual musical journey! Slowly but surely, the duo was putting out Dubstep-inspired but obviously 174 beats per minute beating, self-released originals like Shaolin Master and Killa Sound, which Liam actually did an official Delicacy Remix of, freely downloadable bootlegs of the likes of TenGraphs and INF1N1TE, and all sorts of underground label releases via Stagma, Coalition, but the, so far, biggest jump happened just this year. Shortly after I was made aware of him and his (then) most recent double single The Future / Divergent, he started sprinterrexing from imprint to imprint, throwing out the insanely catchy Moving On on Kayak, the weightily chugging Better Days on GZ Audio, and wonderfully bouncy Let Go on Accelerant in just a few months, and now Escape on WOM Recordings!

"Wot's a Wom?", I hear you asking in my head. Alright, one last history lesson before we finally Escape from this endless storytime, but only because you asked! WOM, or Workshop Of Madness, is the brainchild of Canadian bass music enthusiast Justin Bones, and its story, as always, takes us back way further than you might expect. Back in 2010 (!), WOM Media already made its first promotional splashes in the Canadian scene, but it didn't stop there. Over the years, more and more branches got added to this multi-pronged bass music promotion behemoth: Dub Hub (back then still Dub Hub Toronto) in 2012, DnB Hive at an unspecified later date, and even his very own artist agency Future Artist Management, or FAM, for the younglings here. The final piece of the WOM network puzzle: The founding of WOM Recordings last year. With underrated names I had already been watching, like S.I.O.N, Quoone and Houndeye, and a whole lot of names I had no idea of before, like Sweggy, CyclopsDnB or XYNO, in their ever-expanding Dancefloor roster, they've managed to build up a really cool platform for anyone who enjoys the more underground, up-and-coming sides of the Dancefloor spectrum.

Their biggest catch so far, however, has to be Interrex's (Interr)Escape though! Right away, we are greeted with the straight-up wonderful synth plucks that will engulf our brains in the next 2-3 minutes, leaving a lasting impact for months to come, but before we get any more of them, the impossibly lovely vocal sample jumps in to deliver some more catchiness to haunt us in our dreams. In a good way! As the synths return, Liam remembered Blackout Crew's advice to make any and all music better - put a donk on it - and while not quite as donky as this buildup tease suggests, Liam does indeed go hard on the bouncy 4x4 whomps in the drop, with all sorts of fun little playful hi-hats, claps and lets goo vocal snippets keeping everything fresh and high-energy throughout, while we bask in the glory of the lead melody. Of course, we also get a truly chugga-licious drum and bass interrexpretation of all of this later on, completing the delightfully cheesy (in a good way goddamnit) picture.

Interrexceptionally catchy, Liamazingly vibey, simply WOMderful.

Other dancefloor from this week:

Kanine - Chemicals
Matrix, Futurebound - Follow The Sound
Brookes Brothers, Mia Kirkland - Enemies (!)
Tom Walker - Holy Ghost (Grafix Remix)
T & Sugah, Grace Barton - Lo Lo
Lee Mvtthews, Kate McGill - Take Me Anywhere
Various Artists - GINGER (High Tea Music Presents)
10xx - When You Hold Me

2. ATMOS - Buzzin / Insanity [Neksus Sound]

Recommended if you like: Simula, skantia, SMG

If a set is not full of 4x4, chances are it's because it's exploring the other trend we've got going on in drum and bass right now: froggies! Other than perhaps the artists mentioned in the recommended section above, I'd say there's one name who consistently brings something fresh, exciting and simply fun to the popular formula: ATMOS! But who is the young 'un twisting up our collective faces past the point of recognition with his best demented frog impressions? I know it's unbelievable and extremely out of character for this format, but we'll actually explore that a little on here!

With a basis of operation in Belgium's biggest city Antwerp, Belgian boi Tjorven Vos has been close to the beating heart of bleepy bloopy drums and basses earlier than most. At 14, he was already obsessed with the aftermovies and YouTube uploads of all the DnB raves his older brother went to, and as soon as he stepped a single foot into a rave himself, and experienced the infectious rhythm and visceral energy of the drums, and the mind-altering vibrations of the basses, he was sold even more. Still only in the middle of his later teenage years, he already started producing his very own tunes, trying to fuse the madness of his early favourites Dominator and Hedex with the sound design extravaganza that IMANU and Buunshin were starting to push at the time, and in 2018, the first of these sonic (at)mosaics started rolling in. With dancefloor destroyers like the VIP of Monkey Temple, he was already showing he knows damn well how to pick and choose the right sounds to get the crowd moving, but he was not really happy with the way things were going and took a bit of a hiatus for a few years. I guess the pandemic didn't really help either.

However, once the restrictions eased up a bit again, he went to Rampage Open Air, where none other than two of his inspirations, IMANU and Buunshin, were going back to back - a set so good he rushed right back into the studio as soon as he could! With Light It Up he already started poking his head back into the game in 2022, but the real comeback had to have been the Don't Tell EP on Riot Records in 2023. Sporting some of the most unique and also incredibly clean production in the game, it didn't take all too long for him to be discovered by all sorts of other labels, and before long, he was proud member of the Neksus, Skankandbass, Abyssal, Invicta and Souped Up families. Plus, who could forget the literal rave Alarm that took the scene by storm? Not only the production side of things were going incredibly well, as the centre piece of various Abyssal takeovers this year, Tjorven was throwing out wonderfully weird froggies all over Rampage's - both in- and outdoor - and even Tomorrowland's sound systems, with surely plenty more to come.

Now, ATMOS returns to Annix' & Simula's very own Neksus Sound to once again absolutely demolish every single one of us poor unsuspecting ravers' ears with two absolutely calamitous smashers - so let's talk about them a bit! Our opener Buzzin is basically exactly the froggy, grotty madness we have come to expect from the man lately, but he still manages to fill it with so many sick details, and switch things up so much that you never quite know what's coming. Vocal chops all over the place, massively distorted bass bombs announcing the impending chaos, a fake-out introducing us to the frogchestra residing in this particular pond of a tune, before smashing the bass so far up that you can't help but start helplessly flailing around. On the flipside, the incredibly fittingly titled Insanity takes us on breakbeat-filled journey through the grimiest, foulest, filthiest basses that becomes so crazy that even the surprisingly sweet vocal disintegrates into chopped up attack stabs the further we go along. Short, but oh so sweet.

Every single time I listen to ATMOS, my brain cells are starting a violent moshpit. An ATMOShpit. Would explain all the punnery at least.