Picks Of The Week (24.08.24

1. Nais - Say It, Monks [Neuropunk Records]

Recommended if you like: Teddy Killerz, Fade Black, Screamarts

Even if it really has been a while since we last talked more in-depth about them here, the Russian DnB spirit has of course persevered through even the craziest of geopolitical situations, from new endeavours like Punchman and Nata Mia's Организм174 project and the КОСТЁР звук label bringing Russian vocals back into the mix, to the Russian pillar of all things heavy, Neuropunk, keeping its newcomer forge burning brighter than ever, delivering countless EPs by the likes of Mizo, Decades and Skrimor, blasting out albums by the likes of Irontype, Gydra and soon TNTKLZ, regularly streaming their weekly NEUROGON showcase and all sorts of sets from their very own Neurobunker on their YouTube channel, bringing together the best the Russian DnB scene has to offer on the absolutely massive Neuropunk Festivals, and even creating their very own headphones, the Neuropunk M1. And that's just the things I managed to understand with heavy use of DeepL!

In the middle of this thriving time for DnB, both specifically over there and just generally all over the world, none other than Nais has finally returned to the scene to deliver more of his unique naistiness. But first, who is this man I'm so excited to see come back?

Straight outta Krasnodar, Ivan Kalugin has been making waves all over the Russian underground since his debut release on Neuropunk-precursor TAM Records's classic Underside compilation, way back in 2010. From there, he quickly jumped over to deliver some of his signature rawness on the likes of Overtech, You So Fat, and Close2Death, but after a couple of years, things on the release front slowed down a bit again, with only the odd one-off here and there. One possible explanation could be found in Dabro Music, founded in 2012 and, at least at the time, one of Ivan's biggest contributions to the scene at large. What started out as "just" a DnB label, soon morphed into an outlet for talented producers, Nais very much included, to share their knowledge in the form of sample, synth preset, project template and vocal packs, for everyone to craft their very own bangers all across the bass music spectrum - some of the proceeds of which were even donated to the Last Night A DJ Saved My Life charity!

Various (apparently) Noisia-endorsed Neurofunk Serum packs and dozens of Fast Music bundles on Loopmasters later, Ivan felt the increasing urge to jump back into the drums and the basses himself again, and in 2019, the world was rather impressively reintroduced to the sounds of the Kalugenius. Sometimes together with his good mates, the Teddy Killerz, but often enough on a solo mission, he conquered the scene one all-around sick release after the other, spreading his multi-faceted wings on Neuro imprints like Kosen, Eatbrain and of course Neuropunk, both ProgRAM and RAM, and even Jump Up imprints like Real Playaz and Souped Up. No joke, from 2019 until like 2021, the guy was suddenly everywhere. Until he wasn't.

While the Nais alias had been seemingly abandoned again, with the occasional one-off's this time including his Beeautiful contribution to Eatbrain's Divergence compilation and some collaborative carnage with Fatloaf, he never really stopped the music train. Sound packs were still coming out, he started sharing some Bitwig tips and tricks, among many other helpful production topics, on his newly created YouTube channel, he did some movie and ad work, and he created an entirely new outlet for his non-DnB creativity: KALUGIN! Described as a fusion of bass music, breakbeat, garage, techno and house, he ventured out into the wild world of Electronic music, best explained by a listen to his immensely diverse Patch From Scratch LP.

Lucky for us, the Nais project did not stay dormant for much longer after that, as he returned with an absolute bang this week, with his brand new Neuropunk double single Say It, Monks!

Nais has always been one to surprise you with unexpected genre fusions and some rather out-there sound design, but the sounds coming out of these are straight-up criminal. What begins as an epic choir introducing us to a think break laced, ominous atmosphere on Say It, quickly turns into the brain-frying violation of the laws of physics that is the bassline getting freaky in ways you didn't know was possible on top of snappy, steppy drum action. Throughout this whole roughly four minute shebang-er, Nais takes us through all sorts of peaks and valleys with this straight-up mean framework, and not once has my bassface let up. Especially not during that second half, where the bassline now follows the heavy-hitting, sliced-up vocal sample and just... obliterates everything.

We continue similarly blasphomously with the flipside Monks. Once again Nais wastes not a whole lot of time to get us to the action, where two killer kicks launch us right into the lethargic but all the more insane sounding bass shredder. If we somehow survive this, the machine kicks it up a few notches, going back and forth between large swaths of bass and quick-firing stabs of mechanical madness, rattling you to your very core with some pounding 4x4, breaking back down until we are at only half the speed, before we go right back to where we started.

An absolute bassacre full of sheer ridiculous sounds, hopefully heralding a new era of Naiseness. We need more Mr. Nais guy, after all!

Other Neuro from this week:

First Person - Take You Higher
Myselor - Intuition EP
BADVOID - HELLRAISER
Stonx - Offworld EP
It's Tricky - Neon Pacific / With Remorse 💎

2. Yamatai Presents: Legends Vol.1 - Kintaro [Yamatai Records]

Recommended if you like: T>I, Resslek, Break

Wake up babes, a new Yamatai Records VA series has dropped! One might think with their rather massive Genesis and Foundations Of Yamatai series', they would have had their fill of various artistry by now, but this one is not just another compilation, no sir. With the introduction of their brand new Legends series, the good lads at Yamatai aim to expand on the Japanese aesthetic they are founded on, with specific retellings of various Nipponese myths and stories, starting with the legend of Kintaro. As a child of superhuman strength, raised on Mount Ashigara by the local mountain witch, Kintaro defeated several monsters and demons, wrestled with bears, and ripped out trees from the grounds with his bare hands - we're in for some heaviness, in other words!

2.1 Melysma - Regression Dub

Starting with Alex Melysma Burr! From humble beginnings playing bass in bands, it was his old man's MixMag CDs that got the now London-based lad to start producing back in 2008. While getting his feet wet DJing and putting on events during his uni time in Leeds, he continously worked on his production game, until he finally unleashed his first dubs on DJ Reckless' label Ten Tons Deeper in 2014. From there on out, and with Darrel from The Invaderz helping him shape his sound, Alex signed his burrning hot bangers to bigger and bigger imprints, from Engage, ProgRAM and Dnbb, all the way over to Dispatch, RAM, Darkmttr, and Symmetry, endorsed by the man Break himself! After his Yamatai debut back in 2023, Alex now returns to the place of crime with yet another Mely-smasher, Regression Dub. Deeply rumbling basslines engaging in rhythmic catchiness, moody vocal samples, snares melysmacking you in your face - a rather (melys)mad tune!

2.2 Cutworx - Dismantle

Next, we jump back on over to Russia, or more specifically Zheleznodorozhny, where Maxim Yudin, aka Cutworx, started his life journey! Back in 2007 (!), Maxim could already be seen behind the decks, shelling out some bangers, and only two years later, his Cutworks alias would debut on Golden Orb. As the years went by, he found himself and his lush liquid on the likes of Fokuz, Digital Blus and Kos.Mos, but towards 2015, around the time he added the x, the heaviness already started seeping in more and more. A roughly five year long hiatus later, he smashed right back into the scene, and left an immense impact on ProgRAM, Data Music, Galacy, Spearhead, Fokuz, Overview and many more, with a fresh mix of techy deepness and unique takes on liquid. Makes sense that he found his way to Yamatai earlier this year as well then! Now, Maxim is (cut)working his magic once more on Dismantle, with an intoxicating back-and-forth between fluttery wubs and massively cheeky, all-encompassing, heavily bassy waves of synths - probably my favourite of the bunch!

2.3 Kalane - Inscriptions

We go right back to the UK, with Josh Cahalane, better known as Kalane! Straight outta Reading, this one is perhaps best known for his work as the label manager of Yamatai, alongside James Williams, and his in-house mastering and quality assurance engineering work, together with R3IDY, but of course, the man also spins a mean tune or two as well! Shortly after his very first own tunes started appearing in 2020, some self-released, some on Ironside and Debunked, he provided the very debut release of the label we are featuring here today, and would go on to become one of the core artists of their ever-expanding roster. Eventually, Josh would also land himself on the likes of Skankandbass, Ekou, Empathy and Delta9, but would always come right back to his home base. This time around, he brought us Inscriptions, an incredibly deep wobbler bursting at the seams with fun little details flying in and out of your periphery.

2.4 VEX - Heads Down

Vext up, we've got Chris Brown, no not that one, the one also known as VEX! Considering he is another Bri'ish lad, it doesn't even surprise me all that much that the Hull-based deep and dark enthusiast grew up listening to DJ Hype's Jungle Massive CDs, leading to his production journey kicking off at only 15 years of age. Chris' first uploads actually go all the way back to 2012, but he arguably only really got the ball rolling once 2020 rolled around, when his vexceptional roller sound started landing him regular releases on Rollout, Subplate and Hyperactivity. Now, he debuts on the one they call Yamatai, with Heads Down! Full of thundering low frequencies, oldschool flavour, and rolling drums, this one is, as the youth would say, a bit large innit.

2.5 Vortex, Dub Ten - Diffusion VIP

Vornext, we've got two returning champions, Vortex and Dub Ten. The latter I will just assume will still be fresh in your memory after our last deep dive, the former, while briefly mentioned here once, will receive a little introduction. Originally from Pfunds, but now residing in Innsbruck, Tyrol boi Karim Ben Salah, in our world better known as Vortex, has been kicking up a bit of a storm these past few years, with the proud Resonate Records member putting out some rather interesting takes on the deep and dark genre on Empathy, Illume and, since 2023, also Yamatai. In fact, for this project the duo VIP'd their biggest tune off of Vortex' debut EP on Yamatai, Diffusion, into a somehow even meaner, even heavier, even more vortextured variant - bassfaces guaranteed.

2.6 Untrue, Leaf - Few Blocks From Here

Last but not Leafst, we've got two names coming together to bring us some extra saucy wubs. One the one hand we've got Moscow-based Pershukov Vitalevich, aka Untrue, a son of a DnB producer of the olden days inspired to pursue a similar path, who, after his debut release in 2019 (at 18!), swiftly saw support by the legendary Noisia Radio and amassed quite the repertoire across the likes of Fokuz, Skankandbass, Grid, Sauce, Sofa Sound and Love For Low Frequencies, with his Yamatai debut having followed earlier this year. On the other, we've got Aron Soutar, aka Leaf, born in South Africa, grown up in Scotland and nowadays living it up on the Isle Of Wright if no further life update happened since the interview I read, who has already started sharing his bangers back in 2015 on Sub-liminal, and managed to land on Serial Killaz, Audioporn, Sauce, Tres-2B, RAM and Down 2 Earth, among many others, over the years - this being his Yamatai debut! With Few Blocks From Here, the dynamic duo is closing things off wonderfully vibey, with oodles of Hip-hop flair, raw, distorted basslines, and some bongo-laced drums.

Conclusion

For anyone loving the Bristol-flavoured sound, this (Kinta)roudy collection of wobbly bangers is a breath of funky fresh (Yamat)air. Plus, you learn something about Japanese culture along the way!

Other deep stuff:

Telm & Wilson - Dark / Motion Dub
ZeroZero - Too Much Acid EP
Senchai - Midnight Dream EP 💎
K SONIC - Echoes Of Dusk EP
Rockwell, LaMeduza - Estranged (Bredren Remix)
Nemy - Surrounded EP
Waeys, Molecular - Heads Anthem EP