Picks Of The Week (31.08.24

1. SLWDWN - Persona LP [Sinful Maze]

Recommended if you like: Mefjus, Notequal, Meph

At the beginning of the year, Mark, founder and CEO of Czechian label Sinful Maze, one of the absolute best imprints for the cinematic techy-slash-futuristic drums and basses I love so much, did what a lot of his contemporaries cannot help but do all the time: announcing that big 'tings be comin'. A good chunk of the year later, however, I'm actually inclined to agree with his assessment. In its fifth year of existence, the most sinful of labels has put out phenomenal EPs from LYLY and Ceptre, fantastic free downloads from The Clamps & A.way, Decades, Intercept and Manta, and some juicy double singles via their amazing Unity Paradox II series featuring the likes of Exept, The Prophecy & A.way, Vici and O&P, launched their own Patreon, launched their own Sinful Agency, performed their Sinful showcase at Let It Roll, and even put on their own Sinful label day-and-night. Even in this straight-up insane year, one thing I haven't even mentioned yet still managed to stand out: SLWDWN's debut album! Years in the making, curated by one of the most exciting newcomers of the past few years and released via one of my favourite labels around, this one was basically guaranteed to be a hit, at least for me. Before we get to that, however, let's PMP TH BRKS a bit and take a not so brief look at our protagonist's backstory first!

Born and raised in Ilava, but soon seeking out the unmatched possibilities only a bigger city like Bratislava could provide, it did not take long for Slovakia native Lukáš Poruban's music tastes to be influenced by the vibrant Neurofunk love so commonly found in most of Eastern Europe. By trade, Lukáš found himself drawn to anything design related, be it graphic, UI or product, so it makes a whole lot of sense that sound would become part of his design ensemble as well. In 2018, early tunes of his, like Blow or Poses, would already be teased on his socials, but were either later taken down or simply never came out. Just a year later, however, his actual debut release, the Dark Place EP on Invasion would show the scene what he, or rather his contradictory moniker SLWDWN was all about: fast, techy, heavy music taking your imagination to, well, all sorts of dark places. This would already garner him a Best Discovery nomination at the Radio_Head Awards that year, but it was 2020 when Lukáš really picked up steam.

Together with the fantastic mister Freshney, he would contribute the rather huge Fall to this up-and-coming label's debut compilation release. That label? Sinful Maze, of course! With this extra fresh treatment for the ears, the duo made it to Blackout's Youtube channel, both entering the subgenre's "mainstream" for the first time. After finishing the year off with a one-off on the sadly now-defunct Watchout and a sinfully amazeing, rather naughty Christmas anthem, Lukáš not only moved to the Neurofunk capital of the world that is Prague, but also started getting noticed more and more across the entire scene. Not only did he jump right onto the podium of Screamarts' Get Physical remix competition, he also smashed out a rather huge one-two-punch on Surveillance, stayed sinful with his YAANO collab, threw out some self-released madness, and managed to land on most techy neuro lovers' radars with his Universe EP on the all-too-underrated Impact Music, one of the only, if not the only, releases to be featured on both Noisia and Vision Radio.

One after the other, more and more career milestone dominoes started falling over: he started his own Patreon; he became part of the Darkshire collective, which includes not just performing at various of their creative ways to celebrate Neurofunk DnBauchery, but also writing some of the anthems they specifically create for their flagship events; he became part of the extended Blackout family with both originals and remixes, for Redpill and Neonlight; he made it onto Eatbrain, first on their Divergence series, then with a whole solo EP; performed at Shrouded in Berlin alongside some real killer talents and one weirdo guy; and, well, announced his debut album!

Now, a couple months of one banger single after the other later, Lukáš finally unleashed the full experience, Persona. Across thirteen tracks, including an interlude, intro and outro, he explores the titular topic - how we as people often present ourselves as a different, perhaps more socially acceptable version of ourselves or even taking on the personality of some completely different person, just to fit in with others, and how easy it is to lose one's sense of self if not handled with care. Thanks to his acute sense of how to convey these sorts of deeply introspective feelings and his ability to suck you into these worlds inside your head, he pulls off this unique conceptual journey through the mind rather spectacularly, while still delivering a whole bunch of smashers along the way - let me swiftly walk you through it!

After a brief Intro priming you for said core themes of the LP, the pianos roll on over to Dreaming, exploring the insidious nature of obsessive people-pleasing with an excellent vocal gliding over a deeply satisfying symphony of synths and basses. With fellow Sinful fam member Malcuth on the feature, Eternal sees none other than Coppa channelling his most emotionally honest, lyrically creative self to contemplate his own personality on top of a truly massive journey from Half- to Full-time madness. Bottom Line, with the bison brothers Burr Oak on both vocal and production duties, continues said state of turmoil by tackling the stage persona all three will be all too familiar with, with grandiose orchestral arrangements, mad drum action, and deeply vibrating bass flurries turning into all-consuming insanity. However, behind these spectacular live performances, only Shadows of our protagonist's self remain, represented by a ruthless spiral of minimal stabby heaviness. In fact, the seemingly glorious life of the world-touring performer can leave one rather Alone. As we, actually, slow down in this rather huge Halftime vibe, the heart becomes heavier and heavier, the more our true self is locked into our mind's cage, but the facade is crumbling.

In the second half, we take an unflinching look Behind The Mask we so carefully created, where the deep-seated emotional chaos reigns freely, descending into out-right pandemonium In My Mind, where Lukáš recruited Czech mad men A-Cray and Holotrope to share their experiences, resulting in an extra clonky, extra stormy, extra dark whirlwind of techy phatness. On the outside, we have become merely a Simulation of a person - a little wonky, a little off-kilter, a little weird. You get into a groove eventually, but the longer you keep this charade up, the more you slip out of it, until everything starts to fall apart, expertly visualized by Lukáš' incredibly precise, unique rhythmic work.

Voices, featuring the as-always-marvellous Anna Vaverková, showcases the inner voice trying to regain control of the situation by breaking out of this mind prison, leading to a fierce fight full of sharp stabs, aggressive drums and chaotic basses, eventually culminating in a whirlwind of emotional breakthroughs. A breakthrough that continues its rampage throughout our pen-ultimate stop Nom De Plume (french for "pen name"), on which NOEMI - known as the voice on the aforementioned The Prophecy & A.way collab and radio host - takes us to whole new emotional heights, where Lukáš breaks out of it all with all-encompassing, ever-evolving bass work and stunning violin sections. A freedom thoroughly celebrated by outstanding orchestral arrangements on the album's Outro.

An emotionally driven cinematic rollercoaster, taking us up and DWN, through the SLW vibes and the fast (Poru)bangers, with an incredibly interesting core theme that might leave you questioning all of your life choices while you skank out on the Dancefloor.

Other heavy stuff from this week:

it is Jev - Intersection EP
Spor - Sabretooth
Opsen - Give Them Hell
MISSIN - Juncture / Purple
Malux - Clockwork

2. Onetral - Icarus 💎 [FUTURE]

Recommended if you like: [BORDERS], Howlan, A.way

After such a lengthy exposé, I think we've earned ourselves a little snack at the end. Let's talk about Onetral, one of the most exciting new up-and-comers, and this week's Hidden Gem Of The Week™️!

Behind this particular mask is Austrian talent Valentin Auer, who might seem like he came out of nowhere with this first ever release of his, but, if you scroll further down his SoundCloud rabbit hole, has actually been dabbling in basically every corner of electronic music possible since at least 2020. Earlier this year, he uploaded all sorts of old ideas, WIPs and dubs onto his profile, neatly organised by year, making this part super easy for me! For instance, I can now tell you that back in 2020, Valentin was still going by the name of Sijne, exploring the worlds of Deep House, Electronic, and, well, DnB of course. Through an avalanche of Untitleds 1 through 50 or so, another name emerged: Onetral. Even here, things stayed multi-genre, with some Melodic Techno here and there, but DnB started to take over more and more of this stream of IDs, one of which actually went to v199 if we can trust the upload name!

Slowly but surely, Valentin would crank up the hype machine by putting out a couple of free downloads - a great remix of Naughty Boy's classic La la la and my personal favourite Flow - and appearing on lineups at Warehouse Stp and Klangwerk BOOSTED, which was already enough to put him on my personal radar, but someone else took notice of him as well: Wessel Hop, label manager of Don Diablo's FUTURE imprint! Which brings us back to his debut Icarus! Through synths fluttering around us like butterflies and guitars strumming along while rhythmic snaps teleport all over the 3d space, we arrive at the main destination: floaty, heavily distorted yet heavenly divine synths flooding our senses. Soon enough, a whole assortment of ear candy sound design shenanigans join in on the fun to fill out the little space left by the bassy synths, while snappy steppy drums keep our head boppin' throughout.

A cyclone(tral) of sounds that will make your brain Valen-tingle. In other, more normal words, an exciting debut from a new talent with a bright FUTURE ahead!

Other uplifting and/or unique heavy stuff from this week:

Moekel - Yantra (I Got The Music) / Rockstarr
Voicians - Be Mine
Tengu, FooR, XAHLI - Get You Out My Mind
Tenkei - Ougon / Unity