Picks Of The Week (29.11.25

1. What So Not, Buunshin - The Quiet That Hurts EP [For My Sanity]

Recommended if you like: IMANU, The Caracal Project, Maysev

I know both of these are rather big names and probably don't need any of this extra attention, but, genuinely, how could I not talk about one of the best EPs this year has brought forth?! But first, we need to introduce said names - despite their fame.

1.1. What So Not

While Australian musician Christopher Emerson's musical career spans farther than most of what we usually cover on here, the very early beginnings section remains as humble as ever. Growing up, Chris and his brother Luke, now part of duo Zebarah by the way, got introduced to the wild world of Rock through their parents' deep CD collection, leading to the brothers both picking up instruments of their own. Chris chose the drums and Luke the saxophone and guitar, which they utilised well in their respective highschool Rock bands, but once they were introduced to the mighty Fruity Loops, everything changed. Over the following years, Chris tried balancing a 'normal' life with the pursuit of electronic music, accounting by day and DJing by night, but eventually, he sacked off the day job, and dove head first into music. While initially known as Emoh Instead, he got together with a certain Harley Edward Streten - aka Flume - to form a new exciting collaborative project in 2010: What So Not!

Debuted on DJ Ajax' Sweat It Out imprint in 2011, and truly shot into infamy with their 2012 remix of Major Lazer's 'Get Free', the duo were off to an incredible start, but Chris' partner's wild double-platinum success with his self-titled solo album in that same year was looming on the duo's horizon of existence. Sure, Chris also put out a couple Emoh Instead tunes at the time (even one with his brother!), and they would have a couple more Sweat It Out singles like 'Jaguar' or their huge RL Grime collab 'Tell Me' break through the noise, but by 2015, Flume decided it was time to leave the project to focus on his own career. Fair enough. Evidently, Chris managed to keep going on his own just fine, remixing RÜFÜS DU SOL's legendary 'Innerbloom', working with RL Grime and Skrillex, and launching his debut album Not All The Beautiful Things in 2018, to incredible acclaim. Featuring the likes of San Holo and even Toto, of Africa fame, it managed to shoot up to #1 on the American Dance album charts and allowed him to tour the whole wide world! The effects of said never-ending tour stress, however, lead to Chris taking the "opportunity" that the 2020 pandemic presented to finally press pause, surfing up and down the Australian coast instead of keeping up the grind. About a year later, he returned fully creatively rejuvinated, leading up to the artistic explosion that was album numero two, Anomaly, featuring names like Oliver Tree, DMA'S, Body Ocean, Tek Genesis and more. Plus, he collab'd with IMANU a bunch!

I've left out some rather crucial context for what we are talking about today though. In truth, during all of this multi-genre Wonky Bounce Trap Bass Music journey, Chris was also dabbling in a whole lot of DnB all long! Well, it was a gradual process really. For instance, he got none other than Noisia involved with his 2017 Divide & Conquer remix package. Halftime counts as DnB, right? Even if not, Chris' 2019 Diablo collab 'OOGAHDAM!' featured a full-on DnB switch, and got a then-new REAPER involved in the remix EP! Breaking more and more into the Breakbeats of it all, Chris also brought forth some more DnB originals like 'Fever' with Daktyl on Monstercat, 'Freedom' with Synergy on UKF, 'SKYLINE**' with Montell2099 on Sable Valley, and more remixes by and with Ekko & Sidetrack, Synergy, and, finally, _**Buunshin**_.

1.2. Buunshin

Saying Dordrecht original Ferry "Ferrysaurus" Mellegers' story is a wholly unique one in this scene is a saying probably more common than that cold of yours - but it do be true. Unlike the many other names we talk about here, What So Not included, Ferry did not have that typical musical childhood, outside of a brief period of trying, and failing, to learn to play the guitar as a teenager. While he really did have a bit of spiritual awakening at his very first rave in high school, where he was subjected to proper bass for the first time, the Dutchie did not intend to make a career out of this sort of thing at first. Drawing, dancing, cooking, 3D visual artistry, fashion designing, and even private math and science tutoring, all of it was tried, but none of it stuck. The more he got into electronic music, with his friend Ronald Dijks playing a key role in introducing him to DnB, the more he fell in love with it all, and, ever the science guy, he wanted to see just how close to the intricacies of the sorts of technical masterpieces that Noisia et al. were putting out he could come.

From 2016 on, the now 20-year-old Ferry spent day and night, at his grindiest times quite literally, to get to the level of said idols and unlock the production secrets he was so fascinated by. Unlike his peers, however, he held back on releasing until his productions were ready for the limelight - aside from some Drake memes he uploaded under the 'Hentai Senpai' moniker that is. Pushing through various bouts of depression, and having connected deeply with fellow up-and-comer Signal, he eventually managed to put together tunes that satisfied this seemingly insatiable hunger for technical perfection, with his 2019 smash-hit EP Presence on ABIS' and, at the time, IMANU's legendary label DIVIDID. Not only did it reach #1 on Beatport, he also turned heads all across the scene, leading to a collab opportunity with IMANU on mau5trap, remixes for Apashe, Rohaan, Noisia and Phace, a whole 'nother EP on Neosignal sister label NËU, and his debut on Critical Music. "Bruh", to quote him there.

However, as time and his Sonology studies at The Hague's Royal Conservatoire went on, he realised the extremely technical, sometimes purely conceptual way of production he had been employing was not fulfilling him anymore. Instead, he used the relatively empty release calendar of 2021, with "only" a couple, instant classic remixes and his Phace collab dropping at the time, to develop his musicality. While tune-of-the-year 2022 'Dancing In The Dark' with DJ Fresh was certainly more a proper banger than a tearjerker, the likes of 'Forget About Me', Caracal Project collab 'I need a break.' and basically his entire 'Steel Wings' EP more than made up for that. Not all too longer after, it was already time for his 'not everything is your fault' EP on UKF, his biggest project as of yet, and an all-timer of the genre, in my humble opinion. Similarly to his 2021 "break", he mostly followed this milestone up with remixes, this time for the likes of Ternion Sound, Thys, Apashe again*, _San Holo* and a certain What So Not - which leads us directly to this collaborative EP of theirs!

1.3. The Quiet That Hurts EP

Exemplifying the central core of the 'The Quiet That Hurts' topic, opener Threads is a song about the importance of sitting with your own thoughts for a while, of shutting down the unimportant parts of the world and entering the inner void every now and then. This endless cycle of dopamine we find ourselves in is beautifully captured by Maiah Manser's most wonderful, soft-spoken yet frantically looping vocals, whose background harmonising might feel pleasant at first, but causes us to spin ourselves into a cyclone of ever-fastening worrying and anxiety, with a dash of tinnitus, that eventually explodes into a head-spinning drop of miniscule bassline-synced wobbles turning into soul-piercing stabs, snippy drums, and incredibly detuned glittery synths, that a truly aggressive bass tries to shake us out of later on. We try to calm ourselves again, but we find ourselves back in the cycle yet again, deeper than ever, with eardrums-destroying kicks deciminating our sanity in a full-on 4x4 switchup.

Feeling overwhelmed, between the bombardement of emotions of our times and never letting enough time pass to process them, we dine in denial, on Tragic. Directed by a truly outstanding performance by Alina Pash, we head straight into our next nervous breakdown that we try to drown in cheap wine, with an extra sparkly dash of glitter, where the lovey-dovey choppily looping synths of the intro are interrupted by Alina screaming the titular line in an instantly iconic way, bringing Buunshin's insanely huge signature basses, stuttering at 16th note speed, into the mix. Halfway through, we get so in our heads about all this tragedy everywhere all at once, that Alina jumps up a couple octaves into Hyperpop territory, culminating in a four-to-the-floor, 16th flutter bass, and vocal outburst explosion of pure catharsis - god I love this one.

With audio crackles, lo-fi melodics, a literal recording of a swarm of ducks quacking about, and a sick-ass guitar lick, we roll into the loveliness that is Dancing In The Leaves. Syncopated drums that don't care about your preconceived notions of modern DnB, big-ass kicks that could flatten a city, sound design so pretty it makes your eyes sparkle with joy, and a most lovely performance from Lucy Lucy - and that's kind of it! Carefree and wholesome at its 2 minute core, this one is an ode to all the pets in our lives that make us happy, and a welcome break from it all.

Time for some more drama then! The One eases us into its world with the incredible Aiko harmonising the hell out of some bassy background chords, before expanding into truly a soul-soothing performance - I swear the vocalists somehow get better and better on this. Slowly but surely we get introduced to the wonderful lead melody, first as atmospheric bits and pieces, then as proper chords escalating into anthemic versions of itself before amping up the energy one final time, for one of DnB's best moments in 2025. Slightly delayed, we are hit with an ultra-blown-out version of the lead we are now accustomed to that is so massive it blows the socks and various layers of skin off our feet, contrasted with a most delightful rest of the melody bouncing on distorted basslines, allowing us to briefly catch our breaths, before the insanity begins yet again. That's still not all the highlights this one got to offer though, we got waves upon waves of pure, sound designed beauty crashing onto our mental shore as Aiko keeps doing her thing, a key change in the second half, and even a Moombahton outro. And a brief bit that triggered my Post Traumatic Splice Disorder, but we don't talk about that.

Somehow topping even that masterclass is EP closer Falling In. On a bed of lo-fi'd bass, the glitteriest of atmospheres, and heartwarming chords, Mara Necia delivers a performance I can only describe as perfection. Heartbreaking, tear-jerking, frission-causing, all of it. Chris and Ferry understood the assignment just as much though, elevating this piece of gold even further with pure ear candy that makes you feel like that meme with the guy floating above his bed. You know the one. This is not the time for eloquence, no matter the amount of thesaurusing I do I would not be able to come close to describing all of this beauty accurately anyway. But I'm still gonna try a bit more. Over time, this setup evolves from mostly drumless to hard-hitting Halftime rhythm to even DnB - where this one truly hits its peak. Amplified even further into oblivion, with the cathartic distortion reaching corners of your ears you didn't even know existed and the wildly flailing drums barely holding on underneath all the noise, the trio ends it all with a finale for the books. Masterful.

1.4. Conclusion

So tragic, so lovely, so unbelievably well produced, so outstandingly written and performed, and so all-around unique that this has to be an easy Best Of 2025 contender. Ferry Christophermas everybody!

Other techy bits from this week:

Sharks - Stargazer
VRUM - Phantom EP
Killin Void - EVERYTHING THE STARS TOLD ME