Picks Of The Week (07.02.26

1. Malux, Sign - All You've Got [VALE]

Recommended if you like: Signal, Osprey, Disprove

One name long overdue a feature on here, working together with one of the most underrated talents out there, on one of the most consistently creative labels we got - it's like it was genetically engineered to appeal to me! Before we get to the result of this formula to techy success, however, we need to introduce its individual components.

1.1. Malux

While in his school days still thoroughly obsessed with all things Hip-Hop, Alex Chambers soon fell in love with the double-tempoed intensity that the likes of Pendulum were bringing to the table. More and more, the British young 'un kept digging down the tunnel of intensely intricately produced drum & bass that Neurofunk legends like Noisia, Spor, Counterstrike, and Evol Intent were putting out, but since it was the 2010s, Alex got caught up in another sound sweeping the entire world at the time: Dubstep! At the time based in Reading, Alex was further enchanted by the rather strong local scene for the new sound, so when it came time for him to start messing with production himself, he knew what to start with. In 2012, he unveiled the first of his fruits of labours to the world, with his brand new Dubstep project, Skope.

As he was becoming a bit of a household name in the genre over the next few odd years, Alex was also exploring other genres and tempos. He even briefly joined drum & bass live project Wicked City in 2014, with the likes of Krafty Kuts, Dynamic MC, Damien Soul, Steve Yamaha, Big R, and, perhaps most notably for us, Erb N Dub! However, he wasn't just exploring new projects, even his Skope project, during the mid-2010s mostly known for unusually fonky Neurohop and tightly produced sound-design-y steppers, saw some drum & bass action, with 'Break It Up' with italian madman Disprove and the double-sided 'Altitude' banger with the aforementioned Killer Hertz team member Erb N Dub on Technique bringing him full circle on his electronic music journey.

That was merely the beginning of his still ongoing drum & bass arc though. In 2016, which Alex described as the point where he finally felt comfortable with the quality of his productions in the 170s, he unveiled his brand new, full-on DnB alias: Malux. Both alone, and as part of the all-powerful trio that he formed with Crissy Criss and Erb N Dub, Alex would fire off one iconic tune after another on the likes of Bad Taste, Inspected, Trendkill and ProgRam, with especially the aforementioned supergroup's collaborative remix of TC's 'Next Hype' being absolutely unavoidable at the time. And that was just 2016! Alex had so many more anthemic releases ready to fire off from his Chamber, whether it was huge EPs on Eatbrain and Get Hype, further one-offery on Invisible, Cause 4 Concern, Bad Taste, Blackout, and MethLab, collabo-irrationally sick bangers with Joe Ford, Tobax, Billain, Zombie Cats and his two long-named buddies, or one of his many instant classic remixes for The Upbeats, The Prototypes (<3), Hybrid Minds, and fellow trios Camo & Krooked & Mefjus and Noisia. I know I condensed it into just a few sentences, so allow me to reiterate: Malux was genuinely everywhere during these years!

So when Covid hit, and releases slowed down considerably, it was a bit of a shock to the system for all us Malux heads. Thanks to James Magnetude relentlessly bugging Alex for new music and helping him get the gigs he so rightfully deserved once things opened up again, things still kept flowing though, with his contribution to the first-ever Noisia Resonances album, his Swamp Thug EP on War On Silence, and his various singles on James' Evolution Chamber imprint being particular highlights. Oh, and he started a Patreon!

A lot of the slowdown can probably be attributed to changing priorities in life, and just not seeing the need for constant releases anymore, but there's one more possible culprit that I didn't mention yet: Holographic! What started out as a experimental bass music trio with Ryan Stanford and Tommy 'Broken Note' Andrews, later turned into just Alex and Ryan creating whatever they felt like, with especially the last two years seeing the most movement thanks to the 'Moon Glass' and 'Ghost & Mirror' EPs. However, it's worth noting that their 2022 single 'Splasher' also made it onto VISION's 'MISSION 02' compilation! While this newest project of his also occasionally dabbles in DnB, and will surely be featured on here eventually because of that, I'd like to go back to the release on hand, and talk about the other name attached to it: Sign!

1.2. Sign

In a way the part of this collaborative equation that stands for all the fresh, promising talents that the 2020s have brought forth, but due to his recently announced retirement from music unfortunately probably also not someone you will see reach the heights of his counterpart, it is a bit of a weird time to introduce Stanislav Bōtskovski to you people. Since 2020, the Estonian family man has been blessing us with short-lived projects explorating both Dubstep, as CODE:NS, and DnB, as Constant, but where things really kicked off was when he created Sign. Championed with all of its independent might by the sadly seemingly retired, tremendously positive effort for underground DnB that was All172Things, and with incredibly creative production (and track naming) behind it, Sign made appearances on basically every underrated underground label imagineable: In The Lab, Stellar Audio, Sinful Maze, Impact, Lost The Plot, Surveillance, and, of course, All172Things' very own label. Together with long-time friend DMTR, he also formed the also quite sadly retired ESSENTIE duo, and when his fatherly duties started making regular studios sessions impossible, he even started playing around with mobile production as PHONEBOT - which eventually just got folded back into Sign.

With this probably being one of the last opportunities to talk about him on here, I just want to urge everyone reading to dive into Stanislav's discography. It's full of wildly unique production, unafraid of breaking rules and straying away from conventional sounds and structures - as much as you can in the confines of newschool, techy drum and bass, that is. Thanks for everything, Stan. A couple weeks back, he released a tune with Joro Dudovski that goes to all sorts of wild, unexpected places, just as an example, which would be a great place to start. Alternatively, let's check out this newest, and potentially last one of his.

1.3. All You've Got

In no time at all, the clash of the sound design magicians that is All You've Got takes us from doors creepily creaking deep in our minds to thicc distortion shaking us awake, where the titular, stylishly processed vocal sample throws us into the deep end. The lead teased in the intro, pointing upwards and ever-increasingly distorted, battles it out with a response ranging from sound design hits riding the waves of intensity to its bitter end to just purely violent bass stabbery, with only a brief triplet break separating the two. After burning so brightly it broke every reasonable (ma)LUX measurement apparatus, we roll out into the shimmery remains of the breakdown - but we got one more battle ahead of us, of course. Now rearranged into brand new factions, we witness the synth lead interspersed with the bass stabbery forming a rhythm that's sure to rewire your face in some sort of way, now fighting its fight against thoroughly distorted basses, all mixed together into a wildly violent cocktail of bass-driven emotions.

1.4. Conclusion

An incredible debut for both talents on the ever-amazing Various Artists Limitless Expression aka VALE, they've really given it all they've got here. Moody, heavy, and Alex Cham-bare amounts of bass trickery - I Stanislove this one.