Picks Of The Week (27.06.26

1. OREN - Near? 💎 [Selfreleased]

Recommended if you like: Puzzle, Jade Sierra, OBSES

Oren't you glad I managed to find a sliver of time during my holiday weekend to write a little spotlight? And it's a _Hidden Gem Of The Week™️ _ too!

(shout-out to Lian for the recommendation!)

1.1. The Or4nge (Beat-)Box (2006 - 2026)

Where do you even begin when this is literally his first released tune? Let's start with the basics. The lad behind the banger is Sam Oren. Welsh, but nowadays living in Birmingham. My condolences. Oh, right, and he's got a rather successful background in beatboxing and loopstation-ing!

As S4TSUMA and/or Or4nge, he not only taught others like Seby, Objekt, and Vocodah how to properly make us of their full vocal r4nges, he himself has also participated in (S4TSU-)many competitions since about 2022! Events like NUE, the Online World Beatbox Championship, the one and only GBB, Beatland, Loop Insider Showdown, and Potential Worlds all proved to just be the warm-up for his real career highlight though: Not only did he reach the top 8 in the Tag Team and Loopstation competitions of the 2024 UK Beatbox Championships, he then went on to take the golden loopstation crown in the Welsh championships that same year!

Towards the end of 2025, however, he decided to step back from competitive beatbox and loopstation shenanigans, instead re-orien-ting his music career towards straight-up production, as OREN. The next thing on the 20-year-old's still quite short journey so far? His debut release!

1.2. Near?

Far? Wherever you are?

Zooming out of our disassociative state and into our protagonist's very own vocal performance amidst layers upon layers of people indiscriminately chattering away, Sam's debut release Near? doesn't wait too long to offer something unique to the keen listener. As the emotionally charged relationship drama on the vocal side intensifies, the instrumental, too, switches gears from its oh-so-soft synth chords to a tease of the drop arrangement that's about to be whirled around our faces. Relentlessly looping synths, paired with uniquely grubby and wet basses synced to the fun, breaky drums and enhanced even further with wooden frog block sounds, fight it out against a vocal chop massacre that occasionally edges into the higher frequencies - you know, the good stuff! After a nice calming synth bed-y breakdown, things start to escalate once more, with a suavely executed delayed drop move and a variation on the response that forgoes the chopping for incredibly cool swaths of synths, before gently easing us into the outro, with its multiple overlapping voices fading out one by one.

1.3. Conclusion

Lovely vocals, cool production, techy vibes - The Orenessaince has begun!