Picks Of The Week (01.08.26 - 07.08.26)

While most definitely not the hottest week of this scorching summer, my body was still once again in a state of perpetual sweating, so I want to take this week's opportunity to showcase some of the more relaxing soundtracks of the summer. We could all use more liquid(s) in these harsh times after all!

1. Warno - Groove Perspective EP 💎 [Crossroad Records]

Recommended if you like: High Contrast, DJ Marky, Belik

More like warm-o, am I right? Our first spotlight - this week's Hidden Gem Of The Week™️ - takes us all the way down to Guildford, in the UK. Or at least somewhere close to it, I couldn't stalk him that closely this time around.

1.1. Richard Warne (1997 - now)

After stubbing his toe against a sneaky radiator in 2011, the slightly traumatised avid youth football player and eventual Skrillex concert enjoyer Richard Warne would soon gravitate more and more towards this electronic music thing, and more specifically drum and bass. In 2018, it was finally time for Richard to properly step it all the way up: He bought his first set of decks! In no time at all, he not only put forth multiple volumes of his Warno's Wednesdays mix series, he also participated in DJ competitions held by LSB and DnB Allstars (which he won!), shared even more mixes via his DnB Lab series, and even became a resident DJ for Guildford-based collective Vision UK! Not just all that though, he even released his very first tune, 'Nosedive', via Oscity in 2019! While that was kind of it for a while on the releases front, Richard would continue to deliver on the mixing side of it all, with a guest mix for the one and only In The Lab (a cross-over that just made sense), and residencies for Oryx and Thirty3Hz, the latter of which is still ongoing to this day.

Over the course of the pandemic, Richard had been quietly developing his various skills as an artist, resulting in the Warno name starting to appear in more and more places from 2024 onwards. Mix competition entries for F!LTH & Oscity, Heavy Sonics, Pola & Bryson, and even another winning one for Phonetic, the debut of his now signature bass guitar infused DJ sets at Barnfest, and a b2b with man like Kendot, of In The Lab fame, were just the beginning though. With the advent of DnBass, the format in which he covers various DnB tunes with his trusty bass friend, the guitar was getting a ton more exposure over the following months, and once the fruits of his production labour started rolling out in 2025, you could even hear it on his own tunes! After debuting on Lizplay with his Java Complex EP and delivering a wonderful entry to Four Corners' Jazz Corner compilation last year, he's now back for more - and I absolutely love it.

This particular EP is coming to us from a still rather new imprint on the scene, Crossroad Records. Since its inception back in 2023, they have not only racked up guest mixes by the likes of Ora, Voxi, and Altered Concept, they have also organised a whole lot of events over in most united of kingdoms and, since last month's debut by the aforementioned Altered Concept, have even expanded into being a whole label! That's right, this EP is only their second-ever release!

So let's check it out then, shall we?

1.2. Groove Perspective EP

With all of his bass guitar shenanigans in mind, it's hard not to take notice of all the wonderful basslines Richard is presenting us on his brand new Groove Perspective EP. While the star of opener I Can't Wait inarguably is Angela Johnson, whose absolutely wonderfully soulful vocals, chock-full of excellent adlibs, heavenly harmonies, and simply impressive range, delight the listener for the entire runtime, the undercurrent of lush, jazzy piano chords, ridiculously juicy basslines, and rolling drums is just as important for the full experience. Complicate It takes a perhaps more familiar vocal sample, places it on top of a most funky guitar confidently plucking ahead, and unleashes a back and forth between said guitar and thoroughly distorted basses that is massive yet understated. Especially the little twang the guitar does at the beginning of the phrase is simply too good!

Midnight Funk recruits fellow underrated liquid gem Robert "Prismatik" Lunt for an even funkier, even loungier, even jazzier little trip through time and space. Distant pianos, acoustic drum loops, all in service of a bass guitar that just won't quit funkin'. Part Of Me might take the fonk down a few notches, but in exchange turns up the 'City Lights' flavoured delight tenfold. An old-school, jazzy lounge feeling full of sound effects I could see myself hearing in a classic Hospital Records album, a wonderfully picked vocal sample that brings the vibes, a bit of saxophone chiming in every now and then, and a wide bassline that puts the pressure on your ear canals in exactly the right amount - this one got it all!

Cranking up the summer vibes one last time, closer Need You once again takes a sample heard around the world and slices and dices it into little pieces to fill out the eternally sunny world he so masterfully created here. A disco sting for the ages kicks off an ethereal dance between a piano and its underlying warm bassline, a guitar you can easily picture on a perfect beach day, and sprinkles of loveliness across the entire spectrum, that is more than just delightful. Delight-overflowing!

1.3. Conclusion

Rich in jazzy, funky flavour, with some of the vibiest bass guitar playing in quite some time. A summer vacation for your ears!

2. Clusion - All Else EP [Five Alley]

Recommended if you like: Redeyes, Submorphics, Dogger

Now for someone whose spotlight on here is long overdue: Clusion! Basically every single time he has released another one of his excellent projects over the past couple of years, he made it into the shortlist of people I want to cover that week, but for some reason stupid old me never managed to make it work. I genuinely got no clue(sion) why. Well, today's the day!

2.1. Nicholas Muñiz (2022 - now)

Straight from the muñizipality of Los Angeles in California, Nicholas Muñiz has been putting out gorgeous EPs for years on end now. Introduced to artists like Al Green, D'angelo, and WAR from an early age, Nicholas went on to become a little bit Hip-Hop-sessed - which eventually lead him down the North Quarter-esque path of Liquid DnB. Debuting his own productions on Dogger's incredible imprint Precinct in 2022 under the umbrel-LA of Clusion, he immediately shot up into my list of artists to watch, with especially his Confessions EP bringing me both a whole lot of joy and activating the sort of "why isn't anyone talking about this" type of frustration commonly awakened by my favourite hidden gems.

Over the years, he would occasionally pop back into my release radar with another couple of gems and then dip back out until the next year again. Throughout this, at least from my end, massively appreciated quality-first type of journey, Nicholas not only treated us to excellent EPs on Redeyes' blossoming Five Alley and the aforementioned Precinct, he also appeared on TomInTheChamber's Heading Out EP, and Precinct's 20 and Five Alley's Pang, Vol.2 compilations. You were also able to hear his selections on The Bass Society and Sweet N Sour Invites!

And, well, that's all I've got on the guy. So without further ado, let's give this newest offering of his a listen!

2.2. All Else EP

I've already mentioned Nicholas' quality-over-quantity approach, but this EP in particular took it another step further. Deliberately slowing down his process to allow for great ideas, the perfect samples, and the most satisfying chord progressions to emerge naturally instead of forcing anything out to meet a deadline, the All Else EP sees him outright relishing in these five perhaps on paper simple yet in practice perfectly executed ideas.

The pianos in opener Need U hit each note perfectly, while the drumwork goes for a light jog and the reverberating vocal sample weaves into the warm embrace of the bass underneath. Toss 'n Turn builds on a stream of short, precisely ticky drums, with long-noted waves of processed organ playing washing over your mind. Fueled by soulful vocals so filtered they become a purely melodic texture to the arrangement surrounding it, Bygones ebbs and flows between melodies, synths, and bassline intensity in such a way that your entire being becomes soothed. Understand rolls its fine-tuned drums right off its tongue, taking us on a journey through a melody that I can't help but call incredible. With multiple, ever-evolving melodic departments working together in rhythmic harmony, it hits ever so slightly harder when Nicholas gives the drums a break in the middle of it all, before the engine kicks right back in again. Lastly, As I Leave reverberates another wonderful vocal snippet over masterfully syncopated piano chords as the rolling drums take a stroll alongside us, to absolutely lovely effect.

2.3. Con-Clusion

Hehe, get it. For real though: This entire EP is chock-full of elegantly orchestrated loops of delight, executed to perfection. --- title: "Picks Of The Week (01.08.26 - 07.08.26)" date: "2026-08-10" tags: ['Selfreleased'] draft: false summary: "Timoa - Hyperbeam EP 💎 [Selfreleased]"

1. Timoa - Hyperbeam EP 💎 [Selfreleased]

Recommended if you like: Lukher, [BORDERS], Camo & Krooked

While my combined Liquicity and Let It Roll fatigue is desperately trying to push me to skip another week of reviews, another part of me really wants me to at least briefly talk about one particularly huge release, by a particularly underrated artist. This week's Hidden Gem Of The Week™️ is none other than Timoa!

1.1. Timo Reinprecht

Straight outta Austria's most grazious city, Timo Reinprecht has been putting together basses and drums since at least his very first release back in 2021, just not in a drums and basses way. As Teezy, Mr. T explored the worlds of Trap, Dancehall, and, yes, a couple years down the line also DnB. Mostly by himself, but also with vocalists like Michelle Seo, Pham Thanh, and Cradle Collective's Florian Trummer. The aforementioned D and also B parts of the equation came in the form of 2024 singles 'Closer', 'stargazing stories', and 'trip to tamaimo', but this was not where the Timomentum stopped. He wanted more. Ti-moa, even. As 2025 rolled around, his new alias Timoa was born! While at first smoothly keeping the liquid-inspired vibes rolling with tracks like 'Dazed Dawn' and 'Liquid Lights', he soon started incorporating more spacey, Schnitzel-esque aesthetics into his now more heavily techy production, at least for now culminating in his most recent Hyperbeam EP - which is exactly what we're here to talk about!

1.2. Hyperbeam EP

Ominously fluttery synths and roaring reeses swiftly prepare us for some big ol' carnage on opener Hyperbeam, but the war drum fueled atmosphere drops us into a surprisingly low-key laser-driven chugga-chug at first. Of course not our final destination though, Timo quickly moves on from this content little bopper to the actual explosive reaction of it all: A spin-back powered back and forth between unpredictably bouncy stab rhythms and sweeping swaths of synths, with a whole bunch of speedy drum action going on. Hyperbeam needs a combat round to charge up, after all. Or was that Solar Beam? Anyway. On top of a pounding 4x4 heartbeat we're recharging our second attack in the breakdown, before unleashing even more dancefloor destruction.

Now on our Way To Pluto, with the passing-by planets attempting to pull us into their orbit, we quite epically wobble through the bass and radio chatter filled atmosphere. Once too close to the gravitational pull, however, we end up having to steer through an asteroid belt or two, by starting up the massive reese engine now roaring in our ears, letting the little asteroids of breaky drum hits smash against our luckily still functional shields.

Having survived these tumultous times, we are soothed by the sight of the Solar Eclipse, and its accompanying, most wonderful vocal. Gently rolling alongside some of Timo's signature bright synth wobbling, we are rudeboily interrupted by two hits of superpowered synthesis, before we are allowed to futuristically skip-hop through the delightful plutonian fields of grass with heaps of syncopation in our step.

Lastly, we float through the wonderfully built-up, grandiose Heliosphere of the star we just saw eclipse. After building and building, the menacing air is sucked out in an instant and we start gently gliding through solar storms and whatever else you can reasonably experience over there. Beautiful synths dancing on rather mean basses, glitchily processed sounds out the wazoo, a string-powered breakdown - it's just lovely all around, I'm afraid!

1.3. Conclusion

A joyful journey through the wonders of our cosmos. More like Ti-woah!