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New Music! Chase & Status, Pola & Bryson, Upgrade & Basstripper, Alix Perez & Visages, Subsonic, Justin Hawkes, Wingz and more! Reviews for two high energy, futuristic Hidden Gems you shouldn’t miss! [+weekly updated Spotify playlist] | New Music Monday! (Week 15)
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New Music! Chase & Status, Pola & Bryson, Upgrade & Basstripper, Alix Perez & Visages, Subsonic, Justin Hawkes, Wingz and more! Reviews for two high energy, futuristic Hidden Gems you shouldn’t miss! [+weekly updated Spotify playlist] | New Music Monday! (Week 15)

#Links & Playlists
Weekly updated Spotify Playlist H2L: New Drum & Bass
Soundcloud Playlist H2L: New Drum & Bass Soundcloud
Youtube Playlist H2L: New Drum & Bass Youtube
Youtube Music Playlist H2L: New Drum & Bass YT Music
Apple Music Playlist H2L: New Drum & Bass Apple Music
Retroactive Playlist H2L: Retroactive New DnB
Last Week's list https://redd.it/1se3f6n
Follow us on Instagram Telm & Wilson, lefuniname, voynich

 

#Picks Of The Week (by u/lefuniname)

####1. echopath - flick the light on EP 💎 [SoundMuseum]
Recommended if you like: Jade Sierra, OBSES, VRUM

Usually I try to stick to the week gone past when picking out what I'm sharing on here, but when Saturate's SoundMuseum blindsides me with a debut EP as wonderful as this, by a name I had only just barely registered before, my hands are simply tied your honour! So let's talk about echopath.

1.1. The Many Grainy Paths of The Chimera (2018 - 2026)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the story of Bristolian talent Tom Grain, the man behind the project, goes back quite a bit further than the inception of this particular name. When he wasn't travelling the world, preparing for his next marathon, or hanging out at turbo island, Tom was pursuing another dream of his: music! What began in 2018 as a DJing career under the Grainy moniker, with support slots for Andy C, Hybrid Minds, Culture Shock, Fred V and more following not that much later, soon evolved into an artist adventure with his very own explorations of the 170s. About 2022, however, he grew tired of both the name and the singular tempo he chose for himself back then, eventually making the jump from cultivation to mythology with his brand new alias Chimera. While DnB remained a thing for him even through this very Greek time of his life, his excursions on imprints like Exodus, Incurzion, and UTOP!A became far more multi-faceted than ever before, with all sorts of quintessentially Bristol left-field bouncy footwork weirdness creeping into his discography.

Late last year, Tom realised his ambitions had once again outgrown his current alias, and with a renewed focus on emotional bass music in both the DnB and general club music realms, he announced one more rebrand: echopath was born!

... and that's kind of it really! Sure, we had his debut release 'Polar Night' on Incurzion's (FAST) compilation last year, and he's started his pathfinder mix series, but the very next stop on the grain train is already the afore-alluded-to flick the light on EP!

1.2. flick the light on EP

With distant playground noises and a slowly approaching, equally nostalgic synth lead, Tom flick(s) the light on, revealing a world of melancholic melodies and futuristic arrangements. The synth melody now in full, satisfyingly distorted force, the titular vocal sample is both looped and chopped into pieces, while the slightly delayed drums take us on a rhythmic journey that won't conform to any meager two-step standards. The longer we reside in this universe of his, the more things start to break apart, from the intensifying vocal slicery to even the previously so stable lead being rearranged into bits and pieces, until finally ending with a cavalcade of de- and re-constructed sounds in the last minute of it all. With the excellent opener having now set the tone, we sit down at our imaginary camp fire for a spooky ghost story, on apparition. Sampling iconic scenes from the original Scream and showcasing shrieking stings of terror, this one wonderfully transports us to a place of terror, where acoustic drum patterns start to fall over each other - while still remaining coherent - and mean mids-filled basslines grumble, bleep and bloop all over the place. More and more, the undead start to rise up from the ground, unleashing actual hell in the lower registers while the drumwork fires on all cylinders.

Having survived all of this madness, we return to more somber moods on more than I should. On top of an incredibly vibey atmosphere full of audio crackling and muted synths, the vocal sample lays it all out in front of us, until it hits the titular line and the processing joyride begins yanking it up, down, left and right across frequency spectrum. Back and forth, this now chopped-up rollercoaster ride of a melody battles it out with the now fully fleshed-out, slightly haunting synth melody from the intro, while syncopation-driven multi-layered drum patterns and grumbling basses fill out the rest of the available spaces effortlessly. As if not enough of a fun time, our vocal chops not only are treated to even more effectual transformations, but are also thrust upon a bouncy 4x4 switch-up, to contrast even more with the breaky response. Lastly, chrysalis closes the chapter of this EP by pitting gorgeous nature aesthetics against ominous under- and, through the heavily pitched-down vocals, over-tones. While at first surprisingly straight-forward in its drumwork, the relentless onslaught of chops and piercing sirens blaring up and down the scales of course also de- and evolve into pure madness more and more the longer this coolest of nature's transformation goes on.

1.3. Conclusion

Combines the beauty of futuristic soundscapes with a certain rawness that undergoes many, many expertly-crafted progressions along the way. Wonderful!

####2. C4LLAW4Y - Again & Again 💎 [Selfreleased]
Recommended if you like: Eluun, OBSES, Aegis

Did you really think I would keep it to one underrated British savant in this spotlight? Think again!

2.1. Josh Callaway (2008 - 2026)

You've read that right. At only 17 years of age, Kentonian talent Josh C4LLAW4Y Callaway is already producing music that's putting all sorts of other names to shame. With already 7 years of music making and plenty of songwriting experience under his belt, it starts to make a little bit of sense, but it's still quite mad to see if you ask me. In 2024, so at a mere fifteen revolutions around the sun, he started going down the path of the drums and basses, with self-released originals, a rather dnblasphemous bootleg of 'Last Christmas', and his debut on Right Good Records. Last year he spread his wings out a bit further, with debuts on Kayak and Pure Filth, a feature with OneLongDon, and remixes for both JAZZA and the just mentioned singular elongated donocular.

... and that's, once again, kind of it so far! So, how about we check out the new one then?

2.2. Again & Again

With an atmosphere as emerging as Josh himself is, Again & Again eases us into its experience rather gently. However, as the sliced-up vocals approach, the arrangement begins to show signs of severe glitching, and once the vocal unfolds completely, sparkly synths and hectic drums add to the feeling of impending doom. And doom, we shall receive, in the form of an intensely satisfying battle between precise, techy drums with plenty of syncopation and just the right amount of energy to allow the "again"-ified vocal melody some space to speak and pure insanity by way of absolutely bonkers drums, chops hammering into you at the fullest of speeds and extremely distorted basses blasting your remaining sanity to shreds. Of course, we've also got some smooth rollouts happening afterwards to bring us back to earth, with Josh even taking us down a couple BPMs in his Breakbeat-y outro.

2.3. Conclusion

(C4LLA-)Way too good. Looking forward to seeing him release again, and again, and hopefully again.

 

#New Releases

###Dancefloor

###Liquid

###Deep / Tech / Minimal

###Neuro

###Jump Up

###Jungle / Halftime / Experimental

###General DnB / Mixed

u/TELMxWILSON — 3 days ago