Sonik Presha and Vinyl Richie’s Druid Records, primarily based within the UK, is a kind of nice D&B sleeper cells who appear to materialize hits seemingly from nowhere. Of their close to decade of operation, they’ve debuted or boosted among the most revered names in drum & bass like Agressor Bunx, Void, Kaiza, Volatile Cycle, Redpill, 2Whales and Tobax. From that checklist alone, it’s clear their A&R group is aware of its stuff.
Now with the comparatively new however clearly gifted Austrian duo’s stunning liquid hit “Holding On” topping Druid’s Beatport prime 10 checklist for eight months operating, it appears solely good enterprise to do some remixes and a VIP. It’s additionally good artwork, because the “Holding On” remix EP, due out this Friday, has yielded 4 glorious new stand alone tracks. They’re so good, in truth, we requested to premiere two of them.
The unique “Holding On” that includes Sammie Hall was a little bit of a breakaway monitor for Skull, who up till that time had been producing largely tight, heavy, snarey neurofunk. With releases on the German darkish bass label Hanzom Music and Neonlight’s DIASCOPE, most followers most likely thought they knew the place Skull’s model was headed. To say that “Holding On” was a shock is a fairly large understatement. It nonetheless clearly has completed nicely each for the artists and their additionally usually neuro label. With a bouncy, deceptively easy beat, vapor wave-style synths and a ravey piano interlude, Sammie Corridor’s vocals take the peerlessly balanced monitor that further step larger that’s what earned “Holding On” its hit standing.
If anybody thought Skull had deserted neurofunk for liquid with “Holding On,” they solely have to look to the VIP on the remix EP to know that’s not true. Tuned means all the way down to a sinister minor key and with crunchy synths, laser sounds and a brutal hello hat utilized to a barely heavier beat, Skull reveals followers how associated all of the subgenres actually are by turning the stems fully on their heads with this darkish, heavy antithesis to the unique. With this VIP, Skull are out of the liquid world simply as shortly and seamlessly as they entered it.
Druid label mainstay Sola created a dancefloor remix that’s additionally a bit darkish and harmful, with plenty of backstitch syncopation and the same key to the unique. It once more reveals what number of types of monitor can come from the identical stems, together with our premieres in the present day, the remixes from Nickbee and Airglo.
Once more, these two remixes are so completely different that except one hears them facet by facet, one wouldn’t even discover they’re from the identical stems as the unique, and positively not the VIP. Nickbee’s combine pitches the entire monitor down nevertheless it’s removed from minimal, swelling with heavy, melodic synths as he chops up the unique synths to create extra staggered syncopation and injects some breathtaking and cinematic ambient sound design.
Airglo’s remix as soon as once more turns the unique on its ear, pitching down Corridor’s vox a lot that it seems like a very completely different singer. Darkish, cinematic, trippy and ambient is the model of this remix, with classical prodigy Airglo’s composition abilities on full flex as he crowds the workers with sub bass and complicated keys. Deep D&B doesn’t even cowl it; this remix has broke the subgenre barrier.
It’s clear with the “Holding On” EP and certainly even with the unique single that Skull and Druid needed to thumb their collective noses on the divisiveness that may typically occur between subgenres. That’s the glory of the remix in its truest type, actually. With a couple of tweaks, an artist can present argumentative punters how their favourite, genre-defining monitor might be become one thing else solely: one other subgenre and even one thing fully indefinable. The best way music unites us will all the time be stronger than the methods wherein music followers divide us. Let’s attempt to do not forget that.
The “Holding On” remix EP drops Friday, August 27 on Druid Information. Click here to pre-order.
