This week has been an absolute whopper for great and notable tracks! We’ve got another anthem from Armin Van Buuren, an interesting new evolution of the Curbi sound, and a return to form for Tom & Jame. As always, we’ll be partnering with The QR Network to compile a short recap of notable tracks that we didn’t have time to cover during the previous week. We hope you enjoy our selection and if you have any tracks you’d like to see here, please feel free to post your suggestions in the comments!

Armin Van Buuren – Turn It Up

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It’s not often that EDM anthems come around but Armin Van Buuren seems to be pumping them out at an incredible rate. I mean just in the past year, we’ve gotten “Love Sex and Water,” “Blah Blah Blah,” “Unity,” and now we’ve got “Turn It Up.” Structurally and melodically, this track is most similar to “Blah Blah Blah” starting with the vocal, vocal drop with psy-bass, followed by a gorgeous piano section and another psy-drop. Even though it follows the same beats, I can’t help but get genuine goosebumps when the vocals and piano combine in that second drop. I found myself singing this track over and over for days after its release. While the material is stellar, I do have some qualms about the structure in the extended mix. After the second drop, there’s a simple horn section which just has a horn pulsating at increasing intervals and then that goes into the psy DJ outro. It doesn’t make a lot of sense considering the build isn’t that effective and there’s nothing notable about the third drop. For me it’s just confusing as to why he included the horn section instead of going straight to the outro as most extended mixes do. To clarify, this is only a complaint with the extended mix, the rating given below is based on the excellent radio edit which is what most listeners will hear.

93/100

Jordan Jay & Ellis – All That She Wants

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While the future house craze has long been over and been replaced by more unique and innovative tracks with the same vibe, it’s starting to feel like they’re beginning to hit the same sort of post-craze that big room has fallen into. To clarify, I mean that the audience at large is pickier about which artists to follow and tracks to add to their playlist. While there is always going to be people that say “all future house sounds the same” just as they do with big room, it’s for precisely that reason that artists like Ellis and Jordan Jay are on the frontlines, taking future house to new heights. “All That She Wants” is a remake of the iconic track from Ace of Bass but with a new vocalist doing her take on the lyrics. While I’ve personally been enjoying the remix from OUTRAGE and Jaxx & Vega which maintains the original vocals, I’m not a fan of some of the creative decisions made by the singer. I will of course add in that this is due to my own listening history and for some, they will prefer this newer version. The fact that they added a new melody building on the vocalist’s rendition in the second drop is absolutely fantastic because I love seeing tracks that reward listeners for sticking around for the full track. Moving on to the drops, they are a fantastic combination of Ellis’ bubbly sound and Jordan Jay’s hard-hitting melodies. The passion put into this remake and going the extra miles to get a new vocalist, deriving new melodies, while still paying proper respect for the original is truly commendable and I for one would love to see more collaborations between these two in the future.

87/100

Tom & Jame – Amigo

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I became a true fan of Tom & Jame back when they released “Buddha” with Holl & Rush which was such a fantastic track and one that I feels holds up against the test of time. Since then, I followed both of their artists and enjoyed more tracks from Tom & Jame like “Rise” and their follow-up collab, “In The Air” which helped bring bass house into a big label like Hexagon. However recently I’ve felt that Tom & Jame’s future bounce stuff hasn’t been up to par with the sheer level of production of their older tracks. The elements don’t have that same strength and clarity in tracks like “You Know,” “Moneymaker,” and especially “Waiting.” However with this new track, “Amigo,” I feel like they’ve finally gotten their edge back. For me, this is a spiritual follow-up to one of my all-time favs from them, “Energy” as they both have wonderfully melodic vocals and powerful drops. I would have preferred to see another melody second break like “Energy” and “Step Up.” Seeing them pulling out all of the stops in “Amigo” really would have made my week but I’m satisfied with this solid track from the duo. It shows that they’re still evolving and improving their sound while rekindling what made their older tracks so special.

85/100

Patrick Moreno & Branson – Cyclone

Yes, I know this is the second Revealed track in this recap, but I wanted to talk about this one because I was so happy to see Branson appear on the label. Patrick Moreno has some great hits under hit belt as well like “Alone Tonight” and “Bittersweet.” Branson caught my eye with his track, “Tremble” which has one of the most empowering melodies in a dark progressive track. Here with their collab, they’ve taken their melodic chops to Mainstage-style big room track. The melody in the first break captures that same euphoria from “Tremble” which I really enjoyed. However, the build to the drops feel empty and the drops themselves seem to have a bit too much bass in the mix and push around the melody, forcing it into the backseat when it should be at the forefront. When comparing the track’s sound and waveform to another one in the same key and similar rhythmic and melodic intensity like, “Temple” from Maurice West and DBSTF, the shortcomings become increasingly apparent. I don’t understand why Revealed didn’t push for a better master to get the most out of these tracks. It’s a shame to see these technical elements hold a song back from being a truly special Community release.

77/100

Teminite & Whales – Mayhem

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This is one I’ve been waiting for ever since reviewing Teminite’s last album here on EDM Reviewer and interviewing him for The QR Network. This lived up to my expectations. Killer melodies, juicy vocoder work, and of course an insane drop with a perfect mix of raw power and melodic interludes. The call and response present throughout all aspects of the track is absolutely insane and representative of true teamwork in this collaboration. The second drop goes full-on riddim which can be hit or miss depending on which tempo you prefer your riddim to be at, I’m usually a 150BPM fellow and so hearing it at 146 BPM lost some of the impact that I feel could have been present. Usually the second drop is where bass producers go all out and showcase all of the madness they’re capable of, but for me it came off as rather generic which did leave me with a sour taste in my mouth. Also, minor nitpick, but the last chord of the track doesn’t resolve which is just wholly unsatisfying. This could be because there’s a follow-up track coming, or it’ll be a part of a larger album or compilation. Either way, the first three-quarters of the track are exceptional, and the last quarter is just average at best.

83/100

Riot Ten & Stoutty – All The Smoke (feat. Bok Nero)

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The master of the anthem is back with another memorable track featuring one of the best hard-rappers in the EDM scene. Instead of going full-on riot with a heavy dubstep drop, we get a hard Jersey Club banger followed by a trap section utilizing that signature Riot Ten saw. The Jersey kicks were an interesting choice given that they can lessen the intensity of the track but with the right synth and atmosphere, it can make the crowd go nuts and given how talented Riot Ten is a riling up a crowd, I can’t wait to see the crowd shots for this one. My complaints here are the short runtime which would clock in at about two minutes on the dot with an extra fifteen seconds of DJ outro. However, analytics show that shorter tracks perform better on Spotify and if I’m being honest with myself, I probably just wanted to hear a few extra bars from Bok Nero because I just love his flow and energy.

82/100

Steff Da Campo x Tommy Jayden – Gin & Vodka

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The amount of times that Steff Da Campo has made a drop based on his “signature sound” is up to the double digits at this point and so to see him paired with someone with their own strong signature had me curious as to how this collab would turn out. Instead of getting the normal Steff sound, we actually got the evolved version that we saw in “In My Mind” which was a welcome surprise. However it lacked the mid-frequencies to pop out in optimal listening conditions which left his sections feeling a bit empty and over high-passed. Aside from that, this is largely a Tommy Jayden track as the drop is dominated by his sound with no variation over his past tracks aside from the Steff fill. “Gin & Vodka” is basically Tommy’s old track, “SWIRL” in reverse, going up a chromatic scale with triplets rather than descending it. It’s even closer still to his “Hold On Tight” remix which has both triplets and descending chromatic melody. So while it’s great to see these two artists with recognizable signatures taking their talents to a major label like Spinnin’, I feel like it’s also one of the most derivative tracks from the two of them considering how few elements they changed from their previous tracks.

68/100

Eliminate – I’ll Be There

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Speaking of signatures, one of the freshest “voices” in the dubstep scene and so to see him release a full EP on Disciple, each with an evolved and unique spin on his signature sound is just fantastic. I feel like “I’ll Be There” is the strongest of the set with its clean drum & bass breakdown, solid vocal choice, and dynamic drop. As a sidenote, there is a very common chord fill that is used by many producers across genres that has been essentially claimed by Gammer with his track “The Drop” and the multitude of remixes that emphasized that chord fill. I think this is unfair of Gammer but I can’t deny that my mind has associated that chord fill with him and his track. Nitpicking aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the 32 bars of drop which is a rare feat considering my attention span. In the second break, Eliminate adds in one of his superb electro melodies to great effect. The second drop follows a similar structure to the first but adding in more extreme flares here and there to spice things up. Overall, incredible producer, exceptional track. Well-worth digging through his discography if you enjoyed this track.

89/100

Sephyx & Talon – Wild Love

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Fusing genres together can lead to some truly unique and incredible tracks and so here with “Wild Love,” Sephyx & Talon combined hardstyle with dubstep. A logical decision given the similar tempo range. Before I talk about that fusion section specifically, the pure hardstyle sections of the track are a solid as it gets. The melodies are euphoric and the kicks are all on point. Now to that dubstep section, when I first heard it, it became the reason that I didn’t download the track in that moment. When it came across my feed a second time, I gave it another chance and decided that I admired the risk even if I felt that the section was a bit barebones. I admire how they used the tail of the kick for the rhythmic elements but there is just too much empty space for it to qualify as a solid dubstep track. Overall, a fantastic idea but the execution could have been better. I would like to see more collaborations between hardstyle and true dubstep tracks in the future to see what potential this fusion really holds.

80/100

Kris Kross Amsterdam x Ally Brooke x Messiah – Vámonos (Curbi Remix)

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This man has been on fire lately. There’s no other way around it, his remixes, solo tracks, and EP in the past few months have all been solid tracks. Not only that, but each of those tracks builds off each other without reaching to the point of being derivative. Curbi builds on his various styles in meaningful ways and I love that about him. Here with Vamanos, he ventures into prime Bali Bandits territory. Whereas that duo has softened their sound that began with “Kaboom,” Curbi has picked up the slack and done his own take on what I can only described as an autotuned synth. This is by no means a rip-off as this track has Curbi written all over it, but I do hope that Bali Bandits might see the similarities and get inspired to build upon their own innovative sound instead of muting it in favor of more stream-ready tracks like “Body Rock” and “Lucky Chances.”

85/100

Bonus Discussion + Site Commentary: Billie Eilish – bury a friend (RudeLies Remix)

Those of you in the EDM Reviewers Facebook group might have seen this post from RudeLies which called out me and the other reviewers for our bias in our pieces. I would like to clarify that I, Chris, have no control over the EDM Reviewer Instagram stories, and so I don’t take responsibility for that complaint. I also personally advocate for crediting whichever writer wrote a review so readers can keep track of our biases. For the record, I am personally not a fan of old-school progressive house as well as drum & bass music. That being said, I enjoy almost every other genre from dubstep to big room to bass house and future house.

Our reviews here on this site are not all meant to be positive and my reasoning for writing negative or neutral reviews is usually to highlight some facet of the industry or genre that I feel could use some work. The only other place you’ll find negative reviews of EDM tracks are in the comments section and so I like to use my place on this website and platform to point out some of the issues that I see in the hopes that other producers will see these issues and avoid them when making their next song.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, another reason I wanted to review this track is to respond to another post from RudeLies on his personal account which reads,

“This has been sitting on my mind for a bit, some people seem to have a problem with artists releasing unexpected stuff, or aprieciating (sic) music in the right way from a perspective. For example some music is only ment (sic) to listened in the clubs, or some music is just ment (sic) to be more simple, and as soon as people start to try to reference it to artists discography and set expectation it limits the artist to make what they truly want.

Anyways lets put a change to that and truly make whatever it is we feel at the moment and not care about the music critics, fans, producers or labels!

I agree with a lot of the points he’s made about the artist having freedom to create whatever he or she desires. We’ve seen artists switch genres, create new projects, and evolve their sound before and usually it’s met with some backlast but other times it’s done rather well. One example I’d like to mention is Dropgun, who has maintained their signature sound in future house, big room, future bass, and even drum and bass. It’s my personal opinion that it’s more important to have a personal sound than a genre. I don’t know which other critics he’s referring to since there aren’t many other blogs out there doing what we do at the level that we do it, but I’m sure the comment sections on some of those songs is full of negative points and complaints. The last point I’d like to make is that while the artist should have the freedom to create whatever they like, they can’t change the minds of fans and labels and so exploring their creative freedom within the confines of their brand is just a fact of the industry up until a certain point. Once you’ve amassed a solid number of fans, a sustainable portion will follow you wherever your heart leads, but up until then, you’re a slave of your own making so set expectations straight early and keep your fans in the loop as much as possible during all aspects of your journey.

As for the song itself, I greatly enjoyed RudeLies jump to psy-trance with this YouTube-exclusive remix. It listens like a toned down version of the RudeLies sound, specifically the one that’s been evolving since his Wahlstedt remix and refined in his Clean Bandit remix. It’s hard to draw any other comparisons besides this drop from Troyak which has a similar clean take on the psy-trance genre. The subtle vocoder work is exceptional and adds to that Billie Ellish mysterious intrigue elements. It’s an excellent evolution of the signature RudeLies sound which retains just enough elements from his older tracks while still breaking a ton of new ground. He’s one to watch.

We hope you enjoyed our recap of selected songs from last week. If there is a song that you felt should have been on here, be sure to leave it in the comments below and we’ll do our best to give our take on it. Certain songs were not included because they will be covered in more detail in the following days so make sure you’re following our social media pages to see all of our latest posts!

Wildcrow X Maski – Banga – Khuli

Nicky Romero & Teamworx – Deep Dark Jungle

Hardwell & Mike Williams – I’m Not Sorry

This recap was provided by The QR Network which is a site for interviews with producers and DJs. Check out their interviews with Damien N-Drix, Anikdote, and Herobust. 

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