Busy week, with ADE, samplers, new music, DJ Mag, and various news… But we had time to cover some (more or less disappointing) collabs for you guys. As always, we’ll be compiling 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.

Hardwell x Deorro x MAKJ feat. Fatman Scoop – Left Right

After much hype, anticipation, and even a surprise appearance by Hardwell at ADE, “Left Right” is finally released in all its unsurprising glory. Between “Retrograde” and “Reckless,” it seems like Hardwell is clearing off his hard drive. It’s clear that this track is the lovechild of Deorro and MAKJ who release these nostalgic bounce tracks from time to time like in the case of “Bring it Back.” It’s just ridiculous to see this trio try to make this annoying melody work for the entirety of a track with every bounce trick in the book. Even Fatman Scoop’s “original” vocals can’t save this disappointment of a track. Everyone, including this knockoff Lil Jon, could have put a lot more effort into this track.

32/100

Bounce Inc. & Daav One – See the Light

Throughout trends and waves, Bounce Inc has always remained on the edge of the spotlight – contributing decent tracks to whatever is currently popular. Each week it becomes more apparent that the current wave of future house is fueled by the recently released Siks sample pack. After countless releases on other OG labels, it’s surprising that Bounce Inc opted for a community release on Revealed instead of something like Playbox or TurnItUp Muzik. I feel that Revealed Community is its testing grounds to see which genres to put on main while their main releases are primarily just existing Revealed artists. To maintain this level of output without enough thought into quality will come back to hurt the label in the long run. Despite its derivative and disappointing addition to the Bounce Inc discography, the track is still a solid stream with many pleasant elements to enjoy.

71/100

Pep & Rash – Waiting For A Sign

As 2019 draws to a close, it’s clear that its biggest mark has been the shortening of tracks in every genre. And while we were initially against this, it’s starting to feel like the norm. “Waiting For A Sign” feels exactly as long as it should be in the 2:07 long radio edit. It’s basically EDM junk food. Is it memorable? Hardly. But was it enjoyable? Sure. I would put this on a playlist and not skip it whenever it popped up. This is just where we’re at now and I’m ok with that.

70/100

Bali Bandits – Roll ‘N Rock

Here we are again with the perplexing Hexagon sublabel, Hexagon Generation. What was once a crown jewel of EP has turned into the Revealed Community of Hexagon where they sluff off their subpar tracks to increase the label’s overall output (read: revenue). Bali Bandits built on the sound from “Work That Body” but didn’t add to it in any significant way. Whereas the latter hinted toward their old sound, “Rock ‘N Roll” simply exists with their minimalistic bass house approach. As labels try their best to please playlist curators for those juicy juicy streams, their output suffers as they release anything with even a modicum of marketable value.

64/100

Modern Revolt – Volt

Let’s take a brief moment for this throwback underground electro track in the form of “Volt.” What I love about this track is how it combines that old school rave sound with the new bass house trends. Add to that the two unique drops and you have yourself an excellent nostalgia piece that brings something new to the table. I’m not entirely down with the dissonant melodies in the breakdowns but they accomplish the task of keeping the track moving from drop to drop. In summary – this is how you do nostalgia.

76/100

Tchami – Rainforest (Valentino Khan Remix)

Everyone has adopted the new streaming-first motto in different ways but I for one am a huge fan of how Valentino Khan has subdued his signature sound. By toning down his kick and bassline, he’s created some exceptional and unique house tracks for easy listening including this one, “JustYourSoul,” and “Feel Your Love.” In terms of a remix, this plays more like a bootleg as Khan takes the existing take-it-or-leave-it melody and puts it with his sound. It’s a subtle shift more to a club edit rather than streaming fodder so it’s really pick your poison when it comes to which version you chose to keep or not.

68/100

Hanzy & CUERVO – On the Track

Behind the scenes this is one track I’ve been looking forward to seeing released. “On The Track” is reminiscent of the brief future house period for Bassjackers and in particular, “Dinosaur” with Jay Hardway. With a competent vocal and interesting layers, this collab from Hanzy and CUERVO could have been a real game changer if the drop was more than a two-measure loop. At any rate, what we got was clearly something “Different” as the label name would suggest. I applaud Different Records for giving this one a shot but it feels like there are parts of the song we’ll never hear.

72/100

DJ Kuba & Neitan x David Puentez – Bad Habit

You never really know what you’re going to get when you click on a DJ Kuda & Neitan song other than it’ll be quirky. Throw the omnipresent David Puentez into the mix and I was definitely intrigued to see how this one turned out. What we ended up with was a slightly more aggressive David Puentez track with his signature clean percussion and a STMPD-inspired one-note melody. The breakdown entirely lacks character as well. Future House Music has succumbed to the trap of “Fast food music” from bigger names that are completely forgettable. Sure, there’s nothing objectively bad about them, but it’s a crap-shoot to guess which big name put their name on a FHM release. It’s obviously working well for them as they’re garnering hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify per release. There’s something to be said about their consistency, but on the other hand, their practices are promoting the stagnation of EDM evolution to let new and interesting trends emerge.

48/100

Bangerific – Sacrifice (feat. Steklo)

After covering five separate ADE samplers, we were a bit burnt out to cover the rest. But if you are looking for more EPs, I would suggest checking out the new on Alpha Records for a healthy dose of big room trance and The Million Shades if you want a bit of 2017 nostalgia. One of the tracks from TMS that stuck out to me was this one from Bangerific featuring vocals from Steklo. I got a bit of Micah Martin-lite vibes from Steklo which blended well with the rock influence thrown in by Bangerific in the breakdowns. The drops are a throwback to the heyday of the niche genre, dark progressive. The leads could have been a bit sharper to convey all the potential energy but it was still a gem from this particular sampler.

77/100

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