If you write off everything on NCS as faceless gaming-video fuel, Again (In My Mind) is the kind of track that argues back. P3PPER and Jibaan turn in a melodic electronic cut with a vocal hook that’s genuinely stuck in my head, that half-sung “in my mind” refrain looping long after I’d closed the tab. NCS gets dismissed as a copyright-free content mill, and plenty of it is exactly that, but every so often the label puts out something that would hold its own on a proper release. This is one. The production is bright and clean, the drop trades the usual future-bass screech for something more melodic and singable, and the whole thing has an emotional pull the format doesn’t require but benefits from. There’s a real songwriting instinct under the sheen; someone actually cared about the topline here. It’s a well-made, hooky little song, and it’s stuck with me more than most of what I’ve heard lately.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.