“SUFFOCATE” is darker than most of what NCS puts out, and that’s exactly why it works. Papa Khan builds this around a claustrophobic, mid-tempo bass groove and a vocal that sounds genuinely strained — fitting for a track with that title — and the result has a menace the label’s gaming-stream catalogue usually sands off. The drop at 1:24 doesn’t go big, it goes tight and low, a compressed snarl of bass that feels like the walls closing in rather than opening up. I respect the restraint; the easy move would have been a festival-sized lead, and Papa Khan resists it. There’s a metallic percussion loop running under the second half that adds a real sense of unease, like something mechanical breathing in the corner. This is copyright-free music you could actually score a tense scene with, which is not a sentence I get to write often about NCS. It won’t be for everyone — people who want their electronic music euphoric will bounce right off — but if you like a bit of dread in your low end, this delivers in full. Genuinely one of the more interesting things on the channel this year.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.