If you’ve written off Monstercat as big-room EDM for teenagers, Pirapus are here to make you reconsider the whole roster. These two come out of Christchurch, New Zealand, about as far from the UK drum and bass heartland as you can physically get, and they’ve spent the last couple of years building a sound they only half-jokingly call future drum and bass. Avenues is a good argument for the branding. It’s got the melodic sweep of the liquid stuff but a restless, forward-leaning energy underneath that keeps it from ever settling into background music. The drums are crisp and a little unpredictable, dodging the obvious fill every single time you brace for it. There’s a synth line that keeps climbing when you expect it to resolve, and that small refusal is what makes the track feel alive. New Zealand keeps turning out producers who sound like nowhere in particular and everywhere at once, and Pirapus are near the front of that pack. Lovely, weird, propulsive stuff from the bottom of the world.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.