How is NCS still turning out tracks this big fifteen years into basically inventing the royalty-free electronic lane? AFTERMATH comes from SAM WAITIN, and it is proof the channel is more than a library for Twitch streamers to borrow from. The track is built for impact, a tense cinematic build that stacks pressure until the drop pays it off with real heft rather than the thin digital screech a lot of this genre settles for. There is a darkness to the melody that keeps it from feeling like stock music, a minor-key menace running under the whole thing. SAM WAITIN clearly built the whole thing around the drop and the drop alone, and for once that single-mindedness pays off instead of leaving the track feeling half-written. NCS gets dismissed as background fodder for gameplay montages, and every so often one of its releases reminds you there are producers with actual ideas feeding that machine. AFTERMATH is one of those. It hits harder than a track engineered for copyright safety has any business hitting.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.