Fifty-four tracks in one week. Drum and bass and dubstep ran the whole show, house kept the lights on, trance refused to leave, and the big-room machine pumped out festival fuel like it had a quota. A ridiculous week, even for us. Here is what connected and what you should not skip.
The Charts
- TLM feat. Merely - Summer Jam: climbed to the top after seven weeks on the board. Still going.
- Isam Hadjih feat. Ormella - In My Dreams: slipping from the top spot after six weeks. Still a monster.
- Crashguard - For A Moment: holding steady for a third week.
- Amelie Lens - the energy is us: holding at five, three weeks running.
- BOP - Rumination: holding at six. Quiet and immovable.
- Da Hool - Meet Her at the Loveparade (Hex Cougar Remix): surging up from ten. The remix that refuses to go away.
- Flava D, Casey Club & DRIIA - Revival: new on the chart this week.
- HESTER - KYOTO: slipping from seven after two weeks.
- LUMBERJVCK - CALL ME: new entry.
Knocked off this month: Seven Lions & Kill The Noise - I Need.
Track of the Week
Dimension & Subsonic - Ghost Town
Posted back in August and still pulling people in. The ghostly vocal intro that baits you into thinking it is a moody record before a bassline the size of a bus rolls through the whole thing is apparently a trick that does not wear off. Dimension reads a peak-time crowd better than the crowd reads itself, and this is the proof people keep finding. Listen ->
The New Drops
Drum and Bass (13 posts): DnB ate this week and left nothing on the plate. Liquid rollers from goddard., Dawn Wall, S.P.Y’s remix of Energy and Zero T’s soulful late-night collaboration with Aaliyah Esprit on Hospital. Jump-up from Benny L, Basstripper and Lateral (who dropped two in one batch and one was clearly better). Friction turned up with a hook built for a field. Cartoon & Artino went melodic. Levity got K Flay onto a DnB record and it worked better than anyone had a right to expect. Blooom & Duskee and Arcando with IRAH rounded it out. The genre is eating everything right now.
Dubstep (12 posts): Deep dubstep had a real week. Wingz, Lokal, Oliverse with P Money, and PARA & Kaya all brought weight and patience. Sir Spyro handed Top Cat a ragga riddim two decades overdue. Zen Selekta reminded everyone what soundsystem dubstep actually sounds like. PEEKABOO dragged Flava D’s Energy into heavier territory. HIGHSOCIETY made something brutal and short. HerShe and Jiqui did riddim. Seven Lions and Last Heroes stayed in the Ophelia cathedral. The heavier side of the genre is having a proper moment.
House (9 posts): Oden & Fatzo dropped three records in one week, which is either prolific or an assembly line depending on which one you heard first (Hold On with MEZERG was the good one). Oscar Jamo kept it lean on Heldeep. Wouter S and No Boundariez made bass house that grinned. Arkins and HYPRS built pure getting-ready fuel. MNK and MasN Kutcher got nasty on Dim Mak. HESTER went euphoric. Rae Sada brought a proper DFTD extended mix for the DJs.
Big Room / Dance (5 posts): DOMENO and Dirty Signal did the big-room thing with real bite. Josh Le Tissier and Sesco went full Revealed festival mode. BOABOA delivered mainstage-by-numbers (not a compliment). CYRIL turned Time After Time into a sunset anthem with Tones And I (it clears the bar, somehow). Zenar got Nicky Jam for a Latin-house crossover that the star carried and the production did not.
Trance (4 posts): Simon Gregory showed up twice and both tracks earned their spot, Feedback for the unashamed big emotion and Luminosity for the quieter, stranger side. F.G. Noise floored it on Afterburn. Mauro Picotto reworked I Feel Love with the kind of restraint only someone who already owns the classic version can pull off.
Melodic / Future Bass (6 posts): Future Dynamic did the pretty-supersaw thing and actually stuck. obli fixed a grey commute. IYCE MANN proved NCS is still worth checking. James Carter and AMRAC were warm and sincere. Calcou asked if everything was OK and meant it. Mia Miles wrote a pop hook that loops in your skull for hours.
Bass (3 posts): SAM WAITIN hit harder than royalty-free music has any right to. One True God stomped through a dystopian midtempo march. angelrot and s33ya made something moodier and stranger than the NCS average.
Also DJ PUMA dropped a retro electro-house battering ram that does one thing with total conviction.
Also Banged This Week
- Sir Spyro & Top Cat - Sharp: two generations of UK soundsystem culture on one riddim. Top Cat’s patois snapping into every pocket.
- Flava D & Stush - Energy (S.P.Y Remix): a veteran giving the vocal room to breathe. Rolling liquid DnB done properly.
- Wingz - Encounter: deep dubstep that articulates instead of screaming. Headphones, loud, alone.
- Oden & Fatzo x MEZERG x Noa Milee - Hold On: the one Oden & Fatzo collab this week where the bassline was actually performed by a human being.
- Mauro Picotto - I Feel Love (V2): a legend carefully repainting one of dance music’s load-bearing walls.
See you next week. Coldplay still sucks.