Welcome to Notes from the Underground, THUMP’s weekly premiere feature dedicated to shining a light on underground sonics from around the world. Every week, we’ll start at the surface and dig deeper into the underground with each track and news story.
In this week’s edition, Motez drops UKG vibes, EDC kandi kids get their moment, then some top notch neurofunk from Mefjus & Rido, a documentary about the South African underground and some winners in house, instrumental hip hop, a swerve or two, and coverage from the furiously busy Memorial Day festival weekend. Check it out:
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Motez – “One 2”
Garage tings from Austrailian housemeister Motez. The first half of this tune is all about the shuffles and whomps, but about halfway through, the John Williams strings drop in for some reprieve and the track slowly builds again. As is typical for Motez, the track balances effective club sounds with a touch of musicality that elevates his work above the rest.
Festival Recaps Galore!
Thump was all over the festival scene this Memorial Day weekend. Check out our coverage from Movement, Mysteryland, EDC New York, and Lightning in a Bottle.
Mefjus & Rido – “Correlation” [Blackout]
Mefjus has been at the top of the neurofunk game for a hot minute now after releases on Critical, Neosignal, and Virus announced him to the forward-leaning edge of drum and bass. With the Optimum Trajectory EP, his second since the release of his album Emulation last year, the Austrian producer has teamed up with Rido from Prague with a set of tunes that are as techy, frenetic, and heavy as you could ever hope for.
Dive Deep into the South African Underground[vice_embeds src=’//embeds.vice.com/?playerId=ed5eb0b71f8741c69b07b49cccbdaaf5&aid=thump.vice.com/thump.vice.com&vid=BjOWUydTrEHVmcQSccdiq28hry0JYiRX&embedCode=BjOWUydTrEHVmcQSccdiq28hry0JYiRX&cust_params=&ad_rule=0&description_url=//thump.vice.com/en_us/video/spoek-mathambos-future-sound-of-mzansi-part-1&autoplay=0&share_url=//thump.vice.com/en_us/video/spoek-mathambos-future-sound-of-mzansi-part-1′ width=’1000′ height=’598′]
In part one of our series Future Sound of Msanzi, documentarians Spoek Mathambo and Lebogang Rasenthaba go from Durban to Cape Town to Johannesburg, revealing the multitudes of scenes bubbling up from the South African underground. Black Coffee was just the beginning of an oncoming wave as new styles of dance music are conceived by the drove in the dutty south of Africa.
Manik – “Buffalo Trace” [Nice Age]
Following up an already impressive pedigree of releases on Ovum, Culprit, Anjunadeep and Black Butter, bicoastal house producer Manik’s latest release is on Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs’ newly formed Nice Age imprint. His tune “Buffalo Trace,” off the Tokyo EP, is a stylish house tune with a beefy bassline and strong tech elements. This level is class is par for the course with Manik, though.
Please Don’t Die While Raving
As festival season kicks off yet again, we’re here to help you party smartly. THUMP’s official Guide to Raving Safely was released last week, and it’s a useful tool for anyone who likes to get down.
Kodak to Graph – “IAMANTHEM” (Com Truise remix)
Put your neon wayfarers on for this one, because Com Truise has acid-washed Kodak to Graph’s “IAMANTHEM” with 80s synth-pop tones that would give John Hughes a chubby. At 2:15, the track switches to half-time breakbeat weirdness and the whole thing wanders into totally new terrain. Download the remix EP for free.
This Much-Shared Drugs Study is Bullshit
Recently, a document claiming to be a study of drug use at popular festivals has been making the rounds. Intrigued, we looked a little deeper and found to to be complete and utter bullshit. See what we mean.
Dfalt – “Sunrise Soldier” [Plug Research]
Los Angeles-based Daylight Curfew member Dfalt balances day jobs working with the Def Jux label and Run the Jewels with his own instrumental hip-hop productions that showcase a thoughtful take on the genre. His self-titled album, released on Plug Research, has equal parts soul, grit, and cerebral themes. Next stop…Low End Theory?
Boiler Room Gets Boiled
Some wiseguy dubbed crappy 90s Eurotrash tunes on top of footage from Boiler Rooms featuring everyone from Mano Le Tough to Richie Hawtin. It is, in a word or two, fucking hilarious.
Bones Drops Bombs on His Night Bass Mix
Los Angeles underground champion Bones has been part of the Night Bass from the beginning. This Thursday, he’ll play Night Bass alongside Jubilee, Petey Clicks, and AC Slater at Sound Nightclub. This mix’ll get you well and ready for it.
Meet the Kandi Kids of EDC New York
Electric Daisy Carnival events are fast becoming the last bastion of kandi culture in the United States. Meet the people who are keeping it alive.
Candide – “Just For an Instant”
Someone once told us Candide, a Berlin-via-Brooklyn duo whose responsible for the new track “Just For an Instant,” makes music that feels like you just smoked salvia, died, then went to heaven. After listening to their new tune, a slow-burning product of their intercontinental digital hybrid, we kind of, sort of, have to agree. Just be careful how many times you listen, because you might have a flashback while driving on the interstate.
Claude VonStroke Joins the Illuminati
The Dirtybird leader remixes Rihanna’s “BBHMM” and is, presumably, inducted into the shadowy society that rules the world. That was easy!
Vessels – “Glass Lake” (Olerton remix)
UK band Vessels’ original for “Glass Lake” is a techy, moody, emotive tune that sits somewhere between techno and rock (Yes, that is possible). The newly founded Olerton project between Joel John and Harry Wolfman takes the track somewhere wholly deeper and weirder.
…Meanwhile, in the overground
At the International Music Summit in Ibiza, the IMS Business report dropped numbers showing dance music’s market share at $7 billion, but showing growth.
Curveball. Sacramento abstract-pop artist Zac Nelson’s tune “Weak Robe” isn’t really dance music, sure, but we liked it so much we decided to sneak it in there. Nelson’s other projects include CHL PLL with the machine gun-limbed Zach Hill of Death Grips and Hella. When he’s not making spaced out tunes, Nelson brews kombucha.
