VIDEOS – RUN (FVLCRVM REMIX) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Last time we heard from this Bratislava-based musicmaker he had just finished making his Notch EP, a little journey through some grittily futuristic flavoured music (released on Slovakian label, Gergaz Records). I wasn't expecting to hear anything more from him (him being Pišta Kráľovič aka FVLCRVM) for a while, so it was a lovely surprise to get an email from him yesterday, letting me know about his latest creations.

The first of these is a remix for Norwegian singer Samsaya's latest (and from what I can work out, only) song 'Stereotype'; FVLCRVM goes in hard with a booming jungle-esque treatment, working with the classic jungle clatter and combining it with itchingly fresh electronic sounds, totally transforming the catchy and dirty pop of the original. I liked this. You can listen to it here (CLICK). Allegedly it was part of a remix competition, and FVLCRVM was one of the winners! (It's a free download, too).

But the real treat came with his latest release: a remix of Prague-based band Videos' track 'Run' – tagged amicably with "praguetislava".

Well! Hmm! What do you think? Isn't this just dreamy? Well actually, I'd say that the original 'Run' is more dreamy, being a combination of floaty dreampop and 80s-style electropop, with grinding synths, fat, fuzzy drums, and bleak Ian Curtis-style vocals. What FVLCRVM does is out-of-this-world, blanketing the track with a mist of heavenly chords, allowing the vocals to surface occasionally like bubbles from the sea; soon this all changes.

Claps and tiny snare sounds and jingling hi-hats, along with human breath noises for percussion, herald the true beginning of the song, with hefty mouthfuls of synth chord blasting out with a cosmic progression, backed up by rumbly bass; a small distorted melody pops up every now and again with the intensity of phantom signals from space. Vocal samples of the original pockmark the track, which is also decorated with a few beautiful drum edits (one particularly at 3:07 grabs your ears nicely), throughout its journey from calm – through the energetic middle – and back to primordial calm once more.

FVLCRVM's future-forward style stops at nothing in order to leap feet-first into the forefront of your imagination. Let's hope that his next offering is just as interesting and palatable as this!

• This track is available as a free download!!! FVLCRVM himself says: "don't worry w/ the email. I'll only post new tracks. spamless!" – so don't worry!

---

---

Like FVLCRVM on Facebook
Follow FVLCRVM on Twitter
Listen to FVLCRVM on SoundCloud
Hear more FVLCRVM on Mixcloud

ALSO: check out Videos on SoundCloud

---

---

ANDELS – BATTLE RACE

I don't often write about drum & bass or jungle stuff because, well, a lot of it seems quite... what's the word? – uninspired. Yes. It just feels, despite ramping up the bpm past the point of caring, unenergetic, lethargic almost. Just goes to show that you don't necessarily need to make FAST music to provoke a FAST (i.e. excited, energised) reaction. So when stuff like this does come along and sounds different to the rest of it, well, it's instantly recognisable. And in some cases it's really good.

Like with 'Battle Race' by Czech producer Andels, real name Lukáš Puška, from Ostrava, Czech Republic. This track feels less like a drum & bass or whatever track, and much more like a theme to some kind of high-speed racing à la F-Zero that just happens to have these d&b beats in the background. Beginning with these fluttering synth chords that pan left and right, we're soon dropped into a bass-bubbling beat littered with many instances of synth all over the place. Bleeping arpeggios, string synths rising and soaring into ecstatic heights, and a vocal sample singing its triumphant wordless stuff. A break in the song plays with the beat, trilling the snares and putting in these amazing little fills that are impossible to ignore.

After this break, things get even better in the second section: saw-wave bass judders to the end, synth leads summon a nostalgic mood, strings hang like a mist. And that nostalgic mood is something that is pretty much inherent in the whole track – even the beat, sampled no doubt from somewhere, is something you'd find in a 90s jungle track for sure. And the synths appear joyfully reminiscent, as if lifted directly from an old-school racing game. It's full of undeniably delicious sounds.

Looking back to the past is something that a lot of people seem to be doing to find their feet in the music world. Whether that's because their favourite music is from when they were growing up, or if they feel an affinity with sounds and styles which, though before their time, still excite their mind with an artificial but simultaneously strong sense of nostalgia – who knows. What it does seem to do, however, is be the basis, the foundation, for a lot of very good tracks in all sorts of genres from all over the world. 'Battle Race' is a prime example: a power-synth-jungle medley from the Czech Republic.

• Andels is part of Czech collective KOSMOSPIEL – check em out.

---

---

Listen to Andels on SoundCloud
Follow Andels on Twitter

---

---

BROOKLYN83 – STORM IN A TEACUP + PRINCE OF TENNIS REMIX

You know sometimes you just gotta do something? Just gotta do it. Like, oh a piece of cheesecake just appeared in front of me, gotta eat it. Or, wow there's a £10 note on the floor, gotta pick it up. And in this instance, I just got sent this music and listened to it, gotta write about it! That's how it works. But FYI you shouldn't be as instantly self-gratifying like this when it comes to immoral stuff – please stay moral and loving and nice towards each other.

Anyway, this music appeared all the way from Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. It's just one song, one song by the mysterious Brooklyn83 (just this one song is on their SoundCloud, and they have like no followers, no links either), with a remix of that song by fellow Prague duo Prince of Tennis, their name obvs inspired by manga/anime The Prince of Tennis. The song is called 'Storm In A Teacup' after the fun idiom that basically means making a big deal over nothing (synonymous with tempest in a teapot, tempest in a teacup, storm in a cream bowl, tempest in a glass of water, storm in a wash-hand basin and storm in a glass of water, according to Wikipedia).

And it's that phrase precisely which refrains throughout the song, heavily vocodered with cybernetic aesthetics – a light sprinkling of vocals to season the track, tangled and bristling with shuffling shaking beats that sway between thudding kick and cracking snare in a perfect rendition of UK garage sensibilities, yet budding with the rhythmic addiction of footwork. Bass stays low and subby but there are moments where it's thrown out like a lasso to the higher ends of the spectrum and pulled back with kinetic whiplash effect. Weird and lush, it's happily surprising and shivery with sonic nuances that you can't help but eat up.

Prince of Tennis's remix is a much noisier affair, a sort of indie-dance-pop with steely and robust bass guitar driving the song in a fragmentary fashion; brash explosive electro drums make up the semi-brutal dancefloor-friendly beat; the refrain "Storm… in a teacup, in a teacup" is treated well alongside smart pulses of synthpop chord and heart-popping copter-like chops. Two surprises in one. Two very different songs. Both unique and affecting enough to get excited about. Check out their other stuff.

• It's available for a free download if you like it CLICK RIGHT HERE or go to Prince of Tennis's SoundCloud (link below innit)

---

---

Listen to Brooklyn83 on SoundCloud

Listen to Prince of Tennis on SoundCloud
Follow Prince of Tennis on Twitter
Like Prince of Tennis on Facebook
Watch Prince of Tennis on YouTube

---

---