Hey guys, today the ticket pre-sale for INTO THE MADNESS in Zülpich, DE started.
I don‘t know the prices of last year but I‘m sure it‘s much more expensive than the first event in 2022.
Could you recommend the festival and the VIP pass (premium deck with own bar)?

Spam accounts like this are the worst. They have no watch history and just marked down the maximum number of episodes to increase their watch days. How did you watch over 300+ Epiosdes in 1 day? The thing is this isn't a new account they just added all these shows to increase their days. It's stupid.

Laughed for the whole hour at The Forum tonight. "Shitfaced Shakespeare" with one actor totally toasted was hysterical. Romeo was drunk on stage, brilliantly misappropriate & audience interractive, just loved seeing this. Apparently the actor who is shitfaced changes each night. I had fun trying to spot the hangover one, as tonight (Friday) was their 2nd night.

https://preview.redd.it/24gf3rw932ra1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f2a598b5f402ee3c40d6447082374f33ad9bc0ea

Buy & Stream

• Bandcamp
• Beatport
• Juno Download
• Spotify
• YouTube
• YouTube Music
• Soundcloud
• Deezer
• Apple Music

Tracklist

Title	Length
Here You Are (feat. Sam M & Laura Brehm)	5:20
Lesson Learned	4:30
Remedy (feat. RIENK)	4:23
Nothing Hurts	4:52
Status	4:35
Turn Back (feat. flowanastasia)	4:57
Underwater	4:32
Closer	4:10
Free (feat. Karina Ramage)	5:14
Rumbler	4:20
Night Echoes (feat. Voicians)	5:00
From The Sidelines	4:39

Review

Welcome to my fourteenth album write-up! I apologize in advance for the wall of text that is about to follow. Scroll down for a TL;DR on the LP.

Background

I know, I know, it looked like I had Withdrawn from writing these long-form Pieces. For five long months, my Absence from this format left my beloved wall-of-text enjoyers, my fellow Time Wasters, all Alone. Sure, the regular reviews still going strong each week were a bit of a Silver Lining, but their Limited length and generally short notice will always mean that I can't go as in-(Too Late)Depth as some of the artists might deserve. Don't you worry though, after so much Anticipation, there is a ton of new goodness on the Horizon, starting with something that I have usually off-loaded to other members of the team: Liquid! It's not like I don't like Liquid, I actually love it! There's nothing better than listening to some lush vibes at Home, letting the Window Light hit your face until you are entirely Disconnected from the stressful world out there.
I was simply waiting for the right artist to come along. So when British producer Elliot Berger, here better known as Telomic, recently announced that he decided to focus his insanely productive energy into one, cohesive 12-tracker, I knew I had to jump on it immediately. After all, tracks like Gravity Within or Window Light have been the soundtrack to many moody Sundays over here in the Hoffmann household. Lush liquid bangers with incredible vocal performances on top of them are my Weakness, one could even say. So much so, that I already featured him on here for his Window Light EP two years ago! While I usually refrain from writing a full-length album piece about someone I wrote about already, I have to admit I left out quite a bit the first time around. Since I only did a very shallow dive for that one, some dates I mentioned in there are also just plain wrong. So, let's finally right my wrongs and take a proper deep dive into the man behind the bangers. Let's talk about Elliot Berger!

Earlliot Berginnings (1993 - 2010)

As many of his peers, Elliot comes from quite the musical family, with his mum being proficient at piano and his dad sporting the guitar. However, while his dad still occasionally played his instrument of choice at home, there was barely any piano to be heard, but none of that concerned little Elliot much. Inspired by a lady showing off her violin talents at a performance in his school, 6(-ish)-year-old Elliot came running to his parents and basically begged them to allow him to play it too. Over the years, he enjoyed a lot of theory and classical music training and by the time he was 12(-ish), he made his pop proud and picked up the guitar. Shaped by his parents' musical tastes and record collection, his own tastes drifted more and more into the metal and pop punk direction. Trying to emulate the greats like Jimi Hendrix, he got together with a couple of mates to form a band of his own, one of which being The Breakaway.
If I understood his very quiet 2012 Skype interview correctly, one of the first steps towards more electronic sounds happened at a concert of one of his favourite bands growing up, Bring Me The Horizon. He obviously already loved their sound before, otherwise he wouldn't have gone to a concert of theirs after all, but actually hearing the basses permeate through the venue, feeling the weight of it all in his chest, being a part of the crowd, all of it changed how he felt about bass in general. Next, the vibes at home were starting to switch up a bit. His parents had always enjoyed playing out tunes by the likes of Fatboy Slim and The Prodigy, but soon enough they also pushed more purely electronic artists like deadmau5 and even Sub Focus into the rotation, slowly but steadily chipping away at Elliot's typical teenager wall of strongly held negative opinions about genres he doesn't listen to. It's not real music, they're just pressing buttons! It was the experience with his own band at the time that delivered the killing blow in the end though. In typical teenager fashion, his bandmates not only kept randomly blowing off practice jamming sessions, they were also not very cooperative when it came to working on tunes together.
You know who would never say "nah, I don't like this idea that you spent hours developing" to him though? Elliot himself!

Can beat the System (2010 - 2012)

Inspired by legendary UKF uploads like the Gemini remix of Hadouken - Oxygen and further pushed by the general hype around the genre at the time, Elliot was of course interested in producing Dubstep at first. He would first need a great name to release these masterpieces under though! And so he sat down, thought hard and long, and (in his words) picked the first half-good name that popped into his head: System! After announcing his new production venture to the world in 2010, it didn't take long for the first few tunes to drop: Not only did he bless us with a wobbly bootleg of Rihanna's Only Girl (In The World, of course) in 2011, he also quickly followed it up with his very first DnB tune, Broken Glass. This genre diversity didn't matter that much to the public though, because what happened next would massively shape what people would come to expect from his future music. Early 2012, Elliot put up a huge Dubstep bootleg of Coldplay - Paradise. Okay, that in itself might not be too noteworthy, but the fact that Coldplay themselves thought it was "dirrty" enough to share it on their actual multi-million follower social pages, yeah, okay, that is quite something. Garnering around 16 thousand likes on the Facebook post alone, he was suddenly exposed to an entirely new kind of audience. One that catapulted him to the number 1 spot on the Most Popular Dubstep Track Of All Time chart on Dubstep.net!
While most of his new fans expected him to continue pumping out Dubstep bangers left and right, he was not quite as jazzed about that prospect. For the time being, he would keep switching back and forth between it and DnB, with Stan SB and Feint making up the majority of his influences for the faster stuff. Nothing exemplifies this more than his 2012 Prologue EP, which didn't just combine heavy-hitting Dubstep anthems with some great early 2010s power liquid, it even features a couple of vocalists like Holly Drummond and a few remixes! One of the tunes off this debut EP, What You Want, was even played out on BBC Introducing in Kent! Before he could start fully exploiting this solid foundation of fame, however, he stumbled upon a problem. The artist name System wasn't really unique in the world of electronic music. Beatport couldn't handle more than one System in their system, iTunes bundled his music together with a group of dutch producers using the same name, it was just a mess all-around. A systematic problem, one might even say. Either way, a new name was needed. After a thorough and very serious online poll, he had found a new name. Narrowly surpassing the very promising option "Son Of Pippa Berger", the actual winner was his real life name, Elliot Berger!

Elliot Berger (2012 - 2014)

While one might think that such a move would set his career back due to missing name recognition, basically nothing of the sort happened. In the same year, Annie Nightingale shouted him out as one of the top 3 underground artists, he had his very first gig in Antwerpen with his very own early inspirations Stan SB and Feint, and he put out another 8 tunes, 6 (!) of which were remixes! If you think that's ridiculous, wait until you hear how much he put out in 2013: A whopping 18 tunes! That's just way too (Telo-)much. Obviously he didn't just put out 26 Dubstep and DnB bangers back to back though, he tried his hand at basically any genre you can think of, from Glitch Hop to Trap, from 140 to what he calls "Chilled", a lot of which brought to the world via Squirrel Records. Victims of his uncontrollable urge to bootleg and remix things include the likes of Veela and Holly Drummond, but also deadmau5 and recent DnB convert Tiesto. Fun fact, this batch of tunes also includes his first-ever collaboration with singer-songwriter Laura Brehm! Another fun fact, his surname Berger includes the german word "Berg", which when translated means "mountain". Which is very fitting, since he releases so much you could make a whole life-sized Mount Rushmore out of it.
As if he wasn't already doing enough, he also started getting into mastering, with clients including Sean Mackey, Fuse and Aether, and he won the prestigous "Most Photoshopped" title in phantomofedm.com's annual award ceromony. While that was obviously a clear high point for his career, he was not yet at a point where he is chart-breaking all the time or selling out stadiums. Shocking, I know! To give fans another way of supporting this dream of that sweet, sweet full-time musician life, and since this wasn't the 2020s when you could just open a Patreon, he instead did he 2014 equivalent of that: creating a Kickstarter! As with most of these super niche fundraising projects, not much came out of it, but it's just too much of a fun early-2010s anecdote to not mention it. In fact, in the grand scheme of thing, that little hiccup didn't mean anything at all, as he would keep releasing tune after tune, with his 2014 tally reaching a modest 10 tunes. He might not have had as many tunes out as in previous years, but since two of them, The Nameless and Hold On, were released on streaming behemoth NoCopyrightSounds, his career experienced yet another jump in listener numbers.
While successful, he was not getting a whole lot of creative fulfilment out of this EDM rat race, leading to the birth of a cheeky little side project. As a little bit of fun, you know.

Half Half Light, Half Telomic (2014 - 2017)

Towards the end of 2014, Elliot's Facebook feed started consisting of more and more cryptic "big things coming" type posts, eventually revealing that he is starting a new DnB project: Half Light! Hah, didn't expect that name, did ya? Neither did I! Equipped with a liquid bootleg of Raise Your Weapon and some more energetic bangers like Running, and having debuted the new artist name at MrSuicideSheep's streaming event, he was fully ready to commit to this new identity. However, since all of life is more often than not just a series of endlessly repeating events, he faced a familiar problem: There already was a producer by the name of Half Light. Luckily he didn't invest too much into this new name yet, so he was able to avert this particular crisis pretty smoothly by just switching to another name in mid-2015. And that is how Telomic was born!
As you now know, Drum and Bass has basically always been a part of Elliot's musical journey, but for the most part he was more into the Dancefloor-y, early 2010s Sub-Focus-slash-Netsky style. Just like his Dubstep beats evolved to become more and more Chill, his taste in DnB gradually changed to be more favourable to the Liquid side of things, as evidenced by his first ever Telomic release in 2016, the quite appropriately named Reset EP on Excell's Breach Audio, the full circle moment that was his remix for Bustre's final album in 2016 or his 2017 Compelled EP on Fokuz. There was already something else a-brewing though. Some time before these first few steps were taken, he got dragged to a Critical night by his friends. He immediately fell in love with the more minimal, steppy sound that the legendary label is known for, setting in motion a separate lane of deep and dark DnB development for the Telomic project, leading him to become a regular fixture on Terra Firma by the time 2017 rolled around. All that, plus a whole string of wonderful guest mixes on Equinox Music, Ninja Ninja Drum & Bass, Goldfat, where he also ended up releasing a couple tunes, among many others, plus another few live shows for Terra Firma and Indivision, plus a signing to Whitepark Music and you can see this project was starting to take off more than maybe first expected.
Anyway, let's check back in with his EDM project again!

Elliot Berger 2: Elliot Bergaloo (2015 - 2021)

So, what did we miss in these couple years? A surprisingly large amount of stuff, to be honest with you! Not only did he graduate with first class honours in his Creative Music Technology studies in 2015, with his experimental ambient Graduation EP once again seeing radio suport on BBC Introducing, he also experimented with all sorts of 110, 150 and euphoric 140 BPM vibes. While the 150s trend continued on into 2016, that year would probably be best described as "that year Elliot Berger tried out Future Bass", with his Track In A Day tune and his various Remissum Records releases being the best examples. From then on, most of his future work went towards remixes and various production projects for and with long-time collaborator Laura Brehmn on her very own label Electric Bird Records.
While his releases on this alias were still going strong, with one of his earliest hits, Diamond Sky, even being played at a major Dota tournament in 2017, his priorities were obviously shifting to Telomic. Aside from a couple self-releases and remixes here and there, there is not much more to report, until he was announced to become a part of FiXT's Evolution initiative in 2021, but even that only resulted in one more double single so far. Before we jump straight back to Telomic again though, I have to mention his work in the industry. As an integral part of the Black Octopus group, he not only created a vast assortment of sounds for everyone to use, with his Breathtaking Future Bass pack even managing to garner a number one spot on Loop Masters, he even joined the A&R team of the anthracite mollusc's label, helping shape the soundbyte designers of tomorrow.
While all this is still technically part of his story, we're obviously here for something else though, so let's jump right back to the drums and the basses!

Entering The Galacy Of Dreams (2018 - 2019)

So, where did we leave off again? Right, the Telomic project was picking up more and more steam! I did leave you with a bit of a cliffhanger there, didn't I? Hah!
2018 saw his alliance with Terra Firma still going strong, as part of their second compilation album and as a volunteevictim of some sick remixes, and his debut on the very much underrated Lost Recordings, but there was one thing that really elevated the year from "pretty good" to "career turning point". After shopping his tunas Horizon and Home (not the Elliot Berger one) around for nearly 2 years and no one biting for unknown reasons, none other than Liquicity's liquid-focused sister planet Galacy jumped into the pond and grabbed them by their fins! Almost 6 years after starting to send demos their way (yes, this goes back to as early as 2012!), he had finally fulfilled this personal dream of his and became a part of the Galaxy Of Dreams. As if that wasn't enough of a milestone, his increased focus on DJing was starting to pay off in spades, starting with gigs for Rough Tempo, Terra Firma and Under The Counter, supporting the likes of Alix Perez, Hybrid Minds and High Contrast and providing guest mixes for Fokuz and Hoxton Radio, and ending with him making his Liquicity event debut, first at Liquicity London and right after also at Liquicity Winterfestival! Fun fact: his bootleg of Raise Your Weapon, back when he was still Half Light, was actually played out by Champion at Liquicity London in 2015, so this was another huge full circle moment for Elliot!
This debut release and these first couple shows for the Dutch Liquid and Dancefloor behemoth would basically usher in a new era for Elliot. Sure, he continued to be a part of the solid foundation that is Terra Firma, both with a tune for Terra Firma Vol. 3 and with his solo double single Einde / Mire, but he also debuted on main label Liquicity with his remix for Pola & Bryson's Whisper To Me, contributed to Galacy's Identities compilation album and dropped his first full-length EP, the Alone EP, on the vibey sister label. This growing label connection also lead to a whole lot more DJing gigs with them, from a guest spot for the Galacy Sessions mix series to appearances on Liquicity Winter Family Day, the one and only Summer Festival and of course the Winter Festival again. Since he joined the Compass Agency in the same year, however, his music could also be heard in all sorts of other places like Leeds, supporting Keeno, Newcastle, supporting Technimatic and LSB, and the legendary Ministry Of Sound, not to mention in his new guest mixes for SINE, Kiss FM and Shine Shack.

The pande(lo)mic (2020 - Now)

I feel like I need to explain that one. It's because his music is so infectiously catchy that it spread out all over the planet. Also this chapter starts in 2020, so, you know. You get it!
I've made a couple remarks about just how much music Elliot put out for the world to hear. Since transitioning over from Elliot Berger to Telomic, the flow of releases, while still strong and full of excellent gems of course, never quite reached the same speeds as in 2012. I mean, who puts out that many tunes in a year nowadays? Well, then 2020 rolled around and the world was once again reminded why Telomic is an anagram for "metric ton of releases" (just trust me on that, no need to double check). We've had (long inhale): the gorgeous Gravity Within EP, which also marks the first EP of his on the main label, a collaboration with Monrroe for the Identities 002 compilation, another one with fellow Black Octopi V O E for Liquicity Alchemy 3 and a third one with William Keeno for his album, his wildly successful remix for Empaths' Hope (Rise Up), plus another two for Dustkey & Petroll on Differential and for Manikin on Terra Firma, a charity single in memory of Conor Steel and, last but definitely not least, his Window Light EP. That's 15 tracks, plus another 5 instrumentals if you wanna count those, some of which were even played on BBC Radio 1! While 2020 was obviously not the greatest time for playing a lot of shows, with Elliot only managing to play Differential’s London show, he, like many others at the time, successfully pivoted over to the online world, where he not only put out guest mixes for Data Transmission, Good Cause Good Crowd and Keeno's Bristol Mix Sessions, but also could be seen live at various online streaming events organised by the likes of Wonky Goose, In The Lab, Differential, Goat Shed and, of course, the Liquicity Discord community.
As we got to 2021, and his agency merged with MBArtists, more and more opportunities for normal(ish) gigs came back in again, with Elliot appearing at Liquicity Prague and Rotterdam, Stand Together, Bristol Mix Sessions, SUNNY MOVES and Crash Comet's EP launch showcase event. Compared to the previous year, he obviously slowed down on the releases front, but still managed to squeeze in his debut on Matrix's Metro Recordings, musical charity work for Pray for Afghanistan and HEADSBASS and yet another full circle moment in the midst of it all: He collaborated with one of the people who were a massive help when Elliot was first embarking on the Telomic journey in the first place, Emba! Wait, you don't know who Emba is? Oh don't worry, no need to be emba-rassed about it. Emba is the new-ish alias of one half of Dexcell, who, remember, signed and released the very first Telomic release to their label! However, Elliot wasn't just playing a major part of the Formations Galacy compilation album, providing both his Emba collab and Rewired for it, he also had the incredible honour of being chosen as the selectah for the first-ever and so far all of the following Galacy Records Year Mixes!
While 2022 also saw quite a few wonderful Telomic tunes dropping, from his remix for Low:r to his Come With Me EP on Liquicity, it was also the year of a very special collab. After months of hard work from the both of them, he and his collaborator announced it to the world in mid 2022 and in late November it was finally time: his son was born! Both this little side thing and the fact that he was starting to ramp up to the biggest project of his career meant that there was not much happening musically speaking, but, considering this was the first "normal" year in a while, you can bet your sweet, sweet Galacheeks that he still found the time to mash up any and all dancefloors out there, playing not just his home turf at the first UK edition of Maduk & Friends, but also travelling the continent for Liquicity Bratislava, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Heidelberg, Spring Festival and, of course, Summer Festival.
After all this time, after all these shows, after going through this sheer endless list of releases, full of EPs but especially singles and remixes, after a whole baby even, we've now finally arrived at our destination. Elliot's most ambitious project yet (sorry baby Elliot). Telomic's debut album, Arrivals.
Before we break it all down though, have some fun facts I didn't manage to fit into it:

• Both on the Raw Frequency Skype interview in 2012 and Last Week Liquid's 2020 interview he was asked "would you rather want to fly or be invisible".
  • LWL's host Millstreet even throws in a "It seems you've thought about this before"!
  • Elliot chose "flying" in 2012, but chose "invisibility" in 2020, since he feared that people would instantly be able to see him flying around and would immediately want to ask questions and/or perform tests on him. I too like to avoid people annoying me, so I very much understand this change of heart.
• He used to (maybe still does) have a pack of magnets on his rider!

Track Breakdown

Congrats, you've made it to the Track Breakdown!

1. Here You Are (feat. Sam M & Laura Brehm)

Here we are indeed. On the album opener Here You Are we ease into this lush 12-tracker with not just a vibe of the highest order, but also a spiritual continuation of one of Elliot's, in my opinion, most special tunes so far, Gravity Within, and the return of his dear friend and most regularest of vocal collaborators. Of course I'm speaking of musician, vocalist, songwriter and recently-69-collaborations-reacher Laura Brehm. And just like on Gravity Within, her already ethereal vocals are layered and harmonized into blissful oblivion by Beloved In Love's very own Sam M, setting the bar for vocal performances on this album unreachably high from the get-go. In this multi-layered back-and-forth, the pendulum smoothly swings between focusing on Laura's and Sam's voice, while the lyrics take us on a lovely journey of romantic self discovery.
As if this combination wouldn't already be gorgeous enough, Elliot decided to take things to the next level with an instrumental that is as melancholically heartfelt as it is huge. The warmest of basses emotionally preparing your heart for the beautiful lyrical contents, the synth theme wandering throughout the whole of the auditory space, getting closer and closer until it eventually all erupts into an explosion with so much oomph behind it that you can't help but melt away. Put these amazing pieces all together and what you get is a vibe unlike any other. Honestly, every single time the tune crescendos into one of the big oomphs, I get goosebumps all over. Seriously stunning.

2. Lesson Learned

After establishing that he is capable of producing the biggest liquid vibe imaginable, Elliot decided to go for maximum contrast by transitioning over to the heaviest tune of probably his whole career so far, Lesson Learned! While the intro's atmosphere is already quite eerie, the spookiness levels rise exponentially once the track starts telling us sumthin', with a mini-snippet of a rave-y siren sample haunting you in your dreams, a wob-wob-wobbly bass melody oscillating menacingly in our direction and an absolutely ridiculously large kickdrum creeping up towards us. Once the tension becomes unbearable, a gunshot pierces through it all, kicking off the drop in all its glory. Not only are the kicks now so large I keep having to double-check it's not actually someone knocking on my (quite far away) front door while I'm writing this, Elliot also both continuously shakes us to our core with a vicious wall of bass and keeps us on our toes with the aforementioned wobbly bass melody crashing all over us every now and then. That's still not even all the progression we've got in store though. While it may have started off with a two-step drum flow, it doesn't take very long for them to switch over into a more rolling rhythm. Even the vocal sample goes from already quite short loops to an even shorter, staccato blip tick-tack-tocking away at our sanity. Massive tune.

3. Remedy (feat. RIENK)

Phew, I don't know about you, but I could use some uplifting vibes after all this deep and darkness. Good thing Elliot feels the same and promptly supplied us with the perfect Remedy, featuring Liquicity's latest certified hit machine Rienk "RIENK" Speelman on the vocals, who you might also know as vocalist for Abbad + Freimann or key player for the band Wytiki. As is tradition with him, RIENK's wonderful performance is once again so elegantly worded, displays so much range and is just so damn catchy that it could bring back even the worst instrumental from the brienk of ruin. Of course, it also elevates great instrumentals just as much, as is the case here. With some help from Andreas "Dualistic" Ort, Elliot crafted something that not only gives RIENK a lot of auditory room to flex his vocals on, with his safety net in the intro basically only consisting of a smooth atmospheric layer of warmness and a couple piano chords, but also gives the crowd a whole lot to dance to. As already teased towards the end of the anthemic intro, we're getting an incredibly catchy Dancefloor-y yet also very thought-provokingly Telomic-y synth lead, complemented by some proper forward-pushing drum loops and a backdrop of rhythm-setting synthy bass bops, pushing you to dance while still also being a beautiful liquid banger at its core.

4. Nothing Hurts

Alright, we've got a rather hype album introduction behind us now, it's time to vibe a little, which is made very easy with our fourth stop, Nothing Hurts. With an extra thick atmosphere, full of the heaviest of reverberations echoing all throughout the track, the cushiest of pads and the occasional visit by the piano man, and a warm blanket of bass underneath it all, it really does make you feel like nothing hurts anymore. The titular vocal sample is so simple in its essence, but processed in such a lovely way and woven into the fabric of the instrumental so seamlessly that the end result is just, well, incredibly vibey.

5. Status

Speaking of: Let's dive even deeper into the sea of vibes Elliot has prepared so nicely for us. Let's enter the stratosphere of vibes. Let's listen to Status. Abandoning the stressful rush of the drums and basses but keeping the breaks, Elliot takes us on trip down UK Garage lane instead. With pianos fading in and out of their looping existence, synths that go from subtle background fuzziness to goosebump-inducing vibrations and a little vocal sample to top it all off, this tune sports a lo-fi aesthetic that a certain girl, who should honestly just be done studying by this point, could not even achieve in her dreams. The longer we drift in this orbit of loveliness, the harder the stellar synths come at us and at its peak, we are even sucked into a little 4x4 detour, before going back to our established drifting breakbeat style. In other words, an incredibly well done stylistic fusion of both Elliot Berger and Telomic.

6. Turn Back (feat. flowanastasia)

Next, another past collaborator steps up for a triumphant re-Turn Back to the spotlight. You know her, you love her, let's give it up for our friendly neighbourhood vocalist from Toronto and famed Window Light voice, Anastasia Klyushin, better known and more easily pronounceable as flowanastasia! Smack in the middle of the album, she tackles the motivational challenges of the middle parts of any journey, when the boring routine has already set in, but you also haven't quite reached your goal yet. Smart positioning, Mister Berger. This wonderfully unique theme, performed as soulfully as ever, is infused with even more emotion by an instrumental that knows exactly which buttons to push to trigger those serotonin receptors.
Similarly to Remedy, we've got all sorts of fast-paced shuffly drums and beautiful synth action going on, but this time we're not being elated at finding our cure from sadness and stress, we're still actively experiencing it and trying to push ourselves through. Not only are the synths way more melancholic than we've heard so far, the shuffly drums are also more continouosly rolling and the bass more menacingly rumbling underneath it all. Every now and then, our doubts about where this is all going break out from their prison, overwhelming your senses and thus clouding your judgement, but as the stunning vocals keep telling you and as the drums keep on doing, you just gotta keep rolling through the mess to get to the finish line. No turning back allowed!

7. Underwater (feat. Susan H)

We're keeping the spectacular vocal train going with the off-the-charts gorge anthem Underwater, featuring Dutch Pop singer and recent Blooom-collaborator Susan H. While its predecessor was already sporting quite the melancholic energy, Underwater goes all in on the sadcore vibe. Dramatically emotional pianos already do a whole lot to set the scene, but it is ultimately just a backdrop to the highlight that is Susan's incredible performance. As she majestically glides through the mysteriously sorrowful lyrics, only a quickly firing mini snare is keeping the various piano melodies company, but once the vocals reach their thematic crescendo, we're instead treated to this huge ear-massaging bass. After another around 25 seconds of trembling anticipation, a larger-than-life OOMPH kicks off the well-oiled vibe machine, consisting of steppy drums swinging us back and forth, Susan's vocals flowing on the beat like (above) water and a bass that is so large, so overwhelming and yet also so satisfying that you get dragged into its vortex in no time.

8. Closer

As if said nefarious vortex was talking to us, we are now being urged to just get a little Closer already. Instantly kicking off with a pounding kick, a powerful drum loop and some atmospheric bleeps and bloops, Closer wastes literally no time at all. Once said vocal sample comes in, however, things really get going, with a bassline that's just vibey like hell. That's basically all I can say about this one. Slightly weird structure, but overall an uncomplicated, cleanly produced tune that would fit right in in any deep and dark set.

9. Free (feat. Karina Ramage)

Since we're wallowing in quite the well of sadness throughout the last few tracks, Elliot decided to throw in a little number for own mental health, with track numero nove Free. With one of my absolute favourite vocalists in DnB, Karina Ramage, effortlessly showing off a whole range of emotions, Free is about how it is both okay and healthy to let your surpressed feelings flow outside sometimes. How else are you going to learn from this particular experience if you're just going to swallow it all down? Karina's emotional crawl out of the deep well of sadness she's finding herself in is further emphasised by an acoustic atmosphere that makes you feel like you're in an actual cave, hidden deep inside of your mind. Sounds so muffled it feels like you're held underwater, piano notes softly dropping inside like the most beautiful of water droplets, Karina's poignant lyrics echoing heavily throughout the space, it's all quite dire.
As Karina ramps up to her epiphany, however, we're starting to be pulled back out of it. While still muffled, fast-paced rolling drums and some Bou-ncy synth melodies seem to be coming closer and closer, and before we know it, we open our eyes and find ourselves on a beach, sipping margaritas and dancing in the sand. Seriously, while not necessarily in-your-face happy, the vibes are still so UK summer-y that I half expected Bru-C to jump onto the beat and see some young people jumping off boats in the music video or something. Somehow, Free manages to skirt the line between introspective emotionality and carefree summer attitude, making for quite the unique experience.

10. Rumbler

Since we're now out dancing again, we need more filthy grooves to step to! With Rumbler, Elliot provides us exactly that. Combining a set of really honking stabs with some truly, well, rumbling bass is already quite the winning formula, but it's the progression of said honkers that really makes this one for me. While the bass keeps on earning the track its title, more and more honkin' is happening, with the occasional wau piping up in between, resulting in a real bassface-worthy back and forth. Watch out for that pause before the second drop though! It might make you think your audio has given out, prompting you to turn up the volume some more and then, bam, the return of the truly heavy bass throws you out of your chair. Definitely not speaking from experience here.

11. Night Echoes (feat. Voicians)

One last collaboration before the grand finale: Night Echoes! Apparently the story went: One day, fellow Liquicity and FiXT family member and vocalist/produceDJ/radio jingle writer Daniel Voicians sent over a little piano progression and right away, Elliot knew exactly how this could work as a full track and just a few months later, their baby Night Echoes was born! Said piano melody is also the very first thing you hear in the final version, with only minimal drums, to keep the pace, and a little lovely vocal sample keeping it company. It's not just something neat to build up to something completely different though, all throughout it stays an integral part of the composition, even when the piano itself cannot be heard anymore! For instance, you might think it's gone once the heavy bass and fast-paced slappin' drums roll in for the drop, but if you listen closely, you'll notice that the bass follows the same rhythmic patterns of the progression. Over time, the bass is temporarily relieved from its rhythmic duties by a simply delightful synth melody extrapolated from the very same source, before they are united for the drop's conclusion.

12. From The Sidelines

Sure, we have been treated to a whole bunch of lovely sound combinations on our journey so far, but trust me, we're in for a way more intricate treat on the album closer, From The Sidelines. While the drummer is idly hitting his hi-hats, a straight-up ethereal vibraphone melody makes its way to us, shortly followed by a dramatic set of strings starting to make its presence known. Everything fades out, unveiling a little vibey vocal sample and just like that, the drummer returns with an intricate arrangement of various chopped up breaks. Laced with a couple more sound effects, like that Reggae eh eh eh that I don't know the name of, this oldschool flair is the foundation for the drop, where everything comes together to form a truly fantastic multi-layered melodic symphony. And that's coming from me, oldschool/jungle/breakbeat hater numero uno!

Conclusion

While I would definitely classify Telomic as a Liquid artist, there is also a certain deeper melancholy to his style that makes it extra special. On this debut album, he not only doubles down on this special combination, to spectacular effect, he also branches out further than he has ever done before. Sometimes in the form of a straight-up slapping S.P.Y-esque stepper, sometimes in the form of an uplifting Dancefloor-Liquid fusion and sometimes even embracing the non-DnB that's deeply sown into his history as an artist, but always executed in the most incredible fashion. However, even throughout all the tunes that you could categorize as "his usual style", it is packed with all sorts of different ideas on how to execute a (Deep) Liquid tune. Not to mention the sensational vocal performances across the board, all sorts of lovely progressions and an extraordinary amount of straight goosebumps moments.
This is another one of those albums that make it really hard for me to pick favourites, but I'll just bite the bullet and go with Here You Are, due to its astounding ability to regularly make my hair stand up from frisson, Lesson Learned, because of its sheer massiveness, Status, because of its sheer vibeyness, and Underwater, since its simply an amazing piece of music.

Socials

Telomic

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• SoundCloud
• Linktree

Liquicity Records

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Bandcamp
• Website