VA - Cortex Chronicles Volume One - Brainrave Music - Brain Rave Music / BRAINRM001
- Nakedbeatz Music
- Jul 23, 2023
- 4 min read
All puns intended, the brainchild of the release you are about to hear manifested from 2 local Djs turned promoters and producers in the West Midlands area.
Matt (Aka Tollgate Shindig) has been no stranger to the inner workings of the Drum & Bass scene with a history going back as far as the early 2000s where he established his Nocturnal Combustion event n the heart of Coventry where he booked a whole host of well known acts you see today.
Legends such as Andy C, Bad Company, Bryan Gee and the Mighty Dj SS graced the stage at these events for many years.
Fast forward to 2023 and the Brain Rave rears its ugly head in the midlands. a new brand with a forward thinking outlook on the Neurofunk Drum & bass scene, bringing in new partner Ian to the team to take the brand forward.
A natural progression into production from years of Djing has seen the brand take on a new lease of life very early into its inception where Brain Rave music lands in the Surgeons seat and the opening release sees a huge 10 track EP full of highly established and new acts across the Neuro scene.
Lots to come from Brain Rave this year and beyond to help rewire the circuitry of the scene as we know it.
1/ Basys & Tollgate Shindigs- Brainwashed (NC-17 Remix)
We start the release with a huge remix of resident artists Basys & Tollgate Shindigs track Brainwashed with none other than DNB Dutty roller legend. NC-17.
An absolute filth-fest of gritty beats layer this one out as it rolls along in the most heinous way.
Classic Neuro vibes from the mid-2000s echo through the speaker on this one and you can only imagine you’re in the End nightclub in London in 2007 for this one
2/ Screamarts- Coalesce
A current wave maker in the Neurofunk scene, Screamarts is fresh off multiple collabs with the likes of Burr Oak & Manta on Eatbrain along with his own imprint releases on Symbiotik, This follow up as most of his releases do, will turn a ton of heads.
Some words from the man himself- “With Coalesce I wanted to try something fresh, so I recorded my semi-acoustic bass and when I had collected a few one-shots and melodic loops I proceeded with various FX. He then goes onto say “Later I recorded the intro bassline and many other sounds within the track are resampled and are pitched versions of it. My goal was to create a true Neuro-bass sound from an instrument, so I added distortion, noise and Filters to the recorded bass sound”
3/ Scout 22- Drop Ships
Incoming banger alert!
Scout 22 is no stranger to pulling out all the stops on a brutal neurofunk release. And today is no different with violins echoing through the roll out of this one and rising into every drop this one is as captivating as it is sickening.
4/ Intencity- Initialisation
A relatively new name to the Neurofunk sound with music cropping up during the end of the pandemic. Intencity is carrying on where he left off with his brutal dancefloor collab with Lifesize MC on Affliction Audio last year.
This one is filled with funk throughout and trippy sounds, pushing into a drop smothered in half time beats and chanting voices that waste no time taking us right back into the driving behemoth
5/ Sola & Replete- Mosquito
GTA Head honcho teams up with Replete yet again with one goal in mind for their Brain Rave debut to get you BUZZING ;)
Insectuous beats and stabs course through this track into a bumbling frenzy of rolling Neurotic- Neurofunk to wet your appetite like a jar of honey would to Yogi Bear.
6/ HighThere & Smeerlaps- Vault93
Epic builds and intro lay this one out with robotic vocal samples to present a huge techy banger for the Neuro family out there.
We only need one drop on this one before a build of 4/4 beats to transform us into a gritty and bouncy main drop taking it to the outer neurosphere and beyond.
7/ Aye Rights & Tollgate Shindigs- Scary Mary
We flow down the Neuro-Horror route now with an exceptional piece of spooky synth work and vocals that transform into a bass ridden plateau.
The main drop takes us back to the early Renegade Hardware days with lots of Vicious Circle releases in mind while never letting up the horror movie sounds during the break.
8/ The Fi5th & Transforma- Sirens
The collab you never knew you needed until now.
From what we have heard multiple collabs of this kind are ready to hit the stores, this being the first.
With a title like Sirens you’d not be far off thinking this had some kind of mermaid theme. Although for us the only relevancy we can see is that as soon as this one kicks in we’re flapping around like a wet fish.
But no, You can make out the Sirens singing in there if you can stand still from going nuts to actually listen carefully.
9/ Moisinn- The Venue
Moisinn drops his debut on the label with this huge dancefloor Neuro piece that has that full on head chugging sound of mainstage artists like Magnitude, Audio and of course the legendary Spor.
The synth work on this when it happens is incredible and the use of bongo drums comes unexpected but surprisingly welcomed. A real freeform jammer if we ever heard one.
10/ Aye Rights- Touge
Rounding out a stellar debut LP from Brain Rave and one of 2 artists with 2 tracks on the release Aye Rights closes us out with more of that classic drum and slap Hardware sound focusing more of the vibe than anything this one takes us way back to one of the most enjoyable days of Drum and bass.
Cortex Chronicles Volume 1 Is available June 30th 2023
Comments