September 2024 new EDM

  

September NEW EDM: Trivecta, Fred again..., Jamie xx, Jason Ross, and more!

Singles

πŸ—‘ TRASH πŸ—‘

MID


GREAT

πŸ”₯ FIRE πŸ”₯ 

πŸ”₯ 9/13 = Advanced, jeonghyeon - IAB
πŸ”₯ 9/27 = Knock2 - feel U luv Me

Albums/EPs 


9/6 = Fred again... - ten days
 - A huge artist on a huge come-up, Fred again..., has proven to be capable of making innovative enjoyable house tunes that seem to hit to a lot of people in the EDM and house scene. He has this unique empty, blocky, slower-paced sound design and along with collaborating with a lot of commercial artists in the past, ten days has the potential to be the biggest EDM record this year. Instead, it's just some messy boring house music with copy-paste synth structures all across the album. There's a "life atmosphere" san-holo-esque dance house cohesion but with this album I can really fully confidently say that this guy Fred again... doesn't deserve all this hype. He doesn't even deserve my attention and all these critics attention on his work there's just so much better music out there. The one standout track "places to be" is incredible, especially the live performance and the vocal chop midsection. Fred again... takes a real melodic direction in that track that isn't alive in any other and it's really weird. The album as a whole is also just way too stylistically passive and downtempo with the drops and vocal mixing. Super disappointing album.
 - Also worth mentioning: Although I admire the attempt for art and an aesthetic, the 15 second snippets between every track of somber aesthetic instrumentals or recordings are cool transitions but it just clutters the album so much when looking at it. Like it's so hard to visually distinguish between tracks when the transition tracks arent capitalized or spaced or something, it's jsut a dot in the front like its so cluttered just visually.
Rating = 6.5/10
Favorite Tracks = "places to be", "backseat", "glow'

9/6 = NERO - Into the Unknown
 - Here comes NERO with a collaboration-less (though they are a trio with a vocalist) and dystopian electro house and drum and bass and synth wave album. This album stylistically reminds me a lot of Dirthyphonics album earlier this year. 
 - Not much to talk about honestly, a lot of these tracks feel like some movie soundtrack to a submarine lost in the ocean out of control. I really like the vocals but there aren't much melodic lines that drive any theme. There's just some nice production and drops here and there but I'm not a big fan of the atmosphere of the album it just doesn't hit to me. I really feel like these tracks could benefit with some dubstep elements and breaks to really elaborate on these production-heavy drops. Adding dubstep would truly take this album and its theme to the next level.
Rating = 5/10
Favorite Tracks = "Gravity", "Running from Reality"

9/6 = KDH - ETERNALLY
 - KDH who I know of as Jeonhyeon's friend, has released a 7-track LP. This is some really solid writing when it comes to the verse, verse vocals, and verse progression, but we get some of the most generic, empty, and dull dance house drops that don't even work or contrast the verse, it really seems super detached. 
 - This album could really use a remix album of sorts as the writing is there it just needs more support from the drops which compose the heart of EDM tracks, so it's hard to give this album a good rating. Also wtf did I just hear in "OPPA" like that track is seriously horrible even if its a meme track.
Rating = 4/10
Favorite Tracks = "17 Again"

9/20 = Louis The Child - The Sun Comes Up
 - A unique cut of a record from Louis The Child, featuring many bright house elements but with their own take and unique soundscapes and instrumentation. There's some electro-pop cuts with processed marimbas and metallics, then there's just pure wavy garage house that is pretty similar to the garage house you'll hear currently thats taking over the world, with some louis the child chops and drops. There's also moments of liquid d&b, electro house, and future bass. There's some really great experimentation and exploration done in this record but none of the melodies and leads strike me, it all just feels super bare and drawn out. However I do love the vocals and progression in "Supercharger" withe pulsing and instrumentation, some really nice and intentional detailed work here. Without "Supercharger" this album would be prob like a 5/10 or something.
 - There's some names that stand out among the collaborators, like Madeon, Whethan, Łaszewo, and Hayley May who recently killed it on Delta Heavy's album. The Madeon collab was really solid electropop.
Rating = 6.5/10
Favorite Tracks = "Supercharger", "Believe It"

9/19 = Jason Ross - Divergence EP
 - Jason Ross has been kicking it off with his own form and style of melodic dubstep, featuring a combination of stutters, chords, and what I describe as "blocky decays." He's released some really solid tracks with some really great progressions, drops, leads, and vocals and here we have what I consider a rather pivotal 5-track EP. 
 - All the tracks are all relatively mid which is very disappionting, especially the Linney feature because I love Linney's voice and she's killed it on lots of tracks. But the drops just are very boring and the fills are killing me because there could've been so much done with the fills.
 - The only track I liked was title track "Divergence" which was more standard of a melodic dubstep tune but the transitions are SOOOO CLEAN into the drops and the lead is super strong.
Rating = 5/10
Favorite Tracks = "Divergence"

9/20 = STAR SEED - Magical Thinking
 - A 7-track LP from STAR SEED who has been releasing some really great high quality melodic dubstep this year. I thought this would be a full melodic dubstep album similar to Chime's Aetherborne or Au5's record last year but we had quite the variation with many chillstep drops, psytrance drops, glitch hop, and brutal breakdowns of analog synths. There's even some narration in there, and a lot of dark, gloomy production elements and atmospheres scattered throughout the album. Very dystopian-like which I wasn't expecting. Overall as a whole this album has some really solid drops and tracks but there are also some pretty dull and melodic-less tracks in there too, with some progressions that don't work too well in cohesion.
Rating = 6.5/10
Favorite Tracks = "ANGEL", "ONE"

9/20 = Katy Perry - 143
 - 2024 has been the year where apparently the entire music industry decides to release an album and on top of that Katy Perry decided she wants to come back too so here we are. We have an assorted collection of mid, bland, plain dance house and pop with lackluster lyricism and progressions. Don't get me wrong, this is the same approach and lyricism that led Katy Perry to her HUGE fame in the 2010s, like she was literally my childhood on the radio with her hits. 
 - This album isn't necessarily horrible, it's just extremely disappointing. I love Katy Perry's voice and with a new Katy Perry album comes potential for some upbeat pop hits that I think the world is missing a lot of at the moment. But these tracks are just so mid its insane they're so forgettable, they could really have some more energy, breaks, breakdowns, and overall just more highs and more lows, more contrast. She completely fumbled the 21 Savage feature like this is literally the worst possible feature you can have with 21 savage, same case with JID. There's so much potential with some of these collaborations but the production choices are so terrible we need more just straight up all out kits and horns or whatever the pop formula is. This dance house isn't working, idk why Katy Perry worked with that producer who like assaulted Kesha that thing was a whole controversy scratch that its not even a controversy lmao her defense was just "i dont care" when asked about it in an interview
 - Anyway, I have to admit though I did like the catchy 2nd single of "I'M HIS, HE'S MINE" (though it did get repetitive) along with the theme, melody, and atmosphere of "WONDER" as a closer. It felt pretty nostalgic and the outro had a ton of potential of being super corny but I liked that choice. Everything else tho is a waste of time of a production, audio engineers, demos, and most importantly of the ppl who streamed these tracks.
Rating = 3/10
Favorite Tracks = "WONDER", "I'M HIS, HE'S MINE"

9/20 = Jamie xx - In Waves
 - A very wide success story from Jamie xx this year, producing some innovative bright dance house full of horns, vocals, repetitions, and choppy progressions. This album along with its singles has been getting more streams than Zedd's album for a fact which really says something about Jamie's breakout. I only now learned that Jamie xx is a quarter of "The xx" an indie band. I presume he was mainly a producer for them before he left. 
 - Among some of the hypnotizing high-energy pads, horns, and vocal chops are also some raw piano moments and taht kind of sentiment translates towards the cohesion of the album in general. It's definitely not as generic as dance house gets, there's some hooks that can hit. However yeah a lot of these tracks maybe I need to listen to again or something but they just are alright. Like "Breather" and "" just don't have much going for them in its core. There's lots of interesting production choices and progressions and it just doesn't click for me. Maybe it's towards that "In Waves" or illusion-esque theme that the album has been targeting.
Rating = 7/10
Favorite Tracks = "The Feeling I Get From You", "Baddy On The Floor"

9/27 = Trivecta - Find My Way
 - One of my favorite artists Trivecta has released his 2nd studio album with some super strong singles to back it. I love this album work and album art honestly, and this album is his best album to date. Just some of the most mature exploratory cohesive melodic dubstep I've ever heard. There's some really grand movements with so many intentional production elements whether it's the bells, counter melodies, vocals, reversals, or mixing, and there's so much thought put into the progression, themes, and story of a song as a whole. These are some of the most unique and satisfying outros I've ever heard that really wrap up a track and its emotions, most present in "Alaska", "Ocean", 
 - Tracklist breakdown: The album takes on a camping/nature/life-like theme and explores it through so many movements and genres and paces. It's literally one of the most diverse and varying listen-throughs ever, we get the standard signature Trivecta melodic dubstep in tracks like "Alaska", "Ocean", and hyper-euphoric "Leave The Light On", then some narration-EDM wubstep and guitar shredding on "Watch The Stars", then one of the most soothing instrumentals and interludes in "Find My Way" that marks the 2nd half of the record, featuring a structural melodic dubstep/bass collab with Seven Lions and Wooli featuring some more dystopian bass house and midtempo elements. Wasn't a fan of the 3rd drop personally and honestly the collab, I just liked the 1st drop. Then in "Never Let Me Go" is some brilliantly-executed au5-esque melodub predrop/postdrop structure and breakdowns, which transitions to a rather linear laid-back instrumental of "Kumi", which isn't bad, just not worth revisiting as there's something off of the balance and progression of the track. Anyway, we continue to "Echos", an electro-house melodic bass cut with some solid vocals, a track that I'll definitely listen to again and re-evaluate. We close out the record with a movement-based psytrance techno track "Oblivion" which was NOT what I expected but some great and respectable production. Now the closing track "All That Ends" is some masterful work, featuring a nostalgic buildup and drop, like that execution on that buildup into drop 1 FEELS SO NOSTALGIC WOW sometimes simple is better, and then paired with the vocals WOW. 
 - In conclusion, this is pretty much exactly what I expected from Trivecta, just some pure powerful drops with other explorations in other genres taht I'll only have to guess. I especially loved how Trivecta never hesitated with the guitars, like I love guitars so much whether it was Trivecta's guitar finishes, instrumentation, or on electric for a finale. There's not much you can do to improve or build on this album and era.
Rating = 8.5/10
Favorite Tracks = "Alaska", "All That Ends", "Ocean", "Watch The Stars", "Find My Way", "Never Let Me Go", "Leave The Light On"

Conclusion

Another huge month of EDM with EPs and albums notably from Jason Ross, Trivecta, Fred Again..., Jamie xx, and STAR SEED. Jason Ross, Trivecta, and STAR SEED has been KILLING it this year with their singles, all being pretty melodic dubstep centric but in their own rights and styles. These albums are in a sense a culmination of this year and their singles into these albums thats just been a joy. 2024 has also seemingly been Jamie xx's breakout year, rightfully so as I elaborated in my review, still crazy how many streams he's been getting. 

Also, imma revamp my ranking system a little bit because right now like every mid album is a 6/10 or up when really 5/10 should be like mid, then 6/10 means above average and 4/10 means bad. There's many albums from the past that I should've given a 4/10 but I just gave it a 6/10 cuz its just a throwaway number. So yea that Louis the child album will be 6.5/10 and stuff.

So yeah not the biggest month this year but definitely a solid month with some big names releasing their albums.

Updated Rankings

As of the end of August, here were the top 10 tracks of the year:
      Now updated:
      1. Teminite - Yours [March]
      2. Skybreak, Sharks & LÚTHIEN - Out of Frame [May]
      3. Skybreak & Keepsake - Comet [May]
      4. Porter Robinson - Is There Really No Happiness? [July]
      5. YOUNG MIKO || BZRP Music Sessions #58 [Jan]
      6. Zedd, Mesto - Descensus (feat. Dora Jar) [August]
      7. Vylet Pony - Facing Oblivion to Become the Lode Star [July]
      8. Netrum - Always Be [August]
      9. Taylor Swift - I Can Do It With a Broken Heart [April]
      10. Derpcat, Psyuri - Bloom [May]
      You can notice that there's like no new entries for the first time lmao we've reached the point where all 10 of these tracks are just some of the purest, best work that competed with hundreds of tracks I've listened to this year. I did do some fine-tuning by dropping the BZRP Young Miko song down a slot, I'm also considering replacing ITRNH to Russian Roulette to represent Smile :D, but ITRNH is the more versatile track I guess. Anyway, the best track this month was probably "All That Ends" from the Trivecta album, or maybe the Charli XCX and Troye Sivane or the VR single. None of these tracks were sensational though to be honest, so yeah you can say this was an off-month.

      Top 5 albums as of end of August:
      1. 7/11 = Girls Who Are Wizards - Vylet Pony
      2. 7/26 = Smile :D - Porter Robinson
      3. 8/30 = Telos - Zedd
      4. 4/12 = Mechanomorphic - Mr. Bill
      5. 4/19 = The Third Kind - Dyatic
      Now updated:
      1. 7/26 = Smile :D - Porter Robinson
      2. 7/11 = Girls Who Are Wizards - Vylet Pony
      3. 8/30 = Telos - Zedd
      4. 9/27 = Find My Way - Trivecta
      5. 4/12 = Mechanomorphic - Mr. Bill
      Now visualized:


      So Trivecta's album rightfully enters to the 4th spot, while I swap the 1 and 2 seeds after long thinking. The way I convinced myself is that Smile :D has such high expectations and is such a genre-ly different era from his past work whilst maintaining many of Porter's core writing and progressions. To be able to come back from 2021's Nurture with such a different set of more mainstream punk/rock/alternative/electronic songs and execute with just amazing work is so difficult and speaks to Porter's musical adaptability and everything. It's a really huge album that really shows Porter is bigger than we all think and more capable of what we all think just symbolically and contextually. So yeah, Girls Who Are Wizards has arguably more musically dense drops and a plethora of standout tracks but the Smile's contrast and just everything I mentioned really sets it ahead. 


      So that will wrap up September's edition of new EDM. We have Virtual Riot coming up which will be HUGE I'm very intrigued.

      Lyric(s) of the Post: "Cause all thats well ends well, but all thats well must end"

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