Review Summary: I scream, you scream, we all scream for Screamarts.
Far from the rolling-neuro influence that often permeates Screamarts' modus operandi, the opening tune "Time" kicks things off in a rather restrained fashion. It's akin to, let's say, a hypermodernist rendition of something from Need For Mirrors'
Swim LP, with rich pad stabs holding the lush, velvet structure together. It's wafty, and might have felt a bit gutless if it weren't for the nuanced sub-bass treatment that splices itself onto the main movements; a quality renders this opener a perfect example of how less is often more when it comes to quality sound design. Sure, Screamarts is a fairly new name in the drum & bass scene, but he's got all the talent to keep rising, and if the contrast between the opening pair of tracks tells anyone anything, it's that this Austrian producer has the chops to play it subtle, or in the case of the titular track, dive deep into the rollers game with the very best of them.
Evidently, it seems signing to Flexout Audio was a natural step forward, and a smart one too, as the label has been rotating some of the best 170bpm releases of the past half-decade. A stiff parliament of contemporaries to be certain, but his label debut fits right in, and shows the rising producer attacking drum & bass from all angles.
Endless Journey Inwards, with "Chase Me Around" flexing the man's neurofunk roots six ways to Sunday and "New Technique" putting in work as one of 2021's heaviest rollers to date, covers a lot of ground in its short 5 tune runtime. While it's all part-and-parcel with the current sounds of the scene, Screamarts keeps things dynamic enough to stand above the crowd. Trendy foghorns are replaced with surprising guitar licks, synth jabs are stuffed with dovetail bass oscillations that maneuver like Bruce Lee playing DDR, and thanks to a spotless choice of cuts, the whole EP serves as an ace grab-bag of DJ tools. It's diverse in a sense, and almost unfocused at a glance, so it's not until the moody closer "Lost In My Mind" ties it all together that all the loose ends of this pseudo-multi-sub-genre excursion converge to a head. Acting as reflective breath of fresh air that draws on the disparing geometrics of the diverse tracklist, the opportunity to collect and gently sway back into reality is a welcome curtain call pinned down by silky liquid tones. Screamarts sounds intentional on his seminal Flexout appearance, and with its airtight runtime and engaging sound design,
Endless Journey Inwards is a strong step forward in an already-impressive catalog.
