Review Summary: does Wingz dream of electric sheep?
Watching the Austrian drum & bass wizard known as Wingz develop his sound over the past couple years has been quite exciting. He's been cutting his teeth on the innovative edge of the underground circuit since 2016, with below-the-radar EPs and guest features on a bevy of touted labels, boasting a sound that's both techy and deep. Most recently, his work with the powerhouse Brighton imprint Overview Music has been particularly impactful. His
Sorrow EP from last year really showcased the talented sound designer stepping into a confident role as someone who can command the floor for an entire release in captivating fashion. Those hefty, tumbling basslines and bionic gyrations clutching at the tenets of human soul on "Hurt" made what was arguably the most memorable cut, and did a marvellous job at showcasing how Wingz is feeding drum & bass new sounds and textures to explore the mythic dance between emotion and technology. Now, in this three-wheeled-shopping-cart of a year we call 2020, his business is more serious than ever, with a pair of EPs and a two-sided single out on Context Audio, Overview Music and Music Squad respectively; all before the year's halfway mark. It's been a strong showing no doubt, bolstered by some great independently released COVID-era singles, but his work with Overview by way of
Modify's three incredible selections can't help but steal the show.
For a three-track EP, the whole kit and caboodle feels surprisingly robust thanks to a balanced track selection that moves from subterranean tech-roll to cathartic, liquid d'n'b, with each track feeling more human than the last. One cant help but think of the album's cover art as the vocals on "Lost Moments" splice their yearning humanity to a synthetic shell that blurs the boundaries between mind and machine as the song's intensity reaches its precipice. Standing in as the EP's centerpoint, this resonating beast of a roller is both an absolute head-trip and a low-slung club destroyer in equal measure, upholding the values the make minimalist drum & bass in the modern age so effective. The sonar blips, echoing vocal stabs and pitter-patter percussion seem to suspend themselves in thin air atop the urgent tussle of a purposeful bassline, all converging to make one of the year's best selections for DJ's and listeners alike. On the front end of it, the titular tune opens things up with a leg-sweep drop and intoxicating breaks that tip their hat to QZB's hall-of-fame roller "Turning Point". It's a proper romp of a jaunt, sounding like a self-assembling A.I. mechanoid crawling around the inside of your speakers, and holds fast as a stunning archetype of the "deep tech" sub-genre that's blossoming in the dankest corners of the scene. Brandishing cutting edge production and the kind of sub-bass that could vibrate that gaudy moustache right off your dumbfounded grin's upper lip, it's the kind of tune that beckons you to buy a better subwoofer as it levitates notes that barely register on diminutive speaker arrangements. There's plenty of tension here on the first two thirds of the EP, but luckily, the technocratic surrealism of the first 66.666% gives way to a breathtaking closer in the form of "Struggle", which reveals the cover art’s beloved cyborg as something far more human than any of us could've imagined. A melodic bassline drives the same textures that were felt through the rest of the EP, but this time around they're enveloped in a fashion that's more organic. It's a soulful, optimistic crescendo to the narrative, and one that people should definitely be hearing in the closing hours of club nights for a long time to come.
All we need from Wingz now is a full-length album, or even a solid six-track EP to really hammer down the fact that he's already one of the sharpest and most creative producers in the game. While
Modify is a short and sweet sampler of his incredible sound, a couple extra tunes of this calibre wedged into the release could have very well launched it into sanctified territory. It's really
that good, and if you need proof that drum & bass is still finding creative ways to express the relationship between soul and machine, this is a good one to lend your ears to. Keep an eye on Wingz in the years to come, because at this rate he's on track to become royalty amongst junglist circles the world over.
