ROOM202 dlux EP (7.9/10):
Consistently catchy and filled to the brim with anthemic tracks that are sure to hit equally hard at a festival or your bedroom, ROOM202 cements Knock2’s status as one of the greatest artists in house music today and serves as a true tour-de-force. To be frank, such a great source materials deserves more remixes from talented artists. Still, the ones we got vary significantly in quality.

REWiND - Wolfgang Gartner remix (4/10): This remix doesn’t bring ... read more

ROOM202 EP (8.2/10):
Consistently catchy and filled to the brim with anthemic tracks that are sure to hit equally hard at a festival or your bedroom, ROOM202 cements Knock2’s status as one of the greatest artists in house music today and serves as a true tour-de-force.

Make U SWEAT! (8/10): It may sound a little formulaic and lacking in creativity, but that’s made up for with the amount of energy this track has. Featuring classic Knock2 vocal sampling and synths, this is one song ... read more

OVERALL: 8/10
Ashnikko’s debut album Weedkiller is a haunting and hard-hitting album that plays to Ashnikko’s strengths in the best way possible while also proving that they’re not just a one-trick pony. It might be pretty unconventional for most casual listeners, but even they might find something to enjoy here.

World Eater (8/10): Dark and catchy to the boot, this serves as a pretty good preview of the rest of the album. It also boasts a pretty good cinematic outro.

You ... read more

—OVERALL: (7.0/10)—
Blackpink’s debut album has enough hits to allow listeners to revel in the strength of Blackpink at their best while also allowing them to ignore the rougher patches of the record. Casual fans will be better off just listening to the first half of the album, although stans may still find something to enjoy in the second.

How You Like That (8/10):
Used to absolutely adore this song and while it has cooled on me significantly from overplaying it a lot I ... read more

---OVERVIEW (7.1/10)---
This EP doesn't really see Blackpink try anything out of the ordinary, for better or worse. Most of the songs have a neat summery feel to them, but I can't really say that they've got much character aside from that. DDU-DU-DDU-DU definitely stands far above the rest of the songs here, although that's not necessarily to say that they're bad.

---Individual Songs---

DDU-DU-DDU-DU (10/10):
This one's a classic for a reason. Everything just works so well together, and the ... read more

---OVERVIEW---

Anima EP (6.8/10):
This EP sees Pendulum branch out into some new sonic territory for them, although they may be a little late to the game for most of the subgenres they touch on. Featuring a couple of solid hits in Colourfast and Silent and the generic while not horrible Halo the EP overall isn't that bad, but Mercy Killing really brings the overall rating down. This project as a whole may be fairly unreminiscent of their previous work, but after 21 years as a band I ... read more

- - - OVERVIEW (individual song reviews at the bottom) - - -
Perpetuo shows that while Tobu's style may be becoming a bit stale, he's still capable of creating danceable & catchy songs, as long as he gets the formula right. The main difference-maker here is the singer, as some of the songs sound like they just have the wrong singer on them. Conversely, Tobu's production is solid for the most part.

AVERAGE: 7.15

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With Your Love (4/10):
Not the best ... read more

- - - OVERVIEW (individual song reviews at bottom)- - -
Laszlo's Liftoff EP is a journey, and if you were to go by what the outro of better and the intro have to say, one that never ends. While it may meander a bit along the way, ultimately you'll reach the end with a sense of fulfillment and appreciationfor the compelling sonic story Laszlo has told, and likely a couple of playlist adds as well.

AVERAGE: 76.5 (AOTY doesn't do decimals so I rounded it up to 77)

- - - INDIVIDUAL SONGS - - ... read more

- - - INDIVIDUAL SONGS (overview at bottom) - - -

Chomp (5/10):
Most of Infekt's simplistic and sound design heavy songs overwhelmingly rely on the flow of the drops in order to draw me in. That being said, the flow here is all over the place, and the song suffers heavily as a result. The sound design is also pretty stale, and nothing new for Infekt.

2GETHER w/ Ookay (7.5/10):
No idea where this collab came from, but I'm not complaining! Both artists seem to counteract each ... read more

- - - FINAL REVIEW (individual song reviews at bottom)- - -
A decent EP from Julian Calor overall. While he doesn't try anything knew here, what he does show, especially in songs like Monster, is that that's not necessarily a bad thing.

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Monster feat Trøves (8.5/10):
Trøves rightly deserves the prominence he's given in the song, and he's able to showcase his wide vocal range as a result. What also helps is that Julian Calor's production ... read more

- - - OVERVIEW (individual song reviews at bottom)- - -
With a prominent motif of combining older sounds with modern styles, Oliverse manages to craft a unique and inventive EP that manages to capture both the sounds of eras gone by, and explore the sounds of eras to come. Tracks like I'm Alive showcase Oliverse's well-developed ability to evoke emotions in his listeners, but also to blow them away the sheer power behind his drops.

- - - HISTORY - - -

Oliverse's Counter Culture ... read more

I can tell Koven really tried, at least on some of the songs, but at the end of the day this LP feels stale and uninspired.

THIS is how you make a near-flawless collaboration EP. The intro flows perfectly into Let Me Go, and all of the first 3 songs are masterfully crafted and take the best of all 3 artists' sounds. The main detractor from this EP is Good for Nothing, which isn't nearly as energetic and impactful as the other 3 main songs.

The minimalistic approach taken on many of the songs here mean that I have mixed opinions about all of them. Blue To Blue is by far my favorite though, mainly because it feels so fleshed out, and it very well may be the best song in CloudNone's entire discography, whereas songs like 3Hours and Juliet feel really empty.

Neat little trio of collaborative tunes from Direct and CloudNone, each one tries to be unique from the others, but they do blend together quite a bit, which simultaneously may be this EP's biggest strength and weakness, although Told U is by far the most unique and enjoyable one of these three.

Cloudnone's third EP "Wish" features a slew of chill and relaxing songs. Not a stale moment here, which is quite a suprising thing considering how hit-or-miss CloudNone usually is for me, and I think the house-oriented production really helps with that. Urban Foxes and Lido are by far my favorites here, they been absolute earworms ever since I first heard them.

Not a great effort from Slushii, but it could be worse. Most tracks here are pretty generic in their repsective styles though, and Test Me is the only one that really stood out, likely because of Dion Timmer's influence.

I can look beyond the blatant commercialism on display here to find some redeemable qualities, like the track Nostalgia, which is definitely a unique song in Vicetone's discography, although it is still fairly uninventive.

This EP just feels...soulless. This EP's greatest offense is that it's inoffensive, and doesn't try anything new. It manages to get a 50 from me mainly because there's nothing wrong with it production-wise, but Home was the only one that managed to hook me.

This double-sided release can be summed up in one word: Trippy. It's nice to see Notaker try something new, and if these are the results, then I am all for it. I think I prefer "Almost 4am" over "Almost 3am," since I think the downtempo breaks style fits the vocal chops and synths better than the up-tempo DnB one.