Selections: Bell Curve

Bell Curve is a DJ, producer and co-founder of Worst Behavior Recs — a previous DJ Mag Vital Label and nominee at our Best of North America awards. Alongside an expanding gig schedule, the past few years have seen her own output evolve and become more frequent. 2021’s ‘Unstable Orbit’ — her debut album — was a collection of cosmic oddities that drew from jungle, grime, electro and more to create brief forays into dancefloor and ambient regions. Her ‘Obelisk’ EP, released earlier this year on Berlin-based SSPB, offered ultra-sparse cuts built from abstract percussion and deep, enveloping bass, and in mid-November she arrived on LA’s Dome Of Doom with her second album ‘Deep End’. 

Delving further into the murky space between club material and home-listening, it’s a fascinating record. The weighty low-end and undulating rhythms throughout draw heavily from dancehall, but reconfigure the style into obscure forms. Many highlights are vocal tracks, like the light-and-dark of ‘Activate’ featuring Tra$h Magnolia, the hypnotic ‘Sea Grass’ with Manchester MC Fox, and woozy single ‘Type (Meltdown)’, which places recent Moveltraxx signee Chiara Noriko front and centre. It’s the album of an artist who’s really honed in on her sound, and all its weird and wonderful intricacies. Here, Bell Curve shares an equally individual selection of tracks.

“This album by Maryyx2 is one of the most unique things I’ve heard in a minute! It’s super fun and refreshing, I’ve had it on repeat. Maryyx2 started making music in 2022, hailing from Lagos, Nigeria, and she produced and did the vocals all herself. Very cool!”

“bastiengoat is back with yet another banger of an EP. The Oakland native is very much in his own lane, making a slew of tracks that are always very distinctly his own. I love how bastiengoat’s music combines really fun, hyper, upbeat energy with a consistent low-end focus and experimentation of new approaches to club/bass music. My favourite on this release is probably ‘at em’, but there’s so many good tracks — as there are in his back catalogue.”

“An excellent release from Henzo on YCO, at once sounding familiar and brand new. ‘Cheapest Reverb’ is probably my favourite song, what a banger! Immediate download for sure.”

“I love this song, and much of what Izzy Camina has been putting out lately. The producer and vocalist does a super fun job of combining upbeat dance/ bass/breaks/d&b/club beats and vocals that have pop sensibility, and ‘Freak Baby’ is probably my favourite example of that.”

“This release is just wow! I have been hearing some incredible, under-the-radar music from Průvan in the last year or two. ‘Zlobivá’ is a dancefloor destroyer that I’ve been rinsing at every available chance.”

“Mia Koden, formerly one-half of dubstep duo Sicaria Sound, has been exploring her sound in production mixes, DJ sets and some initial releases. I have loved everything I’ve heard from her solo project so far, and this release is no exception. ‘I Did’ is a great combination of chill, vibey, and a banger, with the addictive bassline making you want to sway like sea grass (I only have so many words in my vocabulary to describe a banger, OK!).”

“I just love this Volruptus album from 2020, tracks from it are always in rotation for me. The ultra-speedy electro sound really does something for me, with the combination of the ethereal longing pads, galactic atmospheres, and bass-heavy focus. Volruptus has been a favourite producer of mine since I first heard his 2017 track ‘Alien People’.”

“This song changed something in my brain when I heard it (and other tracks from ‘FABRICLIVE 37’) in high school. Like many American children of the suburbs, I found my way to ‘underground’ dance music via EDM, and this was an early piece of UK underground culture I came across and really resonated with. I know now that this release was part of the turning point in the commercialisation/Americanisation of dubstep, and a few jumps past the really ‘OG’ dubstep sound, and for that reason is controversial or already too ‘EDM’ for some people, but to me it’s forever iconic as a gateway. I remember in high school, my younger cousin asked me what my favourite song was and I showed her this; after being told the name and listening for a second she looked at me with such horror and bafflement. I still laugh thinking about it.”

“On a bit of a chiller, alternative tip, I can’t stop listening to this track off Nabihah Iqbal’s latest album ‘DREAMER’. I love everything about it: the chords, instrumentation, vocals, and vibes! Definitely dreamy and makes me feel like I’m in a personal bubble, skipping along, unbothered by this world.”

“This absolutely nuts EP has to go in my top releases of this year. One of the more distinct releases I’ve heard for sure, kinda sounding like an ancient rave below the earth’s crust; a trippy sci-fi head-twister, but grounded throughout by thumping, rolling bass.”