BJSC 130

Host Country: Cor Lupus

Overview

As another BJSC season drew to a close it was a time of reflection for us as we experienced our most challenging year so far with just a solitary top 10 result alongside three DNQs and three bottom 3 finishes, resulting in an EOY final position of 37th. Preparations for a bounce back in form for the following year were already underway but meanwhile we essentially had a 'free hit' of sorts for 130 so went a bit rogue for the first time in a while. This contest memorably started off as a bit of a disaster in the semis with half of our votes not making the final cut. Cor Lupus were the hosts once again for a contest won for a second time by Land of DW. In the EOY leaderboard for 2020, Altyr Muunilinst came out on top ahead of Hendinia & Aeroche, all 3 nations separated by a mere 48 points.

Dobago's Entry

Result: DNQ (26th in Semi)

The aforementioned "rogue" entry was this hip hop banger from a then much less-known American rapper under her previous guise of Mulatto. We had long toyed with the idea of sending a rap entry more out of sheer curiosity rather than expectation and this 'end of school year' contest presented the perfect opportunity to throw one of our random discoveries out there. This is a swift, action-packed rap track full of attitude and personality, akin to likes of Megan Thee Stallion whom had had a big commercial breakthrough earlier in the year. Most likely the shortest entry we've ever sent clocking in at just over 2 and a half minutes, it's just a bit of fun that was totally against the grain of our typical sound and rather predictably, it bombed in the contest although did pick a semi-respectable 9 votes. Not a song I've actively dug out much since however Latto would go on to enjoy commercial success of her own in the coming years, becoming the first ever Dobagan representative to subsequently chart in the UK top 40. A neat little badge of honour there!

Winning Entry

Country: Land of DW

2020 was certainly a good year for winners whereby we were already familiar with several of their past works. South African DJ Nora En Pure had been a bit of a favourite of ours for a good while, even achieving a #1 single during the Personal Charts era with 'Tell My Heart'. Her unique take on deep and progressive house, often encompassing delicate and reflective sounds won many fans across the Forum and it was likely only a matter of time before she struck gold in this contest. Coincidentally, just like with previous winners Everglow, she had scored a 18th position on debut before going all the way to the top on second attempt. Like much of her discography, 'Wetlands' is a beautiful and enchanting piece that truly absorbs you into the music, expertly incorporating the animal sound effects to further enhance an authentic listening experience. That said, this entry had a lot going against it from a winning perspective, it being an instrumental and an extremely short one at that, not even breaching the 2 and half minute threshold. Because of this I personally found it an extremely surprising winner, it managing to achieve widespread admiration from all pockets of voters, amassing a seriously impressive 361 points. This included 7 from Dobago, so it was nice to end the year on a strong suit once again. It probably deserved more from us but I remember feeling, and still in fact do, that the version sent was simply too short from a personal preference. Luckily there exists an extended mix that scratches this particular itch.

18-Pointer

Country: Kluminican Republic (result: 10th)

Not one I immediately recognise from title alone and even listening to it back now I don't vividly recall it from the contest. It's an abrasive serving of EDM containing elements of dubstep and trap, which samples a classical piece of J.S. Bach. The way the violin sections are intertwined with the bludgeoning contemporary production is highly impressive and makes for an all round fascinating listen. That said, I'm surprised this got our gold medal, a third for Kluminican Republic, as it certainly doesn't hold up quite so well today. That may be because dubstep in general has dated rather a lot worse than other subgenres but generally I just don't hold the same level of affinity for this sort of sound as I once did. It's definitely an intriguing song that has a lot going for it but would fall considerably down the order now on a retrospective review. Our 15 & 13 pointers meanwhile have stood out as long-term massive faves, those being the utterly glorious power metal yuletide anthem of 'Ghost of Christmas Past' and the brilliant dance-Kpop bop of 'Dream Of You' which are extremely difficult to separate but I have to just about give it to the former. A true essential every year when the weather's getting colder and the nights are getting longer. In a very strong contest, other standouts include the 2000s eurotrance hit 'The Lonely One', the dramatic and theatrical 'sad magic' and a self-described "intense symphonic metal cover" of 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik'. Of course we had to have a good old fashioned Mozart vs Bach scrap which, in this case at least, was comfortably won the latter.

I wouldn't classify myself as much of a K-Pop fan but 'La Di Da' has held up really well for me as a post-contest grower! I think its synth-pop elements and infectious, rapid pace have kept me coming back. I can see why it was a landmark moment for the genre in the contest.

The beautiful 'Wetlands' was my 18 so I was delighted that won 130, definitely ended the year on a high

Reading that back I'm so glad I afforded Alestorm an entry, I love the band on the whole but that was definitely the right choice, full throttle profanity and glorious nonsense, very glad to get an 18 from you for that <3

EVERGLOW a great winner, as was 'Wetlands', again, haven't thought much of 'Lord & Master' in a long time but it still sounds quite decent.

Think your highlights for me in 2020 were definitely The Tempest and MASTER BOOT RECORD, both real good bangers.

Dobago Entries of 2020 Ranking

1 Pendulum - The Tempest

2 Noisestorm - Crab Rave

3 MASTER BOOT RECORD - BAYAREA.BMP

4 Utah Jazz - Take No More

5 Wow & Flutter - Hot (Club Mix)

6 Felix Snow - Born To Love Buffalo

7 Unknown Brain (feat. Marvin Divine) - MATAFAKA

8 Farhad Mahdavi & Tricia McTeague - You Can Run

9 Latto - No Panties

10 Money Aujla (feat. Nesdi Jones & Yo Yo Honey Singh) - London

Winning Entries of 2020 Ranking

1 Rebecca & Fiona - Fet House Mode

2 Tei Shi - Die 4 Ur Love

3 Nora En Pure - Wetlands

4 Nova Miller - Mi Amor

5 Everglow - LA DI DA

6 Betty Who - The One

7 Sheppard - Die Young

8 NINA - Automatic Call

9 Smith & Thell - Goliath

10 Klangkarussell & GIVVEN - Ghostkeeper

18-Pointers of 2020 Ranking

1 Fractal Dreamers - Azure Of The Horizon

2 KAS:ST - Hell On Earth

3 Vacant - Hidden

4 Alestorm - f***ed with an Anchor

5 Amnesia Scanner - AS Tearless (feat. Lalita)

6 Music Instructor - Rock Your Body (Brainbug Remix)

7 DJ Paul Elstak & Klubbheads - Memories

8 Apashe - Lord & Master

9 Randy Dominguez - Warrior

10 SHAUN - Way Back Home

BJSC 131

Host Country: Land of DW

Overview

Into 2021 now and with everyone once again stuck in a deep long lockdown BJSC continued to provide welcome escapism. More importantly though, this was going to be Dobago's year! With a bit more time on our hands there presented the opportunity to explore more realistic options to get some more hits back in the bag after a real lull in the previous year. Starting the year strongly was paramount therefore we had stockpiled a handful of juicy instrumentals, which had historically proven to yield our most consistently strong finishes. After their victory in 130, Land of DW was the destination in a contest ultimately won for a third time by our good friends Danæviia.

Dobago's Entry

Result: 8th

Kicking off the year with this quite gorgeous and emotive piece which, judging by popular YouTube comments, we had in all likeliness discovered via an F1 social clip. It certainly lends itself well to the stereotypical rousing and reflective sporting montage with the angelic xylophone strikes punctuated by more intense drumming sections. It's certainly a track that draws you slowly in then hits you with a delightful fusion of mightily pleasant sounds. Still a fantastic listen now, this was an entry with which we had rare reasonable optimism and thus so it proved, easily qualifying from its semi in 3rd place then going on to land home 8th in the final, both personal bests since our zenith with Cam back in 120. Of course, as previously documented 8th place was certainly nothing new to Dobago, with this being our sixth entry to finish there which still remains a national record for a single position to this very day. It also matched our start from 2019 which ended up being our joint best year in the game, was this to finally be our opportunity to crack the year end top 10?

Winning Entry

Country: Danæviia

Electronic producer Worakls was a name familiar to us from Club Bizarre vol 3. indeed being the act to end our winning run from that sister contest. That particular song 'Elea' was a very slick deep house/classical music crossover but did lack a bit of punch to be fully on board with. 'Storm' however recaptured its best elements and consolidated them with a quite exceptional bassy synth segment which adds a whole new dimension to the track. At 7 minutes, it's quite the ride but I really enjoy the slow, gradual build-up with the flutters of violin culminating in said switch-up. The track effortlessly blends together many different instruments and production techniques to result in a truly commendable piece of electronica. It isn't top, top tier BJSC for me, there are parts that drag perhaps a little bit but it still received a not-to-be-sniffed-at haul of 10 points from Dobago and would likely challenge for even more on a re-ranking. Impressively, it meant back-to-back instrumental victories in the contest which of course boded well for our future plans if this was to be the flavour of the time!

18-Pointer

Country: Land of DW (result: 29th)

A second maximum score to the host country in 4 contests and perhaps surprisingly, a first ever 18-pointer for a nation which has most certainly become a bit of favourite of ours in more recent times. Keys N Krates of course had already been entered once by Land of DW back in 106 with a track which has stuck with me more than the follow-up, yet it was this one which took home our gold medal. They are relatively similar sonically but I feel this one definitely has more of a flow to it which probably helped with there being a more instant click. For all intents and purpose this is another instrumental unlike 'U Already Know' but those eerie vocal inflections certainly add another layer to another all round solid piece. That said, I haven't gone back to it all that much and as mentioned would lean far more towards their first entry which just packs that bit more a punch and indeed finished two positions higher in its content. In a similar vein, I would rate our silver and bronze tracks higher now too, namely 2 more excellent EDM tunes in 'New Reality' and 'Wanted' - the former notable for being a presumably quite rare husband/wife BJSC entry and the latter for definitely taking our retrospective gold now. 131 was in fact ALL about the dance music from our perspective with our entire top 7 as well as 12 out of 15 of our vote list comprising songs from such sphere so there was plenty of good stuff to chew on during the long cold winter!

Oh, I loved 'Colorful Kites In The Sky' easily among my top 20 fave bjsc entries.

'Double Dutch' was my 18 that contest as well my whole top 3 didn't really light the scoreboard on fire (Land of DW - 29th, FSR Rontvia - 27th and Cumulonimbia - 34th 😭) but I did give that lovely Dan winner 7 points, so that was a silver lining!

BJSC 132

Host Country: Danæviia

Overview

It was another fun-filled trip to Danæviia for 132 as we looked to build on a strong start. Don't recall there being too much noteworthy about this one from a personal viewpoint so let's cut straight to the chase! The reigning EOY champion Altyr Muunilinst struck early again in 2021, racing to a fourth overall victory in the contest.

Dobago's Entry

Result: 14th

A track which I discovered via an interesting path. Of course lockdown times afforded me plentiful opportunities to expand my musical palette throughout the course of history and one overlooked band among many were Depeche Mode with whom I was only vaguely familiar. Their iconic track 'Enjoy The Silence' was a notable blind spot of mine and became a very quick favourite. Thereafter, I spotted a late 90s reworking from a producer by the name of Mike Koglin, which also was a UK chart hit. A standard habit of mine when looking at any random act's Spotify page is to give an odd couple of other tracks of theirs a listen out of curiosity and at the time, "Sphere" was a relatively recent drop. The whole brooding vibe and sound of the track certainly fascinated me, as did the way it slowly progressed, introducing gradual and subtle production shifts throughout its duration. I particularly like the periodic "engine starting" style parts which overlay the admittedly rather repetitive beat, especially for a 7+ minute number. It's an entry that's difficult to place but I certainly look back on it fondly, not least because it defied our expectations, nabbing yet another top 15 placement for a Dobagan instrumental.

Winning Entry

Country: Altyr Muunilinst

Just when it looked like dance music was potentially anchoring its flag back at the top of the BJSC summit, pop strongly roared back in the form of this upbeat Swedish ditty. It has all the hallmarks of a track that would perform well in pretty much all eras of BJSC and it certainly cut the mustard at this point in time. I appreciate the upbeat and carefree nature of the song, with a suitably catchy chorus to boot but it otherwise doesn't do a great deal for me. I'm really not a fan of the singer's squeaky vocals, the constant inflections while singing the title really don't suit her wispy vocals. The lyrics in general are a little too on the juvenile side as well which ordinarily wouldn't be a big issue but, combined with my other grievances, don't offer much in the way of redemption. Unsurprisingly, it duly brought our run of pointing winners to an abrupt end.

18-Pointer

Country: Thelonia (result: 18th)

Another song that I can't immediately recall from the title but just from reliving the first few seconds I totally see what drew me in. That irresistible 90s throwback sound in both the vocal delivery and the big banging production is usually always a winner and this mix absolutely delivers it with aplomb. The high energy is evident all the way throughout and the instrumental drops totally nail the landing. There's not a lot else to say here, it's a masterclass in recapturing the feel of a glorious era for rave music and we were most pleased that our top grade, a third gold medal within 2 years for Thelonia, helped usher it into the top half of the scoreboard. Having said all that, we would retrospectively award our gold elsewhere as a handful of songs have all better remained in the Dobagan consciousness in the years since. Our most successful alumni in Cam made a grand return to the contest by repeating her runner-up performance, this time with an even better track in 'The Otherside', a majestic pop song which we'd have been MUCH more behind in taking home the spoils. She received our 15 points whilst 13 went to something that sounded hand-crafted to appeal to the Dobgan jury, the violin-laded house banger in 'Symphony'. Pop songs also roared back in a big way among our votes with 'Syntisten Pöytä' and 'Right Now' also featuring highly. Unquestionably, our retrospective gold here would have to go to one of either 'The Otherside' or 'Syntisten Pöytä' and today, at least, the latter is sounding just ever so slightly better, so it's a belated congrats to Erika Vikman who starts and joins a highly exclusive club indeed.

BJSC 133

Host Country: Altyr Muunilinst

Overview

Altyr Muunilinst took on hosting duties following their victory in the prior contest. Aside from our own advancement, this contest featured one of the most disastrous semi-final results for us, with half of our votes not progressing including 3 out of our top 4. However, 133 was most notable for a returning country, namely N DNTN, who had been on a recent hiatus, seemingly effortlessly swooping back in to claim an impressive victory, their third overall and first since way back in 88. Now THAT's how to make a statement comeback!

Dobago's Entry

Result: 6th

An entry of which I couldn't possibly recall its origin of discovery. Nevertheless, it certainly must have left some sort of impression prior to being saved to the ol' faithful Potentials playlist. We certainly seemed to be in a good spot with our recent instrumentals success so saw no reason to overthink this entry. Listening back, this truly is a beautiful and hypnotic electronic piece. It builds and builds fantastically but is never lacking in atmosphere throughout its entire playtime. It's also one of the most emotive instrumentals we have probably ever sent to any contest, a characteristic that is certainly not easy to achieve. This remix kind of became the de facto 'original' for me but I was curious enough to give the actual original a listen, which unsurprisingly retains the core sound and melody but leans more towards an abrasive, dubsteppy side, which would definitely not have crossed over so well to a BJSC audience. The song finished 6th in the final, a first for Dobago and solidified our best ever start to a BJSC year. Dobagans alike were getting nosebleeds from such temporary EOY heights! Faux Tales' success did not stop there, as they went on to win Club Bizarre vol. 21 the very next year with a similarly entrancing number.

Winning Entry

Country: N DNTN

Much like with the last winner, this entry just captures a sound and vibe that would likely perform well during any BJSC era. Those airy, delicate vocals overlaying a pulsating yet caressing beat. It was a surefire track to receive acclaim from all pockets of voters. On top of that, that accompanying looped clip, pretty much acted as a cheat code into people's affections. But not to do the song itself any disservice, it is quite simply a feast for the ears that harked back to classic entries of the past. We awarded it 11 points on its way to a narrow victory, although it be said the top 2 were well clear of the rest this time. N DNTN were back with a bang and on this evidence it was a mightily welcome return.

18-Pointer

Country: Skall (result: 36th)

The first time I heard the name Laurent Garnier was when he was namechecked on one of Scooter's earliest drops in 'Hyper Hyper'. So I knew he must have been somewhat of an significant influence in the EDM realm. Yet I had never really sought out any of his works other than this one, which definitely had that air of familiarity even if I wasn't able to place the song to an artist. Either way, this 9 minute epic certainly stands as his magnum opus, a mesmerising journey of progressive tech-house and nu jazz, featuring a notable and prominent saxophone improvisation as the proverbial cherry on top. A track that actually graced the UK top 75 in 2000, it's one that truly belies its length, continually carving out its own path and strapping you in tight for the ride. In the unlikely but not impossible event If I were to ever do a 'XXX songs you must hear before you die' style playlist, this would undoubtedly feature somewhere for its sheer uniqueness in the saturated world of EDM. OK enough gushing, back to the contest. Given all of its "closest" challengers fell by the wayside at the semi stage this entry stood alone and unopposed for the gold medal which of course undebatably still stands as such to this moment. Its shockingly low finish of 36th was a big slap in the (red) face. Our silver medal went to former alumni for the second time, this time in Will Sparks, who got his moment in the sun 4 years after undeservedly DNQ'ing when representing us. The bronze went to our pop pick of the contest in 'Don't Call Me' which I've just learned was entered under an alias of Alyssa Reid (sidenote FARC entering 2 songs called 'Don't Tell Me' and 'Don't Call Me' within 5 contests I remember finding amusing). But anyway, go listen to The Man With The Red Face (the full proper original version) again everyone.