Surrender: ?The creative process is an action of surrender, not control. At some point you just learn to submit to your path in life. It took me a while to learn the true meaning of patience and surrender, but I have finally accepted that healing, life, creativity and love doesn't happen on our schedule, it happens when we surrender to the unknown; to walk through the darkness without fear, letting go with no railing to hold us up. To surrender is not to give up, but a painful and necessary process in order to succeed and make it to the other end; your light, your healing, your goals.?
Joanna Syze: a name synonymous within the darker, moodier realms of drum and bass. No stranger to the music industry, with a DJ career and back catalogue spanning close to twenty years, Syze is renowned throughout the US & Europe for being one of the second wave of female artists ? following on from the likes of DJ Rap, Kemistry & Storm etc., to break through not only as a DJ, but a highly competent producer, vocalist and businesswoman.
After a string of successful releases and collaborations throughout the noughties, including her unforgettable vocals on the seminal 'No Evil' by Kryptic Minds & Leon Switch, Syze shifted her focus to recording her debut LP for OHM Resistance - Rodina, which fittingly translates to ?homeland? in Bulgarian and is Joanna's birthplace; a place entrenched into every fibre of her being and somewhere consistently referenced in many of her lyrics and work. The album showcased her vocals and production talents in their full glory through seventeen tracks of beautifully melancholic drum and bass and downtempo that left an indelible mark in the drum and bass annals of time. It also signified an important crossroads in Syze's personal life; merely a year later was the beginning of her near-death illness which led to a five year hiatus from writing music and touring.
Fast forward to early 2016: after five gruelling years of ongoing health battles, Joanna decided to begin working on her sophomore album ? Surrender, this time for Othercide Recordings. There are many familiar artist features on this album from both seasoned drum and bass veterans, right through to collaborations with the new breed of producers who are currently making their mark on the scene and forging their own unique styles and identities.
Surrender neatly picks up where Rodina left off. From her opening gambit with scene stalwarts The Sect, the mood is unmistakably Syze: moody, melancholy, instantly encapsulating with a heavy nod to the early and mid noughties era of dark reese's and hypnotizing melodies that inspired her so much. This is seamlessly followed up by a collaboration with ex-Gydra figurehead, Mizo, who ratchets up the tension nicely with Dark Days. Shadows sees the pairing of Akov & Volatile Cycle on production duties, who effortlessly deliver a top-draw slice of Neurofunk that wraps tightly around the somewhat eerie, whispering vocals of: ?I am your darkness...set me free?. The next few tracks see the reign of the new bloods continue, with features from Coman Dante, Barbarix ? who appears more than once on the project ? Sam Harris and Altex, all of whom flex their production muscles and
