Neoluminum

Neoluminum is an independent electronic bass music label and collective founded by Desx which started in May 20, 2022 with the release of Neoluminum Vol. 1. Neoluminum was started by a group of producer friends who wanted to make a compilation together, and it eventually turned into a multigenre electronic music label/collective which aims to bring a spotlight to many underground bass music producers and showcase their talent, while keeping true to its roots and remaining a project made for fun and for the community.

## History

The idea that eventually became Neoluminum originated from the Nawtystep Discord One Year Anniversary Festival on August 2022. Throughout the festival, several sets were played throughout the day, featuring some artists who would eventually release on the label, such as Dwooswa, eszii, NDXL, Desx, Extrenor, TimeWvrp (fka Kraftii), Sup I'm Saikou and kookA. During the festival, some of the artists were impressed by each other's work, and for the first time, the idea of creating a compilation together came to be. Quite a few people seemed interested in the idea, and Desx created a server for everyone to join and start planning for a possible compilation in the future.

The server was originally called *Project NS*, which stood for *Project Nawtystep*. Not much progress was initially made on the compilation idea, with the server becoming more of a hangout and music discussion server. Eventually the server became focused on planning another festival for the Nawtystep Discord server, this one for the holiday season. This festival took place in late 2021, featuring sets from Desx, miaslayer, NDXL, X2H, YaGirlNicole, Extrenor, TimeWvrp (fka Kraftii), Ne10, kookA, Nebeski, CHVMBO, Dwooswa, IrieArtz, Keitrix (fka Skyeeee5554) and eszii. The festival strengthened people's inspiration to work on a compilation with each other, just like last one.

This time along, people started working on tracks for the compilation, with progress starting in late December 2021, with the name Neoluminum originating around the same time. The first tracks to be submitted to the compilation were Roadblock and Smart Bomb, with further tracks being developed in the coming months. Other artists such as ecli, Subterranean and NXISE were brought in as well. Glob was appointed to make the cover art in a similar style to Disciple's Alliance compilation series, being worked on through the course of a month. Neoluminum Vol. 1 was officially completed on April 16th 2022, with a total of 20 tracks over a runtime of 1 hour and 13 minutes.

With the compilation finished, the next step was teasing it. On April 18th, the first post on the Neoluminum socials was made, a teaser which featured the logos of all 25 artists featured on the compilation flashing with the intro for AlphaMark in the background. The teaser got a bit of attention, with some people recognizing the names featured and becoming interested into what this project would end up being. The compilation originally was planned to release on May 6th, but was then pushed back to May 20th due to issues with the distribution. In the end, the compilation officially released on May 20th and garnered quite a bit of attention from people in the community, with some calling it one of the best bass music label debuts.

During the production of Vol. 1, discussion of what to do after the compilation released was all but nonexistent. Some of the artists planned out projects to release afterwards, to make Neoluminum have more of a label aspect to it. Projects like NDXL's World's End (+ Remixes), eszii's Technicolor EP and Jztin Thing's WAOH EP were produced during this time, and were among the first projects to release after Neoluminum Vol. 1.

Following these projects, we begin to see more releases that were developed and submitted after Vol. 1, with STYKS and FAYBUL's collaborative Phantom Hourglass EP being the first project to be submitted by someone not originally involved with the production of Vol. 1. During a QnA in the Neoluminum Discord server, STYKS mentioned that they had stumbled upon the preview for Vol. 1 and "liked the aesthetic and fun feel that the label has, very passion driven and carefree", which motivated them to want to be a part of the label. Following this project, Xedi's debut EP was the second to be submitted by a newcomer, with her style captivating the label staff.

As Neoluminum released more and more projects, it continued to have a steadily growing following from many members of the underground bass community, having projects reacted to, ranked and reviewed by the YouTube community and being noticed by bigger figures in the community, one of the most notable of which being Nawtystep featuring multiple tracks from the label in his Best of Bass playlist series.