The Lush revival continues here thanks to Epyx & Cyrez’s remix, turning out to be one of the very best tunes of the year so far. Managing to nail the delicate balance between retaining the awesome elements of the original and introducing new ideas, this is a textbook remix and a top rank recruit to 2013’s raft of melancholy, darker freeform.
2013’s Assembly has been and gone, and once again Alek Szahala has placed highly with his entries. His solo effort is the eccentrically titled Bom Shiva Shankar Zai Zilumi Zapati, a fabulous snippet of goa-meets-NRG that deservedly got some recognition.
The other track is a collab with Byproduct – I love this one, it does a brilliant job of combining their sounds into something a little different, and the breakdown is pretty special.
Speaking of Byproduct, let me also quickly mention his title track for the recently released MUKS, an indie exploration shooter with echoes of the classic Lunar/Solar Jetman games. Byproduct did a lot of excellent work on the soundtrack, and fans of his trademark melodies will very likely enjoy this one.
Here’s a set I’ve wanted to mention for a couple of months now, another stormer from the one like Alderz. A quick look at the tracklist should be all you need, but worth mentioning the variety here, slipping in some UK freeform (of the more aggressively filtered, Finnish sort) in the middle section, bridging the melodic stuff and the nastier, harder finale.
Alderz’s trademark mixing style means there’s hardly time to draw breath before a new tune comes hammering in, it’s a great way to combine a lot of different material and definitely keeps the interest up. A quality set then, and definitely worth a download.
1. Alek Szahala – Dawnstar (Aryx Remix) / Rebuild
2. Transcend & Lost Soul – 7 Light Cycles / Watchtower
3. Amini – Fcking Pirates / Rebuild
4. Substanced & Alchemiist – Facemelt / Finrg
5. Betwixt & Between – Liberation / CDR
6. Nomic – Suicide Machine / Smiling Corpse
7. Endemic – Xen / Watchtower
8. Transcend – Lament Configuration / Watchtower
9. Substanced & Alchemiist – Permission To Die / Finrg
10. Epyx & Cyrez – A Bit Rougher / Watchtower
11. Marilyn Manson – This Is The New Shit (Nomic Remix – 2013 Edit) / CDR
12. Kilamorza – Sirius / Freeformatted 008
It’s almost time for Lucky Lotus to begin, and it seems that the timetable is finally settled after redefining ‘fluid’ for the past couple of weeks. That said, I’ve been nicely settled in the Friday lunchtime (GMT) slot for a while now, and am really looking forward to checking out some other sets too.
There’ll be a chat facility on Aniradio (the event’s host), and I’ll be there during my set to say hello and answer any questions from those that might be new to freeform. It’ll also be my first real appearance online for months, so it’d be great to bump into any Horsers that happen to be free then.
Once again, the enormous lineup can be found on the Facebook event page, or the full-size version of the excellent flyer.
It’s fair to say that I haven’t been keeping track of freeform recently, but now that the toughest three months for a long time are over I’m able to catch up a little on things. A batch of new and remastered material from Pain on Creation’s the perfect way to start then, with this new version of Lush and the long-awaited release of Chameleon definitely top of the list.
As fabulous a tune as ever, this brings back very happy memories of past freeforming years, as well as a certain June evening in London (more on that later). Wonderful to see some more activity from PoC, but don’t forget to also check out Tyranoid & Strongstream’s superb Drifting Away if you haven’t already.
It seems to be public knowledge these days, so before starting things up again at TYFTH I have to pass on the terribly sad news that Buzzmasta has passed away. What with Romancer’s hibernation and Buzz’s move away from hardcore into his other favourite genres I hadn’t seen him for quite a long time, and so the news came as a massive shock to me and rest of the Romancer crew.
Buzz was without doubt one of the nicest people I’ve met in the scene, and I’ll always be grateful for the welcome he showed me when I first turned up here. Thanks to his collabs and DJ gigs he made also quite a reputation for himself in the UK scene, and he was a massive hit with crowds wherever he played a set.
The Tokyo scene has lost a great guy and a talented producer, we’ll all miss him very much.
What I’d give to be at this event – following up Munted’s superb support for the freeform scene is the latest Sinstry, a three-room spectacular that ticks all the right boxes as far as I’m concerned. The main room can hardly fail to bring in a big crowd, but has a very strong underground feel that will go to the next level with the addition of BRK. As the winner of the recent mix submission contest, he’ll take the main stage into even darker territory with his now top-quality productions and selection. Massive congrats to him.
The freeform room is where we see the real event headliner though – Nomic will be returning to London for the first time in years, with some superb new material that’s surely the perfect fit for Sinistry (check out his amazing preview of Turbulence if you haven’t already).
The cyber theme and Slimelight floor are finishing touches to what looks a fantastic night, surely a must-attend if you’re anywhere near London/the UK. As usual, the Facebook event page has plenty of extra info to check out.
The other upcoming set from me will also be in August, as I’ll be contributing to the Lucky Lotus online event. Truth be told I’m still a little sketchy on the details, but the thinking behind the event seems to be to bring together rookie and more established DJs in a variety of genres. There also seems to be a Japan-centric focus to the event, so when the organisers got in touch I was more than happy to say yes. With Guld and Aryx also signed up, this could be a really interesting event and a nice chance for some new listeners to hear our sort of sound.
Keep an eye on the Facebook event page for more info, and of course I’ll add details here as they appear.
Doubly great news here – Tokyo will soon have a brand-new NRG and freeform event, and I’ll be there for the first installment to play a guest set! Organised by TYFTH regular and tireless freeform evangelist raqhow, CODEX is set to start in fine style, with a lineup that brings together the very best of Japan’s current freeform scene.
The resident DJs alone would make for a quality event – raqhow himself is joined by NONAKA+CHIN and Le Dos-on, meaning Japanese, Finnish and UK sounds should be nicely covered. As for the guest DJs, the most eye-catching addition has to be Alabaster, making his long-awaited return to the Tokyo scene, while harder scene stalwart Azsa will also be playing a freeform set. Azsa has a history of excellent freeform mixes, and I’m really looking forward to hearing what he comes up with.
Finally I was asked to play as a ‘Special Guest DJ’, a massive honour that I’m really grateful for. Looks like some more sleepless nights ahead as I think about what to bring to the event – it’s really exciting to be playing to a Japanese crowd again after the last two big gigs in Finland and the UK.
More info as and when, but take a look at the lineup and some extra info on the tweetvite page, where you can also check out a larger version of MC Obie’s spectacular flyer art. Oh, and I’ll be playing another set in the near future too, so stay tuned for another announcement..
Two new free releases here courtesy of E&C and Watchtower, a very nice surprise after the launch of Two Against the Void. Risk Addiction 2 might be the headliner here, a great rework of the classic original that manages to squeeze in some harder sections alongside the energetic melodies, going in a different direction to Substanced’s still-awesome remix.
Psychotropic is a fantastic left-field track, sounding unlike anything else we’ve heard from the duo for a long time. It raises all sorts of possibilities for use in a slower set – I can already imagine it working brilliantly in a Tyranoid mix, for example.