Alchemiist – Freeformaniacs Round 8

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 21, 2013
Posted in: Canadian, Finnish, Mixes, UK. 1 comment

We already know that Alchemiist sets are worth looking out for, and thankfully his recent Freeformaniacs appearance has kept up the standard. There’s a really nice atmosphere in this one, maybe best described as melodic dark freeform – any set with a lot of Alchemiist tunes is going to be pretty nasty, but this one does a good job of switching back to the slightly-lighter side to throw in some melodies. Excellent use of a couple of classic Kreatrix tracks gets the set an extra thumb up.

01. Substanced – Ghost Of The Future (Alchemiist Remix)
02. Transcend & Dyzphazia – Tormenting Flames (Original Mix)
03. Twisted Freq pres. Nightforce – The Ghost Of Jupiter
04. Substanced – Damage Point
05. Ephexis, DJ Rx & Carbon Based – Decimator
06. Alchemiist – Anthrax Injection
07. Alchemiist – Noise Of Thunder
08. Substanced & Alchemiist – Facemelt
09. Twisted Freq – Kreation
10. Endemic – Xen
11. Alchemiist – Neurotic 

Download here

K.U.R.O. – Red Zombie

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 18, 2013
Posted in: Goa / Psy, Japanese, Releases. 3 comments

During the last Munted! I mentioned that I’ve been working (very occasionally) on a goa set, and that Japanese producer K.U.R.O’s tracks were some of the best examples of dark goa I’ve found so far. It seems like the subgenre doesn’t really exist, but one day I’d love to put together a set of darker melodic goa that doesn’t just drift into the droning technical nuttiness of dark psy. I’ve only got 3 or 4 connections I’m happy with so far, but let’s see if I can get it done sometime this year.

K.U.R.O. released a digital-only goa album called Conception last year, which included updated versions of his Zombie Family tracks (minus the brilliant-but-short Hard Zombie). As it happens though, I prefer the original version of Red Zombie, an excellent dark track that just about stays on the goa side of the goa-psytrance divide with some great Ka-Sol-esque melodic filtering. The kick’s harder here too, but sadly the original Zombie Family were only 160kbps releases.

If the goa fans here have suggestions for any other darker tunes I’d love to hear them.   

Munted! presents ANIMAL HOUSE, 7th June @CLUB UNION, London

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 16, 2013
Posted in: Events, Japanese, UK. 89 comments

It’s been tough not to mention this until now, but in June I’ll be joining forces with the Munted! crew again for my first UK set! The event will be Munted’s first of the year, and I’m sure everyone will agree that the lineup’s looking pretty fantastic. Headlining is UK legend Sharkey, followed by UK freeform stalwart Douglas, but here at TYFTH we have to give special, massive kudos to the Munted! crew for supporting the deeper side of the freeform sound with the booking of Aryx and Endemic. Midas is also no stranger to our corner of the scene, while the UK crew are well catered for with Arkitech, A.B and Laith.

I’ll obviously be doing my very best to show what the darker, emotional side of freeform can do – it’s beyond exciting to have a chance to play to a UK crowd, but especially at a time when more labels, DJs and ravers are giving deeper sounds a chance. Hopefully Proteus at next month’s Sinistry will also convert more to the dark side, before we get going in June.

I’m hugely grateful to Munted! for supporting me and the Finnish/Japanese sound over the past year, and determined to repay them in London with as good a set as I can manage. It’ll also be awesome to see as many of the UK/Europe crew as possible on home soil, especially as Finland next month isn’t looking too likely (more on that another time). As an ex-resident of Battersea and Southfields I’m also looking forward to seeing south London for the first time in about 8 years.

There are plenty of exciting events over the next couple of months, but keep an eye on the Munted! event page in the meantime for travel/ticket info and all sorts of animal-based hijinks.     

Substanced & Alchemiist – Permission to Die (Le Dos-on remix)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 16, 2013
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Releases. Leave a Comment

Congratulations to Le Dos-on for his second place in the recent Permission to Die remix competition (which I completely forgot to mention, sorry about that). It’s a brilliant rework of the original, with some awesome synth work that has a slightly rougher (and very welcome) feel to some of his other recent tunes. This deserves to get a lot of play, as does the overall competition winner from Tornadoz.

Proteus / Lab 4 @FreckShow

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 12, 2013
Posted in: Australia, Events, Finnish, UK. 3 comments

We’re indebted to Alderz again for this awesome find – 50 minutes of madness from a youthful Proteus and Lab 4 at FreckShow in Australia. While the Lab 4  second half definitely won’t disappoint, it’s fantastic to see Proteus in full flow (complete with dreads), building up a set of NRG before dropping the early FINRG/Proteus anthems.

Nomic – Rift / Chaos Maker

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 12, 2013
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. 4 comments

The biggest news this week has to be the free release of two Nomic tracks, hopefully marking the master’s return to action after Suicide Machine. Most will know that Chaos Maker has been a favourite of mine for years, and while an incredibly useful addition to a set is also a superb standalone track. Rift is newer (and might even be remastered here), featuring some of those wonderful, emotional sequences you’ll only find in Nomic’s productions.

Limited downloads here, so make sure to get over to Nomic’s own SoundCloud asap.

Smiling Corpse Dead Happy Podcast 004

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 8, 2013
Posted in: Canadian, Drum & Bass, Events, Finnish, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 3 comments

I’ve now had a chance to listen to both sets from last weekend’s SC podcast, and it’s a big recommend for anyone else who missed the live event. Wyrm’s set in particular is a fantastic hour that sets a new standard of mixing modern freeform with dark psy, obviously really well-considered with a nice consistent theme all the way through. This is helped by a couple of amazing Qygen tracks – 60Hz Power Rave has to be one of the most impressive tracks so far this year. As always, it’s hard to combine harder freeform with psy, but Wyrm does a fine job, and the trippy breakbeat of Funkin’ Jungle is a lovely selection.

Horzi’s set is more conventional, but maybe that’s no bad thing after the experimental sounds of Wyrm. Heavy on the brand-new FINRG releases, there’s also an interesting choice of the two Elementz Records releases towards the end, as well as a pitched up Fist of the North Star.

A great show then – wander along to the Smiling Corpse site for tracklists and download links.