There’s now an extra button on the left of the site – a new ‘Tracks’ section for anyone who missed the three free tracks from earlier this year, plus the 320kbps mp3 of my Hell’s Gate remix. Once (if?) I work out how to get some better sounding leads out of Reason I might have another try at the second half of the tune, but for the time being feel free to do whatever you like with this version.

If I can round up some other tunes, this section might grow a bit, so watch this space…

This time Jiipez has beaten me to it, but for anyone who missed his comment, here’s the video round-up from September’s Hardcore Tano*C. I wasn’t able to get there, but my man at the scene (aka Eirik) tells me that Alabaster had some technical problems once again – his gear froze up on him at the start of his Operation Karma set, too. In the video he’s in the middle of Ziggurat’s breakdown – definitely one of his best tunes recently. Man of many talents Betwixt & Between is playing the all-time classic Eternal Cannon, and sporting a visor/helmet thing that he made himself a while ago.

The flyer is still under construction, but the lineups have been announced for next month’s Romancer. It’s another free party, this time celebrating Guld’s Pieces of Hannya release, featuring remixes of Hannya8000 (the new version is known as Hannya X) by a number of artists from outside Japan, and Guld himself. I’ve heard a few of them already, and it’s going to be a great collection of tunes.

The Adrenaline crew are once again taking over the 4th floor of Studio Cube, and so I’ll be opening with a slightly slower set this time. I’ve already got a few ideas, so hopefully I can come up with something interesting/good at waking up the crowd in the early stages.

NRGetic Romancer

2009.12.18 (FRI)
@ARK STUDIO CUBE326 (http://www.studiocube326.com)
ENTRANCE FREE!! (*Only Drink Fee)
OPEN 23:00

END OF YEAR 2009!!
GULD”PIECES OF HANNYA/HANNYA X” release party!!

■DJ
GULD
Full Circle DJs
COGI
PlasmaDancer

■LIVE
Betwixt & Between

■VJ
VX PASTA
コケカキイキイ (Kokekakiikii)

-Adrenaline floor-

■DJ
SATOSHI HONJO
GOKURAKU & YUSUKE
MIKI
YUSHI HONJO

If you haven’t already, take a look at the insane yet hilarious FINRG Photoshop thread, where a prize will be awarded for the best entry. Carbon Based’s Teemu is having a tough time over there right now (take a deep breath before you look at Cyrez’s effort, is all I’ll say), but Swoosh might have already won his own contest with this inspired riff on Star Wars. Pretty much every member of the FINRG/Hybridize crew is in there – Rx as the Emperor, Alek Szahala as Luke (?), Cyrez as Lando Calrissian (!), but the balding Death Star commander seems especially familiar…

If you’d like a look at the full size version, here it is!

Thanks to BerN this time, who just let me know about the new track on Alek Szahala’s MySpace. Vertigo is a remake (of his own track? I’m not familiar with the original), and definitely leans towards the more uplifting side of his productions. Despite being 165-ish bpm, it sounds very trancy from the start, and if it didn’t have the special ‘Alek sound’ it would actually feel quite ‘normal’ – for once I can imagine another producer being able to come up with something similar.

That’s not to say it’s a bad track at all – it powers along really nicely and has the kind of ‘close your eyes’ breakdown you’d expect. It’s really really good news that Alek is making some of his newer tracks public, so let’s hope he’s on a roll once again.

Next month’s date for NRGetic Romancer is all decided, and will again be held on a Friday. There was talk of me playing at a different event this month too (it was originally going to be tomorrow), but it’s been postponed until next month, or more probably January. More details as and when…

That’s all the info I have for now, so let’s randomly listen to one of Grimsoul’s classic oldies. Jään Hautaamat is another great track, it’s amazing how his standard was so high even back then.

Lately I’ve been getting back into hardcore – DJ Aemi played a really good set at that Trance Halloween event a while back, and I was re-listening to Alek Szahala’s amazing Mania set, too. Here’s Proteus playing his own hardcore set at what looks like a special Sade vs Mindcore event.

Listen out for a pitched up (!) Order Chaos in the middle – it’s such a great tune to use in a mix, the outro is mixable with just about anything, letting you go even harder or bring in the breakdown from a more melodic tune. Another great set from the big man, seems like he can get a crowd going with pretty much any genre.

Sweden’s DJ Heathen has just completed another two mixes to add to his Ephexor series – Ephexor003 is unrelenting hard techno/Hard NRG while 004 is more along hardhouse lines. The Hard NRG edition has some classic Finnish/Japanese tracks, including Angel of Hell, Zusammengehorigkeit and a pitched down Walking in the Air, which actually works really well. The rest of the set has a strong hardstyle/hard techno feel, which builds up a pretty unique atmosphere.

1. Tommy Pulse – The Messiah
2. Random But Raw – Sex Drugs N Lock N Load
3. The Prophet & JDX – The Dream
4. Raff & Allan Pullen – The Virus
5. Ultraform – Jonathan
6. Heathen – Digital Destruction (Cyrez remix)
7. Phrantic ft. Boudie – Unleashed
8. Zatox – Crescent Slash
9. Heathen – BFG (Soulfucker´s Hardstyle mix)
10. Proteus, Ephexis & Ting – Angel of Hell
11. Betwixt & Between – Zusammengehorigkeit
12 Tymon – End Of Eternity
13 Re-form – Walking In The Air (Bootleg remix)

Definitely a good set to dance to – both this and Ephexor004 can be found on Heathen’s new homepage.