A new tune from Einhander was always going to be big news, but just look at this – in another tribute to Betwixt & Between he’s taken on the Khaotic Dimension classic, Reincarnation. This might be my favourite of the recent remixes, as it really feels like a brand new track, and of course very heavy on the rough NRG that’s Einhander’s trademark.
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Here’s that special present for the holiday period that I mentioned, courtesy of TYFTH and Smiling Corpse. Most will know that Betwixt & Between had more releases lined up on a few different labels, including Flowless, an amazing track that finished off both mine and Chip’s sets last weekend. The SC crew have permission to make it public, and have very kindly decided to donate it to TYFTH. There are no plans to release any more of Kaoru’s material on TYFTH (or indeed any other labels), but this beautiful tune is surely a worthy way to remember him.
Thanks to the Munted! organisers I’ve got permission to upload my Betwixt & Between tribute set a little earlier than originally planned, which sets us up nicely for a little belated Christmas present tomorrow.
This was one of the most difficult sets so far to put together, not only from the emotional side of things, but also in terms of track selection. Any Betwixt fan would agree that you’d need a lot more than an hour to do justice to his sound, but here I tried to at least give a taste of his different styles, while also including a few favourites and some unusual stuff for the more knowledgeable crew in a set that would still get people dancing/head-nodding. Ambitious stuff then, and I’m sure there are a lot of omissions that people thought were must-plays, but thankfully it went down well during the event and has had some nice feedback since.
Given the circumstances, to start I went for some melodic tracks that really show the emotional side of Kaoru’s sound – it was hard to look past Stairway to Solstice as the first tune, while Isolation has always been my favourite ‘new’ tune on the Nanosecond Eternity album. After stumbling on the Tout est Bien – Burst! combo, I decided on a harder detour to show off his other styles, before going (almost) freeform-only for the second half. Then it was a matter of judging when to throw in the big anthems like Zusammengehorigkeit, while happily the City of Solitude – Reincarnation connection near the end (one of my favourites) was a big success on the night.
01. Betwixt & Between – Stairway to Solstice
02. Betwixt & Between – Tankobu Hesotarou no Hourou
03. Betwixt & Between – Isolation
04. Betwixt & Between – Self Extortion
05. Betwixt & Between – Tout est Bien (Sein zum Tode)
06. Poly Calamity – Burst!
07. Poly Calamity – Unam Sanctum
08. Betwixt & Between – Nanosecond Eternity
09. Betwixt & Between – I Think We Can Go To The Moon
10. Betwixt & Between – Zusammengehorigkeit
11. RaverRose – Broken Visage
12. RR-ThermalForce – Moving Flare (Betwixt & Between edit)
13. Betwixt & Between feat Yukacco – Nothing Compares 2 U
14. Betwixt & Between – City of Solitude
15. Betwixt & Between – Reincarnation
16. Poly Calamity – Decillion Catastrophes
17. Betwixt & Between – Flowless
I stopped myself from playing promos simply because they’re promos, or anthems that wouldn’t have suited the flow of the set, but that means I still have a lot of tunes that didn’t fit into this mix. Sometime soon, then, I’ll be playing an alternative tribute on Ustream with some of the tracks that didn’t make it into the real set.
Finally, huge thanks to Munted! for the chance to play at a great event, and special thanks to all the listeners and chatroom ravers who stayed until 4am GMT to hear my set and pay tribute to Kaoru. I hope he would have approved of this mix – I owe him such a lot, and his memory and music will always be part of what I do in this scene.
There’ll be a roundup of the other sets once they’re all online – stay tuned.
A nice set from Grimsoul here that was in danger of going under the radar, and is another great collection of modern freeform sounds in the Substanced/Amini style. Indeed, the set gets things going with TYFTH’s Lost Elegy, before running through a lot of newer/recent tracks. Things take a turn for the unusual in the second half, with some lighter sounds mixed in with Grimsoul classics and an oddly bouncy finale, but without a tracklist I’m pretty lost as to what’s going on.
Plenty of quality here though, and well worth a listen.
Another brilliant track from ikaruga_nex, here going for a more hardcore-influenced hard dance style. Black Hawk Down has some great synths and an almost-overpowering bassline, with hints of everything from Lab 4 to Hase, via Android Lime and BRK. I love the structure of the breakdown, it reminds me slightly of Galatea, which can only be a good thing.
Big thanks to everyone who tuned into today’s/last night’s Munted! Xmas party – I was there for the second half and had a great time with the rest of the crew. Expect to see downloads appearing very soon.
Tonight there’s yet more Krafty-based freeform action, courtesy of the Smiling Corpse podcast and this episode’s host, Dyzphazia. Making this extra special is his guest, none other than Qygen! As he mentioned in his Watchtower interview, he rarely (if ever) DJs, so a mixed or live PA Qygen set is a real treat. I’m hoping to catch this as it airs, at the usual place from 10pm GMT tonight.
Plenty of nice mixes to catch up on over the next few days, so let’s start with a great Freeformanics effort from Cuedy. Definitely a set for the Horsers, this one features a lot of new tracks and some very interesting connections, leading into a quality finish. The standout for me was the excellent use of L.E.D Galaxy – it’s not easy to suddenly throw in a Qygen track, but here it makes perfect sense and Eternal Cannon works very nicely as a follow-up. Final thanks to Cuedy for ending with TYFTH’s very own Glacial, it’s brilliant to see how it’s still getting plays these days.
- DJ RX – Code Of Silence (Le Dos-On Remix)
- Eryk Orpheus – Benodihydrochloride
- Horzi – The Elegy (Substanced Remix)
- Helikaon Vs Ephexis – Exploder
- Alchemiist – Fate
- Transcend – Domination
- Lost Soul – Rescue Me (Remix)
- Betwixt & Between – Hidden Radiance
- Epyx & Cyrez – Unreachable
- Substanced & Alchemiist – Permission to Die
- Qygen – L.E.D. Galaxy
- RR-Thermal Force – Eternal Cannon
- Zio – Glacial
The timetable for this weekend’s Munted! extravaganza is now public, and is looking very nice indeed. Sadly the curse of work-on-a-Saturday has struck again, so I’ll have to rustle up a cunning plan that gets me home in time for my set (3am GMT, midday on Saturday JST). In a perfect world I’d be able to catch Aryx too, but that might be asking too much this time. For the Europe crew this has all the makings of a lovely night, so settle in for a full 8 hours of freeform and I hope to join everyone in the second half.
GMT Timetable, Fri. 21st Dec
10-11 THUMPA
11-12 ENDEMIC
12-01 SUBSTANCED (HISTORY OF SUBSTANCED SHOWCASE)
01-02 DOUGLAS
02-03 ARYX
03-04 PLASMADANCER (BETWIXT & BETWEEN TRIBUTE SET)
04-05 A.B
05-06 MIDAS
JST Timetable, １２月２２日 （土）
07-08 THUMPA
08-09 ENDEMIC
09-10 SUBSTANCED (HISTORY OF SUBSTANCED SHOWCASE)
10-11 DOUGLAS
11-12 ARYX
12-13 PLASMADANCER (BETWIXT & BETWEEN TRIBUTE SET)
13-14 A.B
14-15 MIDAS
You can probably imagine what I’ve been doing for the past week, but with all that almost finished it’s time to ease back into the posting with a real stormer of an event. FINRG & FUTURISTICS marks the changing of the FINRG guard, with the ‘newer’ artists stepping up to make their marks. The lineup is a fabulous one, with the main headlining acts making it worth a trip from almost anywhere – Proteus vs Epyx & Cyrez, and an Alek Szahala, Nomic and Aryx Live PA. Whether the atmosphere can match the pure magic of 10 Years of FINRG remains to be seen, but this is still a massive one to look forward to.
I might actually be able to attend too, as once again it’ll be time for Project Get Away From Tokyo, and the vague plan is to head somewhere Europe-ward around February/March time. Check the FINRG & FUTURISTICS event page for full info, but here’s a sneaky look at the lineup in the meantime:
PROTEUS vs. EPYX & CYREZ LIVE [Säde / Finrg]
ALEK SZAHALA vs. NOMIC & ARYX(SI) LIVE [Finrg / ReBuild]
DOUGLAS(UK) & ENDEMIC(UK) [Hard Beats Collective]
THE NEW ERA COLLECTIVE LIVE [Finrg]
J7 & JAYVEE & ILLUVIAL [Finrg]
KABINET ROBOTS [Futuristics]
FUTURISTICS ROOM:
VERTICAL [Parvati Records]
MACDETHIX [Futuristics]
TREMONT [Futuristics]
SOLAR EMOTION [Wavedata Records]
MIKADO [Futuristics]
Most will have seen the upload of J-Mx’s newest track, but it’s more than worth a late mention here too. The progress he’s made with his production is obvious, making this a really nice example of the modern melodic freeform sound. Crucially he’s also nailed the impact of the drop after that long breakdown, it’s more than dancefloor-worthy.