Finnish

This all happened too late last night for yesterday’s roundup, but Le Dos-on’s first FINRG release is surely worth a post of its own. It’s been a few years now since the Code of Silence remix competition, so it’s nice to hear a more up-to-date version. Once again, Le Dos-on has done an excellent job of combining FINRG influences with his own take on the Japanese freeform sound, this time taking CoS into slightly darker territory.

His Shadows of Tomorrow remix is still to come, so let’s hope that this is the first release of many on FINRG.

Next year’s FINRG & FUTURISTICS event has just been announced, and my oft-delayed look back at 10 Years of FINRG will be coming over the weekend. Before that then, here’s a brief roundup of the FINRG releases from the past month.

The biggest news was of course the recruitment of Alchemiist – great to see FINRG accepting one of the most consistent producers of the past year into its ranks, especially if it means we see more tunes of Permission to Die’s quality. Fate is at least as good, and another excellent dark track to add to this year’s collection. Substanced has also added the new version of Crank Cleopatra for fans of his Facebook page, while Radical Vibe is a lovely new tech-ish trance tune from Solar Emotion.

Finally comes the BRK remix of Hatral, a great balance of the original’s atmosphere and BRK’s brutal hard dance style.

Fans of acid-meisters Tyranoid and Strongstream are in for a treat this week, with the release on FINRG of the Tracks Unleashed EP. A new tune will be added every day this week, all from the guys’ back catalogue, and first up is their recent remix of Wayne G’s Twisted. Featuring some great sounds/progression in the second half, this is a quality track to start things off, with a Cyrez remix on the way for tomorrow.

With the Smiling Corpse releases, Proteus’ faster tracks and a semi-comeback from Kreatrix, this year is quietly becoming quite a good one for darker freeform. Now we can add the latest Substanced & Alchemiist track to the list, as Permission to Die is one of the most exciting tunes I’ve heard for a while (even with some very strong competition).

Chip made a good point on Substanced’s SoundCloud that PtD has more than a hint of Pain on Creation about it – add in Alchemiist’s NRG influence and Substanced’s now distinctive sound, and you have a proper anthem in the making.

Here’s a nice surprise upload from Substanced, for fans of the Hybridize sound of a few years ago. Horzi’s The Elegy was an amazing track that inspired a couple of remixes, and Substanced typically took the high-bpm filtered-freeform route with his 2009 rethink. This tune has happy memories for me as it finished off my NRGetic Romancer x Hybridize set, a mix that drove me totally insane during planning but thankfully turned out ok in the end.

A great track then, but most likely limited to 100 downloads – you know what to do. edit: Actually limited to 1000 downloads, but best to grab it asap anyway – who knows when freeform’ll become the next big thing? 

One set I forgot to mention recently is this new trip into darker territory courtesy of Tyranoid. While not quite reaching the heights of Elder Signs, this is still a very nicely selected hour of industrial-to-freeform that once again should be popular with fans of both styles. Heading into the NRG and freeform in the second half, the gradual progression into Al megiddo is fantastic, with a lovely edit at the end to finish things off.

The big news this week is of course the almost-release of Watchtower Vol.2, an amazing follow-up to Vol.1 with an even better looking tracklist. Headlining tunes for the deeper freeform brigade are probably Re-form’s fabulous Decade and the wonderfully constructed Polaris by Aryx, but there are also great sounding freeform (and electro-freeform?) tracks from Substanced and Grimsoul. That’s before we even get to what might be the main event – a brand new track from Carbon Based that genuinely brings back memories of FINRG in its prime.

As well as all that, one of the other main highlights is a free download! Qygen’s Temporal Temple is a beautiful tune that has become one of my firm favourites – if I’m ever booked to play in a club again I’d love to see the reaction to that breakdown and drop.

All in all, a superb-looking release that has every base of the quality-freeform scene well and truly covered. To pre-order head over to the Watchtower site, where there’s also an offer on for folk who missed Vol.1.

Endless commutes and 6-day workweeks are back again, meaning lots of time to check out the latest cluster of freeform sets. My favourite so far has to be Dyzphazia’s newest effort for the evergreen Freeformaniacs show, a wonderful selection of melodic, twisty freeform. This time around my pick of the connections is the early Bass Dust The Dome transition that does a superb job of switching up the atmosphere, but the whole set is top quality and easily one of Dyzphazia’s best this year. A must-listen, then.

1 ) Re-Form – Silver Cube (Extended Mix) [CDr] 
2 ) Noisia – Dustup [Vision Recordings] 
3 ) Blokhe4d & Receptor – Bass Dust [Bad Taste] 
4 ) Alchemiist – The Dome [CDr] 
5 ) Pain On Creation – Lush (Fatal Error Edit) [FiNRG] 
6 ) Nomic – Mekhanika Child [CDr] 
7 ) Carbon Based – Dark Side [FiNRG] 
8 ) Douglas & Lost Soul – False Sense Of Security [NuEnergy] 
9 ) Nightforce – Symphony For The Devil [Electronica Exposed] 
10 ) Wyrm & Surtr – Yggdrasil [Ruffbeatz/Freeformaniacs] 
11 ) Helical & Oli G – Days Of Thunder [Camel Records] 
12 ) Helikaon vs. Ephexis – Illiad [NuEnergy] 
13 ) Aryx – Aurora (Substanced Unfinished Forever Remix) [CDr] 
14 ) Le Dos-On – Sena [SPLASH! Energy Records] 

What better way to start things off again than with another brand new tune? This week we have a superb track called Lost Elegy from Amini, a real rising star of the scene. He’s an inspiration to any rookie producers out there, as his progress over the past year has been just phenomenal, and really shows how much work he’s putting in (being pals with the rest of the Tampere freeform crew probably doesn’t hurt, either).

Anyway, Lost Elegy is an awesome track with a strong Substanced influence, but full of extra touches and the super-rough synth work that Amini is making something of a trademark these days. Many thanks to the man himself – TYFTH is honoured to be releasing this one, and I’ll be doing my best to make sure it reaches as many freeform fans as it should.

Now I’m back from my trip there are a couple of other TYFTH-related projects to deal with, one of which might even be ready to announce in about a week’s time. Oh, and I’ll try to catch up on mails, mixes and other stuff over the next few days. In the meantime, enjoy the track, and don’t forget to share this one (and indeed all the others) with anyone who might be interested.