UK

Finally time for a look back at my favourite set of 2024. All of Asukarai Matsuri’s sets are required listening for any self-respecting Horser, but this tribute to Qygen goes even further above and beyond what we’re used to. From what I can tell (happy to be corrected, as always) it’s only available on YouTube for the time being.

While the set leaves out a few tracks that I would have thought to be must-plays, this is about as smooth a single-artist mix you’ll ever hear and that’s surely the reason why. Interestingly it’s not quite Qygen-only, as one track each from Mellow Sonic and Nightforce also find their way in there. As two of the best transitions in the set you can understand it, and personally I don’t mind at all – it brought back memories of Betwixt using Supriya in his all time great Live PA from 2005.

The set opens up with a superb combo of Aeronautics into Final Moments, which, while I’m not such a big fan of Qygen’s piano-heavy tracks, sets the tone of things very well. As does the following Vapaamuoto, without doubt my favourite Olly Addictive track and one I really need to get into a set someday. You could name any transition as a standout, but Digiplex into Dream Invader Network and the wonderful Tendrils of Reality into Spatial Healing are two more I’d pick from the first section of the set. The second section is where I have one of my minor criticisms, as it moves (smoothly of course) into an extended drum and bass/jungle sequence. While the mixing is first class there’s a danger it might lose those who are signing up mainly for Qygen’s goa-freeform and I was expecting the two styles to instead switch back and forth. There’s both some excellent selection and mixing here though, with Synthetic Sweetheart and Above the Clouds featuring some lovely work with the amens.

Freeform Horizon is the track to take things back to freeform, before Nightforce’s Raindrops sets up the big finish. It’s both the best use I’ve ever heard of the track and quite possibly my favourite transition of the set as it blends with Supersonic Speed 2013. One of those magic moments when the transition improves both tracks, it’s a welcome reminder of how rarely we hear mixing of this level in the freeform scene. Supersonic Speed actually closes the set which is a slight surprise – there are a few other uplifting tracks that come to mind as a follow-up, but on the other hand it does act as a nice call back to the earlier pianos.

If you missed this one at the time or skipped it because you’ve listened to plenty of Qygen elsewhere then I implore you to give it a go. If ever a set did justice to Qygen’s sound then this is it, just beautiful work.

You know a TYFTH Live roundup is late when the next installment’s already happened, but there’s plenty I’ve wanted to say about this one for a while. As the most melodic set I’ve played for years there was a lot I was trying out to make it a bit more TYFTH-friendly, so let’s have a little look back at how it went.

Of course one of the big goals of the set was to bring some more attention to the Chinese scene. After a few years of really top-quality releases it was probably overdue, but it was the release of show-stopping compilation Thoughost that really convinced me to give it a go. It’s so refreshing to see a new scene’s artists take on melodic freeform in a way that isn’t just chasing the sounds of Transcend, Substanced et al – something the Japanese scene fell into for a long while. Anyway, while I’m no expert on the melodic side of things I did my best to highlight some of the strongest tracks I’ve happened across so far, while still aiming for a smooth set that rewards a few listens.

Thanks to Thoughost I had a few tracks in mind right from the start, but it was Joulez’s beautiful Initiate the Massacre that really got the inspiration going. That intro is just superb, and I wanted to focus on the first half of the track before the atmosphere switches up. Although it took a heck of a lot of work to find the right track for that first transition, I couldn’t be happier with the way Helix slowly takes over. I really had to restrain myself not to overdo the transition, mind, and for a while was practicing a version where Initiate the Massacre came back in for a while. One of those times when less is more, I think.

One of the great things about putting the set together was the chance to use some favourite melodic tracks that I haven’t been able to fit in anywhere else – Meteorite is the first of those, as well as Into the Light, while jumping forwards a little the Phoenix Down – Invoker combo is one I’ve been sitting on since last year.

The first ‘new tracks’ transition is an example of something I worked hard on in the set, as I wanted to have more control over when and where the notoriously long melodic breakdowns would appear in the set. To help me with that I used quite a few breakdown sections as intros, or tried to time the previous track to finish halfway through a breakdown. That’s a nice way to keep the energy up (as with Universe Outsiderz into Garnet), but there’s also beautiful harmony potential aplenty when you mix melodies and strings/pads between the tracks (see 沉​渊​低​语 (Whispers of Looming Shadows) into Dagor Dagorath). Into the Light and Now Or Never is similar, but here a combination of melodies and vocals. I don’t even like the vocals that much (it’s the Morita filters that get me), but the tracks work so well together that I couldn’t resist. The fact that I’ve known about the Attitude Problem transition for a long time helped too, and set things up for a more authentically TYFTH darker section.

Recall is another example of ‘shortening’ the breakdown, but in this part I was also trying to demo how effective a melodic track can be as a contrast in a darker sounding section. It took a lot of experimenting before I happened upon the combo with Access to your Soul, and that crossover point at the final part of Recall’s breakdown makes the change in atmosphere a lot more subtle than I would have expected.

I Think We Can Go To The Moon turned out to be the perfect intro for Whispers, so I repurposed a section of the Betwixt & Between tribute to help get through that section. I might have done some key locking/adjusting the first time around though, as something certainly sounds a bit off in this version. Either way, it gets us into the final section of the set, which I’m very happy with. The brilliantly-titled Lonely Ray is slightly shoehorned in at the end, but a beautiful track to finish on.

This was one of the most enjoyable sets to put together for a while, thanks largely to the inspiration of hearing new Chinese sounds, taking me right back to the early days of mixing Japanese freeform with FINRG. If this mix does a similar job of bringing more attention to the Chinese scene, then that’s mission accomplished. For now, at least – I’ve already got some darker Chinese tracks in mind for the long-in-the-works FINRG set.

The original version of this post was lost to the ether during TYFTH’s recent troubles, so let’s have another try at recommending Shimo’s excellent streamed set from last year. What this one lacks in studio set precision it more than makes up for with live energy, helped by that always top-level Shimo track selection.

That’s not to say there aren’t some very classy transitions – Japanese Ghost Train into Nightmare Freak 2009 is my favourite, but watch out for Take Off into Weather & Escape for an example of how to switch between two quite different tracks. This being Shimo, you can also expect to hear plenty of rarities and unusual tunes, with highlights here ranging from Labyrinth of mind to Desert Eagle.

The set’s progression is its strongest point as it moves from aggressive filters into more uplifting territory. In the orginal version of this post I rather laboured the point that this set wouldn’t have sounded out of place at NRGetic Romancer, but it’s true – there was an uplifting side to the event that especially showed itself during Full Circle and Guld sets. Here Shimo takes it a step further with the selection of Heavenly Beatz, a track I like a lot but definitely crosses the line for Romancer. Rather than flying off into happy hardcore territory, though, the set deserves a respectful nod for taking things in a very original light-and-dark direction for the final three tracks.

Highly recommended, then, for its constant energy and very original tracklist. Don’t forget that Shimo is still playing sets of this quality every week (including plenty of freeform) on her twitch channel.

Here’s a surprise older set from the archives – a surprise for me too, as I was actually hunting for a different one. Finding a rare Alabaster CODEX set recording is a pretty great silver lining though, so it’s gone up on YouTube right away. It’s a mix of UK hardcore/trancecore with some more aggressive freeform towards the end, seemingly setting up the next DJ on the lineup.

I’ve made a start on the tracklist but it’s missing a few, so I’m posting it here in case any Horsers would like to weigh in with ideas. I’m away again for a while from today (which, as I mentioned on mastodon, will delay the next stream a little), but I’ll update as and when I can.

If you’re missing NRG after all the freeform releases lately, take a look at this superb EP by B.R.K, released on Eryk Orpheus’ Intelli-trance label earlier this month.

It goes without saying that B.R.K’s composition has been top drawer from the very early days, and the production levels have steadily improved with each album release. Here though some mastering wizardry from Eryk Orpheus has definitely taken things up a step, with the whole release sounding like the cleanest of Lab4 productions.

It’s more NRG than hard trance, as you’d expect, but on the uplifting side when the melodies kick in. My favourite though is Rome Will Burn Down with its guitar-led breakdown (played by the man himself, I expect), bringing some deeper atmospheres to the usual B.R.K. formula.

Listening through the whole release makes you release how long it’s been since we’ve had something similar – make sure to show some support for this one.

Unprecedented scenes here, as a second TYFTH set goes online within a month (or so) of the last stream. I’ll soon be away again for a week, but signs are that there’ll be at least one more in March. Enormous thanks once again to everyone who joined the stream, it’s a genuine pleasure to share these tunes and catch up in the chat.

Special mention to Butterfly Effect,  sneaking its way into the set to become the first UK freeform track I’ve used for many years. The goa-style acid in the second half made it a contender for the stream’s psychedelic theme, and layering it above and below Man Eaten and Ancient Universe made for a good intro (and covered up some elements I wasn’t so keen on).

I was quite happy with the rest of the set considering how quickly I put it together – the Qygen section at the start is overly long because there were originally some other tracks in there that were cut at the last moment (plus they’re two of Qygen’s more enormous tracks, of course). Otherwise I’m pretty happy with how the set meanders around some freeform-adjacent genres but gets back on track for the final third.

One of the not-exactly-freeform tracks was Zoonoodle’s 国, which jambt0 corrected to during the stream. edit: Thanks to some Sherkel sleuthing it seem that 掴 is the right choice after all. Apologies to jmbt0! Isn’t it a great track, by the way? It’s long been in the running for the next FINRG set (and might still be), as it’s minimal enough to use with just about anything while having a dark atmosphere of its own.

Next time might be the hard techno set I’ve mentioned before, as I’m banking on that being easier to put together in haste. Nothing definite yet though – let’s see what time allows.

Belated notice if you missed it that Ri-nergy’s FutureProof EP released during summer. Alert Horsers will have heard both tracks in Ri-nergy’s excellent promo set, making this by far the best freeform release of the year so far.

All the tips of the hat to FutureProof – recent bursts of activity from FINRG aside, for me it’s quietly become one of best places to look for consistently quality NRG and freeform. There’ll be more mixing from me in November, so I’m planning to give both of these some play in sets and/or streams asap.

Over the past year or so I’ve (as usual, to be honest) been listening to my own mixes if I’m in the mood for some NRG or freeform, and three in particular have had the most play – the FINRG Podcast set, my tribute to Exemia, and the last twitch stream from the start of last year. I took elements from each of these with the goal to raise Dark NRG a level or two above the pretty good Hardcore for Life , an NRG set I’m quite happy with, but don’t listen to often.

The other inspiration was Proteus’ old NRG sets, so I aimed for a dark, industrial atmosphere in this one that looked to other genres for some of the tracks. Originally that meant me tinkering with tracks like Waldhaus’ Blood on Fire remix, but the challenge was finding something that matched the NRG atmosphere and added some heaviness at the right moments. That’s where the FINRG Podcast influence also comes in, as the second half of that set is still the blueprint for what my sets should sound like – dark, strange, and with some deeper psychedelic elements to them. With all those things in mind the set ended up using plenty of Proteus’ own tracks, with one hard techno track as a transition and the deeper finale of Louhi and Synchronicity. I’m especially happy with the progression from the weighty opening Proteus sounds  to the increase in pace with the NRG and then into the section that’s probably got most of a freeform feel – more on that in a minute.

I still listen to the Exemia set often – it’s definitely one of my most inspired, with some of the best transitions I’ve ever managed. Here I tried to recreate the drive of the set, particularly in the way that transitions would avoid the ‘stop-start’ style of introducing new tracks with a breakdown. It’s something I used to do too much but have tried to improve recently and am very happy with how it went for Dark NRG. Gangstah into Knock Out is one of my favourite examples, and it gets bonus points for smoothly using two tracks in different keys. The vocal samples work well together, and the extra power of Knock Out increases the pace and leads nicely into the freeformy-NRG part of the set. Another good one is Rock N Rave into Heavy Fusion, the final step into the freeformy-NRG section.

Cyrez’ recently released Malicious was a late addition, matching up perfectly with the tricky Heavy Fusion. The Resurrection remix had been floating around the same part of the tracklist during planning, so it made sense to add it here. Tears Are Not Obedient was another late selection – I had found another in-key escape route from Resurrection, but it took the atmosphere in a direction I didn’t like. I left the set alone for a while to think about it, and eventually came up with the  simple-but-effective Gus and Jorg track as the answer. Truth be told I was running out of enthusiasm for the set by then, and repurposed an In Praise of Shadows mix to follow up. There could well be some better options out there, and it’s probably weakest part of the set to my ears. Get Fire! and Louhi really work well together though, so maybe it’ll grow on me.

So that’s the set – very pleased with it even if it didn’t justify a full year(!) of planning. It has some strong moments that I like going back to, and there were lots of unused transitions that’ll be appearing in the freeform-only mix that’s in the works these days.

Thinking about Guld’s Dark Dimension set again the other day (which started with his Candyman remix), I realised I never mentioned Lab4’s own update from earlier this year. I much prefer the rough, ferocious style of Guld’s version but this is still a good rework with some nice changes to the structure. Incidentally, it’s well worth a dig through Hard Trance Europe’s back catalogue, as along with this and Cyrez’s Resurrection remix there are a few other Lab4 remixes and rereleases of some older tracks.

Quite literally one from the archives here – thanks to Shihen I was reminded of this classic Beezee and Alderz set from 11 years ago and realised that some newer Horsers might never have heard it before. Unsurprisingly I was all over it at the time but the set is no longer on soundcloud. Thankfully Beezee has kept it archived (along with some other quality mixes) on hearthis – I can’t see a way to embed stuff from there, mind, so head this way to check out the set instead.

My thoughts at the time still stand, but listening in 2023 it really feels like an ‘end of an era’ kind of set, when the original Finnish/Japanese atmospheres were getting harder and harder to find. Much later than this and sets would often lose it completely, but Beezee and Alderz have hit the sweet spot here of newer (for the time) tracks that still have enough of the older spirit to sit alongside the anthems.

Big thanks again to Shihen for the reminder, and to Alderz for help in tracking the set down.