UK

Experience! Vol.3, 18th February

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 26, 2012
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 1 comment

Last weekend I managed to head along to Experience!, and even remembered to take a few videos. It was an excellent event that gives me hope that there might be a future for freeform at Tokyo hardcore events after all, especially with producers of the quality of the outstanding Le Dos-on and up-and-coming DJs like raqhow and Nrgray.

It was great to meet both raq and Le Dos-on (as well as ikaruga) for the first time, and their b2b set was just phenomenal. Le Dos-on’s production is coming on at an amazing rate, and his newest material is sounding like a powerful mix of FINRG, Hybridize and Betwixt & Between. Raqhow also came up with some quality selections – the combination of an artist playing his own stuff while a DJ responds with tracks from around the scene was amazingly effective, I’d love to see that happen more often. Here are the two videos from their set, click below for a quick look at what else was going on.

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Munted! Monthly! Episode 3, 18th February @10pm (GMT)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 15, 2012
Posted in: Events, UK. 1 comment

Coming this weekend is the next installment of Munted! Monthly!, and it looks like being another quality show. As well as regulars Dyzphazia and Midas, there’ll be sets from A.B and Watchtower label owners Endemic. I have high hopes for the Endemic set, and after A.B’s excellent Lionheart remix it’ll be very interesting to see what he comes up with. All being well I’ll be up on time to catch the whole show live on Krafty Radio – hope to see some of the crew there too.

As for TYFTH Live, it’s obviously not going to happen in February, but stay tuned, as it just occurred to me that I could fit one in while I’m in the UK or Finland (!).

Oldskool Mix Marathon IV

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 9, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Mixes, UK. 3 comments

Towards the end of last year Meke let me know about this fantastic looking radio event, and now the recordings are all online courtesy of Pearsall at Sonicrampage. As you can imagine, I haven’t got a huge amount of time for set-listening at the moment, but I recently checked out the Proteus and Meke sets, while Pearsall’s Rampage Turbo 9 is next on my list.

Proteus’ set is a mix of oldskool hard trance and rave tunes, recorded at an event in Helsinki. Old-timers will surely recognise a few tunes, and I especially enjoyed the progression in the second half. Meke’s Happy New Yearave, meanwhile, is a fabulous hour of rave/gabber that wouldn’t sound out of place at the very best Tokyo Hardcore Constructions. Really well mixed, it was great to hear so many old favourites like Pessa Pessa (or at least the Buzz Fuzz remix) and guilty pleasure Everybody’s Free.

The other sets span everything from acid trance to gabber, so there’s plenty to be getting on with. I’m especially looking forward to Ciriliox’s makina set, after getting a recommendation from Pearsall himself. Harder dance genres were in closer contact with each other back in the 90s, so no matter what you were into there’ll probably be some memories stirred by this collection of sets, as well a chance to catch all the stuff you missed the first time around.

Pearsall (admirably) doesn’t do things by halves, so once again there are discog links to all the tunes, full tracklists, and cue files for the CD burning crew. Check out the full post over at Sonicrampage.

Past Blaster, a guided tour

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 6, 2012
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Releases, UK. 1 comment

This one comes via our friends at Watchtower, something that producers in general (and Reason users in particular) should find really useful. Similar to Alek Szahala’s Ziggurat video, here Qygen gives us a tour of his excellent Watchtower release, Past Blaster. This is an amazing look into some of the complex melodies he comes up with, and even if Past Blaster is on slightly more of a conventional freeform tip that some of his previous goacore tracks, this is an absolute must-view for anyone producing in our genre.

Recent Mixes Roundup

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 1, 2012
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. Leave a Comment

I’ve been listening to a few sets recently, so here’s a compilation post with a few of the best. There are still one or two others to check out this week, so they might well have their own posts before too long.

First up we have the Munted! Monthly! sets from January. It was another top quality event with plenty of variety, and a couple of brilliant sets to start off. Sadly I couldn’t wake up in time to hear Aryx on the night (morning), but I checked it out as soon as it was available for download and it didn’t disappoint. With an excellent new work-in-progress track starting things off, it’s another Aryx showcase with some other freeform classics in the second half.

Substanced’s set was an excellent promo for his new album release, as well as some new stuff that still hasn’t been made public. The first half was especially good, but the whole set was a top quality listen. Midas and Dyzphazia finished things off with some UK freeform sounds, even if a lot of Dyzphazia’s tracks were Japanese. Neither set was what you’d call dark, though it made for a nice lively second half to the event (plus an utterly mad tune to finish).

Another set I’ve been enjoying is Substanced’s set for the Free of Form show (at the top of this post). This time the second half was the hardest-hitting, doing a great job of including new and old tracks.

Finally (for now), and away from freeform, I’ve been listen to the various sets that made up the 247drumandbass oldskool session. It’s hard to find a better oldskool DJ than Extreme, and while intelligent jungle is a bit thin on the ground (aside from some nice selections from Omen) the other sets are all excellently mixed, and a nice reminder of the days when drum and bass was a real dance music genre. Check out the massive mp3 here.

10 Years of FINRG Minisite / Favourite Hybridize tracks?

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 1, 2012
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Swedish, UK. 14 comments

I might be wrong, but I don’t remember posting about the FINRG Anniversary minisite before. Most will have see it already, but if not there’s plenty of useful info on there for those heading to Lahti next month.

I’ve also got a Hybridize-related question for everyone – thinking back to when Hybridize releases were pretty regular, what were some of your favourite tracks? Of course this is in no way related to the fact that I’m playing a ‘Hybridize set’ in a few weeks’ time…

Watchtower Vol.1 now on Hard Beats Download

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 30, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Mixes, Releases, UK. 1 comment

Congratulations to the Watchtower crew – Watchtower Vol. 1 has now been officially released! Many will have pre-ordered, but those who haven’t yet should head over to Hard Beats Download to do the deed. A lot of the best freeform these days is available for free, so it goes without saying that it’s worth supporting such a pro-standard physical release from a forward-thinking label.

DJ Midas – The Day The Earth Collapsed mix

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 29, 2012
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Finnish, Mixes, UK. 1 comment

Midas was quick off the mark with this one – a set of tunes from Substanced’s fantastic new album. This set covers a lot in 45 minutes, from the Subi DnB to UK freeform remixes, via the nastier Finnish tracks in the middle and a nice nod to the opening sequence with Skullcrush and its ferocious breakbeats. Credit to Midas though, the set’s very nicely mixed even with all that variety, and as the tunes are still very fresh it’s a very nice listen, even if you grabbed the album on release.

  1. Subi – Intro
  2. Subi – Antidote
  3. Subi – Futu-Drum-A
  4. Substanced – Reptile Zoo
  5. Substanced & J-Mx – Flawless Victory
  6. Substanced – Geneva part II (Alchemiist remix)
  7. Substanced & Grimsoul – Signal Lost (Endemic remix)
  8. Substanced – Seismic Activity (Transcend remix)
  9. Substanced – Shadows of Tomorrow (DAT remix)
  10. Sam one, Substanced & Horzi – Lionheart (A.B’s varaslahto remix)
  11. Substanced – Evolution (Douglas remix)
  12. Substanced & Alchemiist – Skullcrush

Decion – Total Annihilation

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 26, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Mixes, UK. 3 comments

I’m a bit late with the news of Decion’s latest NRG set, a ferocious hour of some of the best tracks (in this genre, at least) I’ve heard for a long time. This kind of NRG often seems to have all the right dark sounds, but melodies that don’t really do them justice, sometimes sounding a bit too light/catchy. No such trouble here though, maybe thanks in part to the number of Alchemiist tracks – as we all know, he really knows how to create a dark atmosphere, and there are some excellent, aggressive synths in tunes like No God and Head Trauma.

There’s a nice progression to the tunes here too, so for a nasty 160bpm interlude this is definitely the set to go for.

1 Matt R – Phased Array [Piston Records]
2 Matt R – Subatomic [Piston Records]
3 Anna K & Zoe Holborn – Nipple Twister [CD-R]
4 Grady G – Turn The Bass Up [Slingshot Recordings]
5 Defective Audio – Body Warmer [Deprivation]
6 Alchemiist & Decion – Code Red (2012 Remix) [CD-R]
7 Dr Tre & Disturbed – Imposters [Oktane Records]
8 Alchemiist – Locked Up [CD-R]
9 Random But Raw & Sinobe – I Am Cockney [Digital Damage Recordings]
10 Alchemiist – No God [CD-R]
11 Alchemiist – Head Trauma [CD-R]
12 Random But Raw & Rob Brown – You Can’t Hide [Boxed Digital]
13 Ben Townsend & NooNoo – Till Death Do Us Party (Grady G Remix) [Small Town Records]