Megatherium is one of Alek Szhala’s newest tracks, appearing in a couple of recent podcasts and now set for release on Freeform Family, a 3 CD compilation from Stamina, ReBuild and A-Tech.
Early signs are that the other inclusions are (understandably) very UK-freeform-centric, but Megatherium does a fine job of striking a balance between dancefloor-friendly melodies and the psychedelic madness that Alek does best. A release to look out for, then, and in fact it can already be pre-ordered via the Stamina site.
Following on from the last post, here’s the tracklist for the upcoming Dark Dimension compilation. Turns out that Guld will be contributing two tracks, his new remix of Dryad Machine and what’s hopefully a remastered version of the Lamento della Sirena remix.
I’m also looking forward to Evil Fairy and Suke’s tracks, and it looks like there’ll be some interesting industrial tracks from Takuya Angel, Sisen and MonSiii.
Dark Dimension has been doing a superb job over the past few years of supporting Tokyo’s darker music scenes, with everything from industrial to NRG featured at one time or another. Next month’s event is a special one though, marking the release of the first Dark Dimension CD release.
The full tracklist is still unannounced, but some of the biggest names to appear at DD will be on there, including Sisen, Takuya Angel, Satoshi Honjou and (until now) non-producing DJs such as Akira and Ray Trak. Most interesting for the TYFTH crew will probably be Guld’s track, and I’ll be sure to post again once more tracklist info shows up.
I’ll be getting the CD on the day, but for those outside Japan there’ll be a chance to buy it too – that is if you happen to be in Germany (Essen, specifically) on the 17th-18th October. Takuya Angel will be playing at the Astan Asia Days event, and will have some CDs for sale there.
Not much seems to have been going on this month, so let’s change that with a cluster of older, unreleased Epyx & Cyrez tunes. The standout for me is Typhoon – if I recall correctly the project files went AWOL at the time, so denying the scene a full-quality version of one of E&C’s finest ‘nasty melodic’ tracks. This is definitely better than nothing though, giving us a listen of the glorious (and now, tragically, slightly old school) filtering and that beautiful second breakdown – one of my very favourite Epyx & Cyrez moments.
The other two tracks here are fine examples of E&C’s brand of NRG, with Desolation really hitting its stride after the breakdown and the thumping Make Him Pay impressing with a hint of the original Risk Addiction.
Also worth mentioning that All of Us, Epyx & Cyrez’s excellent collab with Heathen, is now available again via Cyrez’s SoundCloud.
Watchtower Vo. 3 is finally emerging Rip Van Winkle-like from schedule stasis, with two CDs of high quality freeform and NRG. For TYFTH purposes the best news is the appearance of two brilliant Japanese tracks in Guld’s remix of Hatral and Le Dos-on’s Chemical Wash, but there’s also a very strong Finnish showing from Alek Szahala, Alchemiist, Grimsoul, Substanced, and Epyx & Cyrez / Tyranoid & Strongstream. Throw in some great tracks from Qygen and Aryx, and there’s a lot of material here for our side of the freeform spectrum, plus the expected new releases from Transcend, Lost Soul et al. A must buy, then, and preorders are already open on the Watchtower site, with the release a few days away.
Here’s a new release from Italian DJ/producer Technoid, a very good friend to TYFTH for many years now. Relic is his debut album, and is phenomenal piece of work for anyone into electro-styled industrial and NRG.
Some of the tracks made me think of more recent Tyranoid/Strongstream tracks (a massive compliment in itself), and Technoid has managed that rare feat among new producers of nailing both the production quality and the melodies/atmosphere.
Available now on bandcamp, the whole album is really worth checking out. An amazing first release, and the prospect of some NRG (and even freeform) from him in the future is pretty exciting.
Better late than never – it’s time to finallly show some support to Blue Revolver, an extremely promising shmup that features an OST from Qygen and sound design from Wyrm.
The developers reference CAVE and Raizing in their opening comments, and there’s definitely a strong influence of mid-era CAVE in the bullet patterns and weapon choices. Thank the heavens that character design and overall atmosphere don’t stray into the cringeworthy territory of later CAVE efforts, while the demo shows some pleasing depth to the scoring system and a quality first boss.
The choice of Qygen on music duty is inspired, and there are already some fabulous tracks on show in the game and on Qygen’s SoundCloud. Very freeform-esque, this will surely be the best use of harder music in a shmup since Raizing’s Battle Garegga. Big congratulations to both Qygen and Wyrm for some amazing work so far.
I’ve only had a little time to play around with the one-level demo (available here), but apparently the game has already been Greenlit on Steam, and I’ll be spending plenty of time with it on release.
Funnily enough I was intending to write a little VGM-related digression post soon, but for now I’ll just mention Recca (Famicom) – one of my favourite shmups and released in 1992, the soundtrack is way, way ahead of its time.
Whether you’re a Dragonball fan or not, Guld’s Solid State Scouter and Final Revenger were both glorious NRG reworks. Spirits of Saiyan is Guld’s latest effort, showing the confident production of all his tracks these days. No download for this one (or ability to embed, so follow this link to listen), but I wonder if we might hear this one at CODEX in a couple of weeks’ time..
A busy week has delayed a couple of other posts, but the release of Smiling Corpse 2 definitely deserves to jump the queue. Long-awaited is a bit of an understatement here – it probably won’t be too long until this two CD compilation sells out. Congratulations to the SC crew for finally completing the release, and the tracklist is really one of the strongest we’ve seen for a few years.
Trek over to the rather sexy new Smiling Corpse site, where you can order the release for a mere five pounds.
Not the first time I’ve heard this, but thanks to Vyral XIII for reminding me of Betwixt & Between’s beautiful The Eon. That breakdown’s the main draw here, though the combination with some older RaverRose style (the voice samples!) is pretty special. Definitely one of those tracks that only Betwixt could have created.
