Releases

A Farewell to Aryx

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 30, 2014
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Releases, UK. Leave a Comment

Along with Epyx & Cyrez’s retirement earlier this year, Aryx’s decision to stop freeform production has to be the biggest news of 2014 so far. While I’m sure we all wish him well as he heads off to pastures new, his absence will be another massive loss to the freeform.

Thank goodness for last year’s Munted! in London then, as I finally had the chance to play on the same lineup after out first meeting at 10 Years of FINRG. An unbiased observer* said that ours were the two best sets of the night, and it was an honour to be pushing our styles together in an unfamiliar outpost of the scene.

I say our styles – but while I’ve been neglecting production in order to diddle away the years on DJ sets, Aryx has done the hard work to go from a total rookie to one of the very finest freeform artists so far. His The End of All Things remix remains a stupendous track that transports me back to Lahti every time I hear it, but any artist would also kill to have tunes like Chaldea, Morokai, and Polaris on their CV.

Add in the fact that Aryx is one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet, and I’m sure I’m not the only one hoping that we’ll one day see him back in the scene. For now, let’s enjoy Byrgius, and look forward to his next (trance?) tracks in his new guise.

*aka my younger brother

 

What We Missed

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 24, 2014
Posted in: Australia, Finnish, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Mixes, Releases, UK. 2 comments

Whistling in the wind a bit here, but I thought it’d be worth a look back over the past few months and select a few standout moments that normally would have made it onto TYFTH. Sorry about the bullet-point format, but hopefully that’s better than nothing –  if anyone’s still reading the site and feels like adding any major ommissions in the comments, that’d be most welcome.

Pearsall’s excellent look back at freeform in 2013

Quality tracks from Aryx, Nomic, Qygen and others in Rebuild’s final compilation release

Another wonderful Freeformaniacs set from Nomic

Guld plays The Superbeast at Dark Dimension / SUKE’s dark psy at Dark Dimension

Some of the finest releases so far this year, from Freeformatted

A gallery of photos from February’s 12 Years of FINRG

A quality Freeformaniacs set from Transcend

Some highlights from January’s CODEX

Qygen’s first artist album – successfully funded on indiegogo, to be released via Smiling Corpse

 

Morita yuuhei – Sadistic Form

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 22, 2014
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. Leave a Comment

This track (a free download, no less) has been doing the rounds in a few mixes recently and is definitely worth a post of its own. Dark freeform from another promising new Japanese producer, Sadistic Form was clearly influenced by Rx’s Eternal Cannon remix and also mixes very nicely into the original tune (a combo I was actually planning to use at Codex a couple of weeks ago). There are more than enough ideas here for the track to stand on its own merits though, so let’s hope that Morita yuuhei has more tunes of this level in store for 2014.

Watchtower Vol.3 tracklist

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 28, 2013
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, Releases, UK. 1 comment

Talk about being worth the wait – Watchtower 3’s tracklist has just been announced, and there’s something for everyone in what could be one of the finest freeform releases ever. Although tracks from the likes of Alek Szahala, Grimsoul and Qygen will surely be highlights, it’s fantastic to see some NRG in the form of Hatral 2013 and Proteus’ superb Freedom – along with a very strong UK freeform contingent there really is something for everyone.

Vol.3 will surely keep up the excellent level of presentation that the series has managed so far, in a 3 CD release that’ll also feature a DJ mix. If ever a release was worth supporting it’s this one, so be sure to keep an eye on the Watchtower site and Facebook page in the coming months.

And so the tracklist:

FireFarm & AJ Myst – Carpe Diem Part 3
Alek Szahala – Avalanche
Proteus – Freedom
Eryk Orpheus – Day Off
Douglas- Not Everyone
Transcend & Hardform – Deliverance
Le Dos-on & Psycho Stalker – Chemical Wash
Endemic – Hurricane (Modulate Remix)
Rik Arkitech – Heart is a flutter
Pretty Addicted – Fear Myself (Lost Soul Remix)
Aryx – Helyx
Epyx & Cyrez Vs Tyranoid / Strongstream – What Lies Below
Transcend – Eons (Substanced Remix)
Psyence – Unique
Transcend – Odyssey
Substanced – Ghost Of The Future (Alchemiist Remix)
GULD Vs Betwixt & Between – Hatral (GULD 2013 mix)
Qygen – Soul Survivor
Grimsoul & Nailgun – Manchurian Kandidate
Transcend & Midas – Hide & Freq

Le Dos-on – Stance 2013

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 26, 2013
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. Leave a Comment

More from Le Dos-on, this time a free update to his classic Stance. I still prefer the more other-wordly style of the original Another Story version (at least from the breakdown onwards), but with the improved filtering and a nice weighty job on the mastering this has all the ingredients to fit into a modern set.

SOLIDCORE VI

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 5, 2013
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Japanese, Releases. Leave a Comment

At first glance this looks like a well-above average Japanese gabber/hardcore compilation (released a couple of months ago), but lurking near the end of the tracklist you’ll also find two new freeform tracks from Le Dos-on. Zafkiel is the better of the two, featuring the emotional melodies mixed with demented filters that often mark out Le Dos-on’s finest tracks, while Benetnasch is a more typical dancefloor-friendly tune that would likely work well in some lighter sets. Unusually for this sort of compilation, the standard of tracks is impressively high all the way through, with some particularly quality stuff from 6th, Noizenecio and kenta.v.ez.

01 – Scarlet – Change The World
02 – IceCreamSandWitch – Makina
03 – Nizikawa – Akagi
04 – nnn – Basement
05 – Hard Harmonizer – Drop it
06 – 6th – Killing Weapon
07 – Noizenecio – Bass Stream
08 – QUIL – Knight of Carim
09 – kenta-v.ez. – cAtAstrophic sEquENcE
10 – Lechery – MAD KILLER
11 – DJ 490 – b347z cr4ck1n
12 – Le Dos-on – Benetnasch
13 – Le Dos-on & Psycho Stalker – Zafkiel
14 – XIO – Paradise

Guld – Gestaltzerfall

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 21, 2013
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 2 comments

The darkest track of the year? Guld has outdone himself with Gestaltzerfall, an incredibe piece of work that everyone has to check out. I haven’t heard this sort of aggression in an NRG/freeform tune for a long time, and it will actually be the (not-so) secret weapon in my upcoming set – see the next post for more on that.