Releases

CORE interview with Watchtower

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 17, 2012
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Events, Mixes, Releases, UK. Leave a Comment

A little bit late posting this up – Matt and Jamis of the good ship Watchtower were recently interviewed by CORE magazine, where they did a quality job of representing the scene and spreading the word re. the upcoming release of Volume 2.

Take a look at the CORE site for the full interview, where you’ll also find a really interesting mix from the Endemic guys. Obviously featuring the UK side of the label’s sound, it’s an ambitious set that combines some fairly angry drum and bass with the freeform. It’s all excellently mixed, and well worth a listen even if you usually lean more towards the Finnish side of things.

Le Dos-on – A, remix producers wanted

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 12, 2012
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Releases. 3 comments

Some exciting news from Le Dos-on tonight – he has plans to release some remixes of one of my favourite new tunes, his Alek Szahala-esque A. Interested artists only have until the end of the month to come up with something, but head over to the Splash Energy Recordings site for the download link.

Any fan of the FINRG sound will be interested in this – I’ve recently been hacking away at a tune of my own, but might actually give this a try too. Le Dos-on’s probably after a good remix though, so it’ll be interesting to see what some of the more talented artists do with the remix pack.

There’s also a TYFTH remix competition coming soon, but let’s wait until this deadline has passed before I post up all the info.

DJ Rx – Code of Silence (Le Dos-on remix)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 3, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Releases. 2 comments

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.

New FINRG releases

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 2, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Releases. Leave a Comment

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.

[TYFTH Tracks] Qygen – Across the Ancient Universe

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 1, 2012
Posted in: Releases. 8 comments

I’m very happy to announce that the next addition to the TYFTH track collection is from none other than Qygen! Past dithering over the upgrade of the account meant that talk of a submission couldn’t come to anything, but in the meantime Qygen has racked up an impressive number of releases on physical and digital labels, making him one of the most exciting new artists of recent years.

His contribution to TYFTH is Across the Ancient Universe, a simply superb ten-minute journey of a tune that I immediately fell in love with. Opening with his trademark goacore riffs, the track ends up heading into a wonderful, melancholy breakdown, some freeform-style melodies and a brutal, uplifting finale. Huge thanks to Qygen for a pretty special track – I hope everyone enjoys this one.

Betwixt & Between – East of Eden (UFS Remix RIP Betwixt & Between)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 26, 2012
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 5 comments

To be honest I’ve hardly listened to freeform for the past couple of weeks, but I’ll do my best to catch up with some interesting new bits and pieces during the next few days.

Before that, I’m sure everyone has been checking out the tribute tracks dedicated to Betwixt & Between, but here’s UFS’ brilliant remix of East of Eden, probably my favourite so far. I have fond memories of the original, as it was the first track in a Betwixt Live PA that introduced me to freeform and set me on the road to everything that’s happened since. Well done to UFS on a wonderful rework.

A couple of the other tribute tracks are 3R2’s remix of Tindaros and Hommarju’s Zusammengehorigkeit.

Tyranoid / Strongstream – Tracks Unleashed EP

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 1, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. Leave a Comment

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.

Substanced & Alchemiist – Permission to Die

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 1, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. Leave a Comment

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.

Horzi – The Elegy (Substanced remix)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 30, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Mixes, Releases. 3 comments

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? 

Watchtower Vol.2 pre-orders open

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 27, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Releases, UK. 3 comments

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.