There’ll be a few more more posts this evening, but for now here’s Alek Szahala’s latest upload, Mageslayer. This sounds vaguely familiar from 10 Years of FINRG (the post of which is finally under construction, incidentally), a relentless track with a real Hard NRG feel to it. Hang in there until the second half, as the atmosphere deepens nicely and those synths really come into their own.
Releases
ikaruga_nex has really been progressing with his UK-influenced freeform over the past few months, including a great remix of Red Fraction (occasionally painful, but here’s the original). This is a tricky one – I’m obviously not the biggest fan of UK/J-Core melodies, and usually avoid vocals, but any track with an intro this brutal is definitely doing plenty right. The first couple of minutes are just brilliant, I can imagine it being a nice interlude in a freeform set with a couple of dark tracks either side…
Great to see Transcend and Dyzphazia continuing with their collabs, following up the Skullcrush remix with this really promising original track. Tormenting Flames has something for everyone, with a lovely breakdown and some trancy/energetic melodies that are nicely balanced out by the filtering after the drop.
As far as I know, Alek Szahala and Nemes’ Distress was thought to be lost, but here it is thanks to DJ Inline and his outstanding YouTube channel. This is one of those magical old Finnish tracks, trademark melodies starting to come together while the oldskool acid and hoovers hammer away in the background.
Qygen’s been at the goacore again, this time with Birth Within The Cosmic Storm, an amazing tune that’ll surely see a release somewhere before too long.
Right then, Munted! is all over (and what a great night/morning it was), so it’s about time I caught up on some of the stuff that’s been happening lately. If I’ve missed anything, feel free to let us know in the comments down below.
Proteus has just uploaded the opening track for his upcoming ErilaZ live spectacular with Adam Lab 4 on drums, and what a monster it is. Showing Proteus’ understanding of how to get a crowd going, this is another genre-crossing effort with industrial, hardcore and even some golden-era drum and bass breaks. Quality stuff, I’d love to see some more from the set as and when.
As you might have guessed, I’m not able to listen to much freeform at the moment (as I’m just starting to plan a set for this month’s Munted! Monthly! that’ll soon change – more on that soon). Tendrils of Reality from the upcoming Freeformaniacs release really caught my ear though, a brilliant effort by Wyrm to create a darker track that bodes really well for the future. The atmosphere is verging on the disturbing at times (which is absolutely a good thing), while the manic synths, psy kick and oldskool Rx bassline work very well together. With this and Morokai, it’s awesome to see a label reviving the darker side – hopefully they’ll be the first of many.
The next part of Freeform Exposed is now downloadable, an incredible (and free) selection of Electronica Exposed-style tracks. I’m still working my way through the tunes on offer, but aside from the obvious highlights of Unohdetut and The Brinicle there’s all sorts of other interesting material in there – Difference Engine and the Penguin Conspiracy remix of Prelude are two I’ve especially enjoyed so far.
Congrats to Shanty on another job well done!
All being well there’ll be a little time to catch up on news during this week, but before that here’s a reminder that Le Dos-on’s excellent debut album ENERGY is now available online. This is a must-buy, and even with all the free music around these days it’s no real hardship that for once the tracks have to be purchased as a set rather than individually.
As for me, I had an excellent one night off last week, spent with Guld and Skylight’s Alex at the new Tokyo Skytree and Shibuya’s Womb. Alex is in Asia on promotional duties, and it was pretty fascinating to talk about the more commercial side of the electronic scene, his and Proteus’ thinking behind Skylight, and Chinese trance collaborations.