Releases

Transcend – Lament Configuration

Posted by PlasmaDancer on April 22, 2012
Posted in: Releases, UK. Leave a Comment

Plenty of interesting stuff appearing at the moment, but let’s start with a recent free track from UK artist Transcend. This one was released by Watchtower a month or so back and has to be one of my favourite Transcend tracks so far, with some lovely filtering, no trance melodies and a genuinely darker/rough section in the second half.

What a shame about the vocal sample that covers up an otherwise utterly awesome choral breakdown – without that I’d be really keen to play it out ASAP, but it’s still a great track that could find a place in a variety of sets. It doesn’t seem to be up on the Watchtower site just yet, but facebook folk can find it by following this link.

Smiling Corpse

Posted by PlasmaDancer on April 14, 2012
Posted in: Canadian, Finnish, Releases, UK. Leave a Comment

One of the biggest developments since I’ve been away has been the start of another new label, Smiling Corpse. Following on from Watchtower, this is another new project that aims to support the darker, deeper side of freeform, but this time with free CD releases.

I’ve been lucky enough to hear a few of the upcoming tracks, as well as some work in progress stuff while I was in Finland, and it’s looking like SC is really hitting its stride right from the first release. Coaxing Twisted Freq/Kreatrix out of retirement is obviously a good start, but there’s also an amazing new Alchemiist track, Qygen’s wonderful Earth Shine and plenty more.

Thanks to the SC crew for including TYFTH is the links section – there’ll be more news here as the first album takes shape.

EXCALIpUR – Pseudo Delusion Blade Works

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 11, 2012
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 1 comment

We have Gaia to thank for some great info on Experience DJ and hardcore producer EXCALIpUR, including this very nice freeform remix of a track from the Fate/stay night visual novel. The trouble with living in the home of anime is that there’s so much utterly awful stuff that it becomes impossible to spot the gems, and so this series has completely passed me by. After some background reading, I discovered the excellent original version of PDBW (Emiya) was remixed for the anime by none other than the master himself, Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, Avalon, The Sky Crawlers etc).

Anyway, EXCALIpUR’s why we started all this, and PDBW is a fantastic take on the track, if a little gentle for real freeform. The other tunes I’ve checked out so far lean towards happier J-Core, but I’m definitely looking forward to his set next Saturday.

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.

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.

Alchemiist & Decion – Get Mental

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 29, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. Leave a Comment

What an utterly awesome tune from Alchemiist and Decion – a Hard NRG stormer with some of the roughest synths I’ve heard for a long time. The occasional psy-like sounds are a nice touch, and it does pretty much everything you could ask from a darker track. Definitely one to look out for, it’ll surely be released somewhere soon.

Substanced – When The World Collapses

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 21, 2012
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Events, Finnish, Releases, UK. 17 comments

Substanced – The End of All Things (Aryx Remix) by FINRG Recordings

There’s obviously only one event to be talking about this weekend, the long-awaited arrival of Substanced’s massive album and 25 brand-new tracks. What a monumental effort by Substanced, both for coming up with such consistently high quality tunes and for all the work to organise the remixes. It was worth it though, and has definitely set the standard for any future artist albums.

Standout tracks for me are Skullcrush and Reptile Zoo, but once again it’s Aryx bringing the deepest sounds and some wonderful atmosphere with his remix of The End of All Things. Whatever flavour of freeform you’re into, there should be something for you – download all the tracks (though you probably already have) via FINRG’s SoundCloud.  

Qygen – Celestial Hyperspeed

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 18, 2012
Posted in: Releases. 1 comment

With his release on Watchtower arriving soon, Qygen is getting recognition elsewhere too, including this new free-download ‘album’ via Ruffbeatz. Most (if not all) of the tracks were already available in his pretty phenomenal back-catalogue, but with any luck this’ll help to spread Qygen’s sound further around the scene and set him up for a quality 2012.

Head over to the Ruffbeatz site for the download link.

  1. Qygen – Psyberwarfare (Short Edit)
  2. Qygen – 721
  3. Qygen – Moonlight Shower (Freeform Mix Remaster)
  4. Qygen – Digiplex
  5. Qygen – Dough Djinn Corps
  6. Qygen – Neoncircuitboards
  7. Qygen – Fafjlksa
  8. Qygen – Vast
  9. Qygen – L.E.D. Galaxy
  10. Qygen – Foreign Horizon

Le Dos-on – Stance – Another Story

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 16, 2012
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 3 comments

Le Dos-on – Stance-Another Story- by Le Dos-on

Le Dos-on is quickly making a name for himself, and here’s yet another pro-quality track available for free download. This one’s a lovely tune, with a beautiful main melody and an excellent flow/structure – I immediately went for the rewind after the first listen, which doesn’t happen often these days. I suspect it might disappear fast, so get on the download asap.

John Williams – Dual of the Fates (DJ Rx remix)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 11, 2012
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. 3 comments

John Williams – Duel of the Fates (remixed by DJ RX).mp3 by elbereth

A real unreleased classic here, from way back when the FINRG sound was properly establishing itself. Proper old-school Rx from around 2005-2006, I’ve loved Duel of the Fates ever since I heard it in an old Kuruption promo set and couldn’t resist posting this set-rip.

Unfortunately it’s another of those tracks that has completely disappeared, so we’ll just have to hope that someone in the scene will come forward with a copy at some stage.