There are some real gems on pocketpool1000’s (aka mixu) YouTube channel these days, and here’s an absolutely brilliant oldie from Nomic. I think I’ve heard most of his back catalogue, but this mix of 90s breakbeats, happy hardcore stabs and Nomic-style freeform is new to me.
Drum & Bass
Level 13 – Selfish Games by Kreatrix
Two more tracks from the Level 13 vaults have been released, and this time for free! Selfish Games might be the most familiar to people (I’ve played it quite a few times online, too), and is really a great tune in that Belial-style ‘breakbeat freeform’ mould.
Screamer is a very nice surprise – sounding like a Level 13 freeform track at 150bpm, it features an excellent main melody and all the usual filter madness you’d expect.
With a nasty week out of the way, it’s back to posting…sorry things have been a bit quiet for a couple of days. As well as BEEZEE’s Lab 4 set, I’ve been keeping myself sane with an excellent 1991-1993 Moving Shadow-only mix from the ever-reliable Wozowski. I was very lucky to be getting into hardcore just around this time, when DJs were still playing (heavy on the voice sample) oldskool alongside early jungle, so there are plenty of fond memories here. Listen out especially for a proper mix between two of my all time favourites, Thru the Vibe and the wonderful Moving Shadow release of Cold Fresh Air (up above).
Anyway, I’d say it’s time for a Top Ten:
- Alek Szahala – Starcrossed
- Lab 4 – Concept of Love (Guld remix)
- Epyx & Cyrez- Risk Addiction (Substanced remix)
- Epyx & Cyrez meets Heathen – All of Us
- Alek Szahala – Vertigo
- Betwixt & Between – Tankobu Hesotarou no Hourou (Proteus remix)
- Alek Szahala – Ziggurat
- Alchemiist – Parasite
- Horzi – Human Hater
- Epyx & Cyrez – Don’t Take My Soul
One of the great things about the early days of hardcore was the way that DJs used happy/dark tunes in the same set, and here’s a really good effort by Meke to do an up-to-date version of the same thing. A glance at the tracklist will tell you a lot about what’s going on here, but Meke covers a million and one genres in 70 minutes or so, from industrial to uplifting hardcore, via twisty-synth freeform and drum and bass. The sheer variety means that you might come across sections that aren’t to your taste – but it’s always interesting to hear a set doing something a bit different with freeform tunes, and it might give the other DJs out there a few new ideas.
00. Cyber Raver Intro (Horzi & Meke)
01. Tactical Sekt – Devil’s Work
02. Siva Six – Line In…Line Down
03. Twisted Freq – Horsehead
04. Euphony & TST – Release The Pressure
05. PCX & DRK SOL – Slammin Da Funk
06. Fretman & Alek F – Fire
07. Smartyz – Beat Me
08. Ultraviolence – Diamonds
09. Phosphor – Shakedown
10. Blood Stain Child – Peacemaker
11. Oli G & Jessica – Miasma
12. Arkitech – Dehumanise 2007
13. Horzi vs Meke – Hardcore Minion
14. Synthwulf – Syndrome of Sanctimony
15. Ultraviolence – Separation (CC Mix)
Substanced – The Free of Form Guest Mix 2011 by FINRG Recordings
I’ve been under the weather for a couple of days, and nearly missed Substanced’s guest appearance on the Free of Form show. Lucky I didn’t though, as this one’s a top-notch set with a good mix of melodies and harder stuff. Standouts among the newer tracks might include Substanced’s Aurora remix, Horzi’s excellent rework of Unique Mind and the Bad Girl bootleg, while there are plenty of other quality selections like Rachel’s Song and Point of No Return. Substanced also deserves kudos for the high bpm right from the very start, at a time when a lot of tunes/sets seem to be getting slower.
- Substanced – Antidote
- Technikal & Kim Ayres – Bad Girl (Substanced bootleg remix)
- Betwixt & Between – Point of No Return
- Alek Szahala – Sunray
- Aryx – Aurora (Substanced unfinished remix)
- Nightforce – You Are (Not) Alone
- Substanced – Evolution
- Heliakon vs Ephexis – Iliad (SynthWulf remix)
- Vangelis – Rachel’s Song (Grimsoul remix)
- Substanced & JNKS – Seismic Activity (Version 2)
- Pain on Creation- Lush (Fatal Error edit)
- Dye In Sound – Kill You Slowly
- Nomic – Unique Mind (Horzi remix)
It’s a quiet week so far, but luckily the rest of the month is going to be pretty busy, event-wise. Here’s a quick look at the three I’ll probably be going along to.
First up (on the 10th) is Tokyo Hardcore Construction. The lineup is looking reasonable, and as this one is the night before a national holiday there might be some other ravers there, too.
There’s a Tokyo Decadance on Saturday the 12th, but intelligent dnb legend LTJ Bukem is playing a special long-set on the same evening. Modern dnb or not, I can’t really miss this one, so I’ll probably end up two-stepping it with the drunken expat crew at Daikanyama’s Unit.
Finally (on the 19th) we have Dairin and KA-NA’s new event, Destroyed High. It’s a nice first-event lineup, and Kanon will be playing again as a special guest.
Before the much-delayed Top 3 post (coming later today), let’s get 2011 started with a New Year set from Alabaster. This one is brilliantly put together, running through a few genres and about 16 years’ worth of tunes. The mix starts off with a 35-minute happy hardcore trip down memory lane, including plenty of classics like 95 Style and Eye Opener.
The next section (UK Hardcore) isn’t really my kind of thing, but keep going to hear the Freeform/NRG – maybe a bit heavy on the UK tunes, but it really has its moments, particularly the sequence of Architech’s Alanamra remix, Cyclone 2 and 4th Dimension.
The tracklist is included with the set, but here’s a quick copy/paste:
<Happy Hardcore / Piano Breakbeats>
01. On A Roll / Happy Rollers
02. Surrender / Eruption
03. Party Time / Dougal & Eruption
04. 95 Style / Happy Rollers
05. Six Days / Jimmy J & Cru-L-T
06. Big Bad Bass / Unknown & Heatwave
07. Luv U More (DJ Paul’s Forze Mix) / DJ Paul Elstak
08. Eye Opener / Brisk & Trixxy
<UK Hardcore>
09. Fell From The Stars / Dougal & Gammer feat. Stefan B.
10. Blue Anthem / Scott Brown
11. Future Shining / Darren Styles
12. Get Hype (Scott Brown Remix) / Dougal & Gammer
13. Drunk With Love / Euphoria
14. Timebomb / CLSM feat. Lisa Abbott
15. Pump This Party / Mark Smith & Gammer
16. Peak 1.1 / Darwin
17. Be Happy (Brisk & Vagabond Remix) / Eclipse
18. Accorabation / Ultravibes
<Freeform / Hard NRG>
19. Aurinkoon / Nomic
20. Danse Macabre / Invader & Shanty
21. Axis Mundi / Vagabond
22. Tribal Resistance / Kevin Energy
23. Alanamra (Arkitech Remix) / Alek Szahala
24. Cyclone 2 / Carbon Based & DJ Rx
25. 4th Dimension / Epyx & Cyrez
26. Voices Of Babylon / Alek Szahala
27. Hellion / Alabaster
PlasmaDancer – Dreams Into Harder, November 2010 by PlasmaDancer
It turns out that my Dreams Into Harder set is getting some surprisingly good feedback, so I’ve decided to put it up on SoundCloud for anyone who missed the original post. A few people have said that it sounds ‘fresh’, which luckily is just what I was going for – most of the tunes are hardly what you’d call new, but it was a fun break from the post-summer wasteland of the freeform scene.
I’m still rounding up tunes for the next mix, but I’m hoping to be done with it around the end of January. Fear not though, that one’ll be NRG/freeform-only.
This wasn’t the final post of the year that I was hoping for, but there’ll be some customary ‘Top 3’ lists coming in the next couple of days, as well as another post for the budding producers out there. For now then, massive thanks to everyone who has visited TYFTH in 2010 – this year it feels like people have really helped out/contributed more than ever, and of course I’m really grateful. Hopefully once the next mix is out and the TYFTH ‘free label’ gets into its stride (both on the to-do list for next month), we’ll have a few more recruits to the great little crew we’re building up here.
Happy New Year!
I’m really happy to give Matt England’s new blog a shout here – Freeform Sound will be covering all sorts of interesting stuff, with a focus on production tips, interviews and track showcases. It’s hard to be anything but impressed with Matt’s sound these days, and this new project definitely deserves some support.
Take a look at the latest posts here.
Last weekend was Dreams Into Harder, and despite the really low turnout/bit of admin chaos it was all great fun to take part in. In the end it turned out to be a good choice to go with breakbeat hardcore, what with everyone else playing high bpm trancey happy hardcore.
Standout set was DJ 490’s very technical happy hardcore, with NEMO’s Scouse House a close second. DJ Minagi’s Anison (anime soundtrack!) and hard trance was a thing to behold – I didn’t have a clue what was going on half the time, but he mixed it all amazingly well. My set was so much fun to play that I actually re-recorded it at home last night – click below for the tracklist/mp3 and some photos from the event.