It’s been a struggle to keep this (fairly) quiet until now, but it’s finally time to announce TYFTH’s new direction – while the site will continue to be a welcoming place for fans of darker, deeper NRG and freeform (and will hopefully do a better job of that in the months to come), 2015 is the year that TYFTH finally steps up and becomes a fully-fledged label, supporting the scene in the way I always hoped it might.
While a cluster of newer labels have been doing a fine job of carrying the torch since FINRG’s lower profile in the scene, the number of artists producing twisted, melancholy and darker material has definitely dropped. It really feels like time, then, for TYFTH to become what I think is a label that’ll do its bit to help reinvigorate the sound we love.
The basic TYFTH mission statement is to bring back the dark, beautiful, otherworldly sounds that made me fall in love with NRG and freeform all those years ago, but with modern production that does the artists’ ideas justice. Albums like Khaotic Dimension and FINRG’s Hakkapeliitta were the reasons that many of us got into the scene, and TYFTH will be aiming high and using them for inspiration.
The first release on TYFTH will be an ‘invitation only’ CD compilation titled In Praise of Shadows, featuring 11 Finnish and Japanese tracks. All but two (carefully selected tracks) have been specially commissioned for the album. The artists have done a fabulous job of rising to the challenge, with plenty commenting how enjoyable it has been to ’travel back in time’ to revisit the atmosphere of years past. Massive thanks to everyone for buying into the concept of the label – I couldn’t have wished for a better response.
At this stage things are actually more advanced that you might expect – all the tracks for TYFTH’s first release have been submitted, and mastering is underway. The first track is an awesome return to production by Proteus – Monochrome is a dark, aggressive mix of industrial and NRG, and will start the compilation at 150bpm. Check it out right now on Proteus’ SoundCloud, and keep an ear on the TYFTH SoundCloud for previews of others over the next month or two.
The other tracks run through all the sounds you’d expect of TYFTH, with everything from angry filtered NRG to melancholy freeform via some dark, unusual detours. The list of artists involved is honestly as good as you’ll see anywhere – I can’t wait to share the full lineup.
Finally for now, a quick word on CD vs digital. I’m 100% with Smiling Corpse and their appreciation for the physical product, and TYFTH will be releasing albums with art, design and presentation that matches the quality of the music. The commissioned cover art is complete and utterly fantastic, doing full justice to the atmosphere (and title) of the compilation. ‘In Praise of Shadows’ will hopefully have a physical as well as musical presence that puts the Finnish/Japanese sounds back where they deserve to be – at the forefront of the scene.
It goes without saying that I’ll be keeping everyone informed on here as things develop, and if things go to plan (which, as I’ve already discovered, they rarely do), the first release will be ready around the end of this year/early 2016. November will tell me a lot about that, one way or the other, and you’ll all be the first to know.
I hope the TYFTH crew are as excited about this as I am – we’ve always had a brilliant group of people here, and your feedback/constructive opinions are 100% welcome. Without everyone’s support here and elsewhere over the years, this (possibly mad) project wouldn’t have gone past the daydream stage, but I’m very glad it has.
Plenty more still to announce, so updates will be coming soon.
Ah, so this is the “upcoming change” that you were talking about a while back… Great news, mate. I’m very excited about this. 🙂
Great news Jon! Loving Monochrome. Will we finally see the long-time-coming Plasmadancer track you’ve been working on for the last 5 years or so? 😀
Finally it’s announced! Wonderful!
whoaa!!! Very impressive track from proteus,
Looking forward to hear the rest of the cd
You ever need a track just let me know!! Love this so much!!
Awesome news! :DDDDD
The wait is going to kill me, but it is worth it
Keep up the good work Jon!
Awesome news! Good work Jon, can’t wait for this 🙂
Yes!! So chuffed about this, fantastic news and I can’t wait to hear it. Great title too! How are you going to go about the invitations?
Fantastic stuff, Jon! I wish you all the best with this project 🙂
This is fantastic news Jon, well done!! I think I speak for a few horsers when I say we have fallen out of love with Freeform over the last couple of years simply down to a lack of new and exciting dark material… This will certainly fill the void! 🙂
Tip of the hat to everyone, thanks for the comments so far!
Alderz is probably right that many of us are struggling to find newer tracks that really live up to previous years – and even if we do, they’re often hidden away inside releases that aren’t really catering to the deeper/darker crew. Hopefully this first release is a step towards rebalancing that 🙂
It would be nice to spruce up the site as part of all this, but the help I was expecting with that won’t be happening after all, and so it has dropped down the priority list. There’ll obviously be an eventual place to purchase the CD, but more general community stuff (like a small forum) have been planned for an age and it’d be cool if they can coincide with the first release. I’ll let you know 🙂
Chip – I actually have a couple of bits and pieces that are almost playable (heard that one before), but now with label shenanigans added to the to-do list they might not see a set for a while yet…
evolutionize – I will 100% keep that in mind! This isn’t all about partying like it’s 2006 and forgetting about all the great artists we’ve had since FINRG slowed down. Keeping the spirit of older freeform alive, and inspiring younger artists to use it in their own way is a winning combo, I think.
Mysterave – Thanks a lot! Full disclosure is that I’ve ‘borrowed’ it from an essay by Junichiro Tanizaki called In’ei Raisan, and translated as In Praise of Shadows. Think it fits the idea of the album pretty well, so hopefully I can get away with using it!
As for the invitations, it was very hard – but having decided on that ‘mission statement’ I came up with a long list of people I thought could give it a good go and come up with something great. As it happens, everyone at the top of the list was totally up for it and got back to me right away, so there are still plenty of other artists that I’ve got in mind, if this first project goes without too many calamities 🙂
I was thinking it might be nice to let you know what’s going on with the project over the next few weeks, so there’ll be a few updates on the state of the project here and there – I’ll be back to posting about other stuff once this week is over with, too. Feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions or good ideas, but for now it’s time for some social media announcements and then back to CODEX prep!
I’m sure Dave/Wyrm would be happy to help you spruce up t’orse btw 🙂
Cool – exciting project!
Pearsall – Thanks, potential Rampage mix material aplenty, I hope!
And Chip, good idea – I had the same thought, so Dave has already been going beyong the call of duty with advice so far 🙂
This is very exciting news! I’m with alderz I haven’t really wanted to do much with freeform this year, good releases have been too few and too far between. I can’t wait to see what you rustle up Jon, keep us posted.
awesome news! will definitely buy as soon as it drops!
This sounds very promising! I’ll be more than happy to contribute to the well-being of the label and buying… I don’t know, 3 copies of the first album could be a good start. 🙂
I wish the best of luck to you in this project. It’s about time someone takes charge and pulls the deepest and most complex music of the genre to the fore.
So this is what you’ve been up to…! A bit late to the party here, but these are some great news indeed, Jon.
Knowing you there’s no way the track lineup will be anything but excellent. Really hoping to see another PlasmaDancer production on there as well. 😉
Thanks a lot everyone! Feeling the pressure of expectations, but in a good way – the support so far is awesome, and I’ll be doing my best to make sure the album lives up to it 🙂
eirik, sadly there won’t be a PD tune on there this time…might play one of my efforts at the next CODEX, but can’t imagine releasing anything for a long, long while yet!
Noticed this a bit late, but hey congrats this is awesome!
Keep the flame of Underground burning.
support+respekt
It’s been a while since I last time commented here, but now I have to, because you know, this is news, big news! 🙂
I also have to agree with many others here. It kinda feels that after FINRG’s shift to being, as PD put it, a lower profile player in the game, there’s been kind of a diaspora in the scene and it has left a hole for a channel focusing on the “old sound” – and this is a great opportunity to fill it. I myself have not been in touch with the freeform scene much in the past years, but now I think there probably is a good reason to.
Also, I have to mention that I’m not entirely surprised by this. Not trying to be a lame-ass by saying “oh I saw this coming”, but I remember that some years ago I had thought myself that “what it would be like if TYFTH were a label” 😀 And I think it’s just logical, you have well established name in the scene and now that there is a demand I think this is a great move indeed! And I really can’t come up with a better name for a freeform label than TYFTH 😛
So congrats and keep up the good work Jon!
Thanks guys, and sorry about the belated response. It’s especially good to hear from you Jiipez, another good sign that it’s caught your interest 🙂
That was my thinking too, the time really does seem right, and the response from the artists and you fine folk shows that my confidence in the TYFTH ‘name’ these days wasn’t misplaced. Not going to magically transform the scene with a single release (though it has happened in the past…), but it’s pretty darn close to a dream first step. Let’s see how it goes..
Oh and you’re spot on re. the freeform diaspora these days – it’d be great to see the Freeform Forum gather that up, but in the meantime I’m seriously thinking about a small forum for the Horsers to make a bit more of a community.