For one reason or another this post was interrupted last week, so before I get completely left behind here’s a brief-ish roundup of Munted! Monthly! Episode 7.

Le Dos-on started things off with an excellent set of his own productions. As is common with one-artist-only mixes, the focus was on the selection rather than transitions, but this was the perfect showcase of Le Dos-on’s style for those who might not be too familiar with his newer tunes.

With influences ranging from Alek Szahala to Hybridize via UK and Japanese freeform, he’s successfully forging a very distinctive sound – starting this time with one of my tunes of the year, the fabulous Intro (epatoivo). The second half of the set leans towards the lighter side of things (the wonderful Le and Sena aside), but his melancholy/darker tracks are just about a match for anything you’ll hear these days.

1. Intro(epatoivo)
2. Stance-Another Story-
3. Aurora
4. yksisarvinen
5. toivomus
6. Mental Madness
7. TRANSFORMER
8. Silver Rain
9. Sky
10. Le
11. Sena

Dyzphazia followed with another nice set full of variety, starting with some merrier melodies that gradually darkened up into a quality selection of Finnish/UK melodic filters. Fans of the newer FINRG artists will definitely enjoy this one, but there’s also the clever selection of Fisheye into Gravity’s Rainbow to add something different towards the end.

[Download here]

1. Entity Vs. Autumn Nights – Fallen Souls
2. Star Driver Pres. Nightforce Ft. Yuna-X – Fallen Angel
3. DJ Rx – Code of Silence (Epyx & Cyrez Remix)
4. DJ Noriken – Moonlight Cluster [Druggy’s Acid Rack]
5. Substanced Alchemiist – Skullcrush (Transcend & Dyzphazia Remix)
6. Horzi – Human Hater
7. Transcend – Upwards
8. Substanced & J-Mx – Flawless Victory
9. DJ Rx – Fisheye
10. Betwixt & Between – Gravity’s Rainbow
11. Amini – Aminus
12. Helikaon vs. Ephexis – Iliad

We’ve already mentioned Substanced’s set, and Midas followed that up with a nicely mixed hour of big kick and gabber. Since the death of Tokyo Hardcore Construction I haven’t heard much from these styles, so this was a very nice interlude from the Finnish/Japanese sounds elsewhere. The final third had some especially heavy tunes, a few of which I recognised…

I was next, and in a lucky coincidence I had chosen to start off with some fairly hefty Proteus tracks, making the transition from Midas’ set nice and smooth. For this set’s preparation I was really pressed for time, and made just one recording (rather than the million or so I usually go for). Inevitably that gives the set more of a ‘live feel’, which let’s face it is just a euphemism for ‘more mistakes than a studio set’. Overall though, I’m very happy with it, even if I would have loved to continue the dark atmosphere of the first half…

The original plan was to finally come up with a mix that could match Yamanote or Monogatari 1 for darkness, but I simply ran out of preparation time and had to fall back on my trusty melodic melancholy for the second half. As it happens, the Unohdetut – The End of All Things section was lifted from my 10 Years of FINRG set, and initially the move from the darkness of the earlier tunes to Unohdetut felt quite jarring to me. I tried to rescue things with a tease of the piano melody during Syxautik, but either way the flow of the set has since grown on me a bit. It’s certainly better than the Psychopath – For All You Heavy Hearted connection, which is pretty slapdash by anyone’s standards.

A couple of other connections are remnants of my 10 Years of FINRG prep, including gXX-XeY-XQn 2010 – Freezing Clouds. I decided early on that I wanted to use FC in Lahti, and after spending half a day or so searching out the right Qygen track I became slightly obsessed with fitting it in at all costs. In the end I gave up after panicking over how much time it was all taking, but luckily here I quickly stumbled on a way to include it in that first seven track sequence. Brionac also saved the day once again – being unfinished means there isn’t a great deal going on during the intro/outro, making it fantastically simple to mix, while I thought the slightly mad jangly melodies at the start of the breakdown might follow on nicely from the trippiness of FC.

Not playing last this time, I decided against a super bombastic finish (especially as I knew how Betwixt’s set was going to begin). Instead I thought the Suicide Machine – Mekhanika Child combo would have a bit of promo surprise value while not being too brutal a lead into Out of Blue.

Anyway, while it wasn’t my best set ever, it was nice to see that different sections of the set seemed to go down well with different members of the Krafty chatroom, and I hope I (occasionally) succeeded in my usual mission of putting together a mix that rewards a few extra listens.

Finally, heartfelt thanks to both Proteus and Alek Szahala, as without their help and the kind use of their tracks I really would have been stuck for inspiration this time around. Thanks also to Nomic for his constant help, as well as to Chip, Midas, and all the Munted! crew and listeners for the support – it really was an honour to be asked back. Special thanks to all the Horsers present – Allfonquez deserves a Golden Horse of Honour for some phenomenal track IDing, while it’s always entertaining to see Bern’s deadpan wit unleashed on an unsuspecting Krafty chatroom.

01. ADAM Lab 4 – Psychopath (Proteus Hard Boiled remix)

02. Black Light Discipline – For All You Heavy Hearted (Proteus Soittoversio Remix)

03. Alek Szahala – Vengeance 2007

04. Qygen – gXX-XeY-XQn 2010

05. Alek Szahala – Freezing Clouds

06. Hase – Brionac

07. Twisted Freq – Syxautik

08. Epyx & Cyrez – Unohdetut 2011

09. Nomic – Chaos Maker

10. Betwixt & Between – Matter of Fact

11. Substanced – The End of All Things (Aryx remix)

12. Yuki Kajiura – Mezame (Nomic bootleg remix)

13. Betwixt & Between – Dust to Dust

14. Nomic – Suicide Machine

15. Nomic – Mekhanika Child

The event finished with Betwixt & Between’s live recording, an excellent high-bpm set of his danceable modern tracks. By this time of the night it seemed like the European listeners were feeling the strain, with a few heading off to bed before the end of the hour. Still, those who remained seemed to enjoy it, and the recording will surely introduce a few more freeform fans to the variety and quality of Betwixt’s current sound.

1. BTW with Takashi Shinto – Out of Blue
2. BTW – Wandering of Tankobuhesotaro
3. Vice Tek Heavy Industry – 3m3sys 3
4. BTW – ULTRA WORLD 6
5. BTW – Point of No Return
6. BTW – So Sweet Bitter Days
7. BTW – Zusammengehorigkeit
8. RANK 1 – Airwave (BTW’s hard re:Boot)
9. BTW – Tout est Bien (Sein zum Tode)
10. BTW – Hydra (long)
11. BTW with Yukacco – Nothing Compares 2 You