A new Alabaster track is always an event these days, and I’m extremely glad to say that Galaxy is the track to complete the first CD. Alabaster’s production and composition have both made huge strides over the years, and this track has to be up among his very best – the energy and distinctive filtering is there as always, but here the chords and melodies really are next level.

Some have compared the melodies to Qygen, while for me the atmosphere takes things in the Grimsoul-esque direction that I always thought he might manage. The track is distinctively his, though, and it’s a more than worthy way to end CD 1 on a beautiful, uplifting note.

Some will have heard a preview already in my set with Shimotsukei (a sign that I expected the album to have long since released by now), and reactions in chat confirmed what I already thought – this is another top quality addition to the tracklist.

Back to Japanese sounds for the next track – some darker, experimental freeform from Morita Yuuhei. I love the ominous atmosphere of The Ghost as it works through the filters and strings, and there’s a real feel of ‘FINRG meets Kreatrix’ throughout the track. The brutal midsection is obviously inspired by his success in the hardcore scene, but fits right in with the rest of the darkness.

Brionac will definitely be the most familar track on the compilation to most people, both from my sets and elsewhere as various promo versions have been floating around for a while now. Here though is Hase’s definitive final version, professionally mastered to bring it right up to 2016 levels.

There’s no doubt that this has been one of my favourite tracks of the past few years, and I’m extremely happy that Hase’s glorious sound will finally see a wider audience.

Back when thoughts of TYFTH as a label were in the very earliest stages, Guld was the first person I went to for opinions. Not only did he come up with some quality advice and encouragement, when the time later came for submissions he went well beyond the call of duty with Perkele!, which might be one of his best tracks so far.

More than keeping up the production levels of his recent releases, Perkele! does something a bit different with its deeper breakdown and a really brutal finale (not in the preview, but it’s worth waiting for). Some cheeky sampling and nods to the classic Nightmare Freak add a extra element to the manic filters, a great combination.

In Praise of Shadows’ second track will hopefully be a nice surprise to anyone who fell in love with Four Beast, One Immortal and the rest of Einhander’s ferocious, twisted NRG. He’s back, and I’m honoured that Einhander has agreed to make both a return to NRG and his first official release on Thank You For The Horse.

I can honestly say that I love every track on the compilation, but Storm Coming has to be very close to the top of the list. The aggression, industrial percussion and crazed filters couldn’t be better, and even the intro/outro is a step above most NRG tracks. Playing after Alek Szahala at CODEX last year, there’s a reason I used Storm Coming as the opener – even unmastered it laid down a marker that kept the crowd with me from the start.

As an aside, massive thanks to everyone for the support on the TYFTH Facebook page. It was so encouraging to see how enthusiastic everyone is for the release, and I just want to get things finished up as soon as possible. I’ve gone ahead and said a ‘summer’ release date, which whether it ends up being next month or August is almost certainly doable.

See you tomorrow for track 3!