CODEX6, 1st November @Shibuya R-Lounge

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 3, 2015
Posted in: Events, Japanese, UK. Leave a Comment

Sorry that posts have been thin on the ground once again – something that’s long overdue a mention is the next installment of CODEX, now a mere month away and featuring another quality lineup.

A quick glance will show you that this is one for the UK freeform fans, with A.B. from Stamina Records and Cyrax of Project Badass headlining as guests. There’s a sizeable UK freeform following in Tokyo, which should make for a lively atmosphere of a different sort than during Alek’s appearance in August. I’m also looking forward to Le Dos-on’s set under his ‘Hyphen’ alias, and raqhow’s b2b with Sige on his CODEX debut.

Hopefully there’ll still be some interest in the dark side, as I’m aiming for melancholy aplenty this time around. Great to see Asahi on the lineup too, nicely balancing out the sounds on offer with some more Finnish support.

CODEX6 with STAMINA Records & Project Badass

Place : R-Lounge 6F Shibuya
START : 2015 / 11 / 01 (SUN) 13:00 ～
Door:2500YEN(+1Drink)
W/F or Guest :2000YEN(+1Drink)

/_/_/ Special Guests DJs/_/_/
A.B (STAMINA Records,UK)

Cyrax (Project Badass,UK)

/_/_/ DJs/_/_/
raqhow (CODEX / Freeform Bros.) vs Sige(Sapporo Hardcore channel)

NONAKA+CHIN (SPREEMO / Freeform Bros)

Hyphen (Splash Energy/SOLIDBOX RECORDS)

Plasmadancer (FINRG Recordings / NRGeticRomancer)

Alabaster (Cradle to Grave)

Asahi (Operation -業-)

/_/_/ VJs /_/_/
VJ ALE (RisingGENERATION / deeepa)

Manabirds (RisingGENERATION / iNSRiRE)

/_/_/ Photo /_/_/
Mizuho

SINISTRY: House of Horrors, 31st October (Elektrowerkz, London)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 26, 2015
Posted in: Events, UK. 6 comments

If you’re reading this then you’ll surely be familiar with the sets of long-time Horser and darker freeform specialist Alderz, and so next month’s Sinistry should be firmly marked into your calendar.

Alderz has been booked to play the freeform floor, guaranteeing some quality tracks from the dark side (which you’d think is what a Sinistry on Halloween should be all about, after all). Massive congrats to him, and there’ll be even more TYFTH-friendly sounds from Smiling Corpse’s Olly Addictive, representing his label and our corner of the scene.

Headlining a strong-looking hard dance floor is Lab 4, presumably with an old-skool set of the sort that did the business at Ageha last year.

Aryx – Port of Adia

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 23, 2015
Posted in: Releases, UK. 4 comments

Following Alek Szahala and Alchemiist’s tracks we have another reason to consider the UK-centric Freeform Family album with Aryx’s Port of Adia. Any release that includes new Aryx material deserves some support – we desperately need more tracks of this depth and quality.

Dyzphazia – Hardcore Summer Bash 2015

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 16, 2015
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 1 comment

Hardcore Summer Bash 2015 was a great event, but as so often happens when there’s a flood of good sets, some tend to get overlooked. Dyzphazia’s set has been on my radar for ages, and now I’ve finally checked it out it’s most definitely deserving of a mention here.

This is probably the first set for many months that has a tracklist that I’m 100% interested in – if you’re pining for the golden age of FINRG and the wonderful showcase sets we would regularly hear a few years ago, then delay no further and give this one a listen.

These tracks have been around for a long, long time (still sounding as glorious as ever, I’d add), and some rock-solid mixing shows how comfortable Dyzphazia is with a lot of these. There are some gentle shifts from one key to the next to keep the variety up, while hitting the sweet spot between the melancholy melodies and darker tracks.

The whole set is an excellent listen, but the selection of Savage Man coincides with what I think is the smoothest sequence of tunes – following it up with Tindaros and then Fisheye pretty much has it all. A nostalgic trip for most of us, and an excellent primer for anyone else who has joined the scene more recently, this one comes very highly recommended.

Alek Szahala – Megatherium

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 9, 2015
Posted in: Finnish, Releases, UK. 6 comments

Megatherium is one of Alek Szhala’s newest tracks, appearing in a couple of recent podcasts and now set for release on Freeform Family, a 3 CD compilation from Stamina, ReBuild and A-Tech.

Early signs are that the other inclusions are (understandably) very UK-freeform-centric, but Megatherium does a fine job of striking a balance between dancefloor-friendly melodies and the psychedelic madness that Alek does best. A release to look out for, then, and in fact it can already be pre-ordered via the Stamina site.

Dark Dimension 1st Compilation tracklist

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 9, 2015
Posted in: Events, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Releases. 1 comment

Following on from the last post, here’s the tracklist for the upcoming Dark Dimension compilation. Turns out that Guld will be contributing two tracks, his new remix of Dryad Machine and what’s hopefully a remastered version of the Lamento della Sirena remix.

I’m also looking forward to Evil Fairy and Suke’s tracks, and it looks like there’ll be some interesting industrial tracks from Takuya Angel, Sisen and MonSiii.

Dark Dimension CD Compilation

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 2, 2015
Posted in: Events, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Releases. 1 comment

Dark Dimension has been doing a superb job over the past few years of supporting Tokyo’s darker music scenes, with everything from industrial to NRG featured at one time or another. Next month’s event is a special one though, marking the release of the first Dark Dimension CD release.

The full tracklist is still unannounced, but some of the biggest names to appear at DD will be on there, including Sisen, Takuya Angel, Satoshi Honjou and (until now) non-producing DJs such as Akira and Ray Trak. Most interesting for the TYFTH crew will probably be Guld’s track, and I’ll be sure to post again once more tracklist info shows up.

I’ll be getting the CD on the day, but for those outside Japan there’ll be a chance to buy it too – that is if you happen to be in Germany (Essen, specifically) on the 17th-18th October. Takuya Angel will be playing at the Astan Asia Days event, and will have some CDs for sale there.

Alek Szahala @Detonation Hard Drive 2015 (Summer Session)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 31, 2015
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Mixes. 2 comments

Should really have mentioned this by now, but if you missed Alek Szahala’s appearance on Detonation Hard Drive’s Summer Session then you’re in for another treat.

The tracklist is similar at first glance to Alek’s CODEX Live PA, but there are some surprises in the form of a beautiful intro leading into a very trance-styled first track, and the very, very welcome appearance of Ngarnuuk in the wonderful final third of the set.

Epyx & Cyrez – The Golden Oldies

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 28, 2015
Posted in: Finnish, Releases, Swedish. 2 comments

Not much seems to have been going on this month, so let’s change that with a cluster of older, unreleased Epyx & Cyrez tunes. The standout for me is Typhoon – if I recall correctly the project files went AWOL at the time, so denying the scene a full-quality version of one of E&C’s finest ‘nasty melodic’ tracks. This is definitely better than nothing though, giving us a listen of the glorious (and now, tragically, slightly old school) filtering and that beautiful second breakdown – one of my very favourite Epyx & Cyrez moments.

The other two tracks here are fine examples of E&C’s brand of NRG, with Desolation really hitting its stride after the breakdown and the thumping Make Him Pay impressing with a hint of the original Risk Addiction.

Also worth mentioning that All of Us, Epyx & Cyrez’s excellent collab with Heathen, is now available again via Cyrez’s SoundCloud.

Watchtower Vol. 3

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 1, 2015
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Finnish, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Releases, UK, USA. Leave a Comment

Watchtower Vo. 3 is finally emerging Rip Van Winkle-like from schedule stasis, with two CDs of high quality freeform and NRG. For TYFTH purposes the best news is the appearance of two brilliant Japanese tracks in Guld’s remix of Hatral and Le Dos-on’s Chemical Wash, but there’s also a very strong Finnish showing from Alek Szahala, Alchemiist, Grimsoul, Substanced, and Epyx & Cyrez / Tyranoid & Strongstream. Throw in some great tracks from Qygen and Aryx, and there’s a lot of material here for our side of the freeform spectrum, plus the expected new releases from Transcend, Lost Soul et al. A must buy, then, and preorders are already open on the Watchtower site, with the release a few days away.