Thank You For The Horse Live, tonight @11pm (Japan time)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 15, 2011
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. 8 comments

I’m guessing that there might be a few people who haven’t yet got their hands on the new Betwixt & Between and Alabaster albums, so tonight I’ll be playing a Ustream showcase of the two (plus a few other bits and pieces). Nothing’s very organised yet, but I’ll have a rummage around and see what I can come up with before 11pm.

edit: Thanks to everyone who stopped by last night – it was tough to come up with a ‘set’ in the 90 minutes before I started, but I got at least a few of the new tracks in. As requested, here’s the tracklist for the main part of the show.

01. Outro [Pure Existence]
02. Betwixt & Between – Paradoxical Silence [Nanosecond Eternity]
03. Alabaster – Black Border [Pure Existence]
04. Betwixt & Between – Out of Blue [Nanosecond Eternity]
05. Betwixt & Between – Enter the Void [東方酒乱集]
06. Betwixt & Between vs Teranoid – CG25 [Pure Existence]
07. Alabaster – Zealot (Edit) [Rust World]
08. Alabaster – Acid Maker [Deus]
09. Betwixt & Between – Isolation [Nanosecond Eternity]
10. Betwixt & Between – The Moon from Below [Scarlet Eyes]
11. Alabaster – Forgotten Ancient (Remix) [Rust World]
12. Alabaster – Hellion [Deus]
13. Betwixt & Between – City of Solitude [Nanosecond Eternity]
14. Alabaster – Revenant (Album edit) [Deus]
15. Alabaster – Void [Hardcore Syndrome 2]
16. Betwixt & Between – Disturbed Mind [Promo]
17. Poly Calamity – Opkiklo [Pure Existence]
18. Betwixt & Between – Gravity’s Rainbow [Nanosecond Eternity]
19. Betwixt & Between – ? [Promo]

Betwixt & Between @THC, 27th December / Hardcore Regiment @Nitro X, 10th December

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 15, 2011
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 2 comments

Both of these events took place last month, and for one reason or another both had truly woeful attendance. Some sneaky camera angles disguise it pretty well, but (unfortunately) I’m easy enough to spot at the beginning of the Nitro X clip.

A shame that nobody was around for Betwixt’s THC set – it was a mix of his TOTAL DISCOMMUNICATION and Nanosecond Eternity tracks – but that’s what comes of holding the event on a weekday, I suppose.

Top 3 tracks of 2010

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 10, 2011
Posted in: Japanese, Top Tens. 16 comments

Sorry for the long delay in getting this together, but it turned out to be quite a task to get the Japanese view on the scene this time around. Quite a few DJs have abandoned freeform for other genres in the last few months, and as things stand it might only be me, Betwixt & Between and Alabaster who are regularly playing sets.

Anyway, there’s plenty of variety this time, from dark psy to melodic drum and bass – and once again there are a lot of unfamiliar tunes for me to check out. Massive thanks to all the DJs/artists for making the effort to choose three.

My own picks will be at the end of the post, but I’m just as interested to see what everyone else thought of last year’s tunes. Feel free to add your own!

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Alabaster – Happy New Year 2011

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 10, 2011
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 1 comment

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

Download here

Dreams Into Harder set on SoundCloud

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 31, 2010
Posted in: Canadian, Drum & Bass, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 2 comments

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!

Thank You For The Horse Live

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 31, 2010
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 4 comments

This one is unannounced, but as I’m in the mood to play a few tunes, why not stream it too? In a few minutes’ time I’ll be playing a bit of hard NRG/freeform, so I’ll leave the stream open here too. Anyone who happens to stop by, feel free to say hi!

I’m in the middle of planning a new set, but I’m keeping it secret for now, and there won’t be many (if any) of those tunes on show today.

Proteus – Frantic New Year’s Day 2011

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 26, 2010
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Mixes. 4 comments

Belated Merry Christmas to everyone on TYFTH, I hope it’s turning out to be a good one. All being well, we should have a few more posts to come before the end of the year –  let’s start things off with another new set, this time from Proteus. This one was mixed to promote the Frantic NYD event in London, so arguably it’s aimed at more of a mainstream hard dance audience, but there are as many blinding tunes as you’d usually expect. No tracklist, but as the set opens with Fist of the North Star and features Hesotarou Tankobu towards the end, you know it’s one to check out.

edit: Many thanks to Nisse for taking the time to put a very-close-to-complete tracklist together. If anyone has an idea what the missing tunes might be, let us know…

edit 2: Belated thanks to Technoid for the ID on track 10!

1. Proteus – Fist of the North Star
2. Wragg & Log:One – Enemies of Earth
3. Public Domain Soundsystem – Automatic Audio Overload (The Machine Mix)
4. ?
5. Andrea Montorsi ft Diana J – Phantasy
6. Force 9 – Boomin (Wragg & Log:One Remix)
7. Studio X – The Drill (Proteus Remix)
8. Satronica – Blood On Fire (Waldhaus Remix)
9. Betwixt & Between – The Wander of Hesotarou Tankobu (Proteus Remix)
10. Satronica – Shivered
Download it (along with some other hard dance sets, if you’re that way inclined) here.

Alek Szahala – Live @Blacklight 2010, 30th October

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 23, 2010
Posted in: Canadian, Events, Finnish, Mixes. 10 comments

Just when it was turning into one of those weeks for freeform, here we have a brand new set from Alek Szahala to keep us going into the new year. This one was recorded during Alek’s recent gig in Canada, and there’s plenty of new/updated material along with staples like Maruuk and Iron Squid. Listen out for the slightly Nomic-esque breakcore (?) track in the second half – it stands out a little in amongst all the freeform, but it’s a very nice experimental tune. The excellent Starcrossed and what I think is a reworking of his Baldur’s Gate II remix are other new tunes, while Phobos is sounding as incredible as ever.

You’d have to be mad not to give this a listen – here’s a tracklist of what I recognise so far, thanks to Jiipez for the help!

  1. Alek Szahala – Ascend to the Stars
  2. Alek Szahala – Astraia
  3. Alek Szahala -Deimos
  4. Alek Szahala – Maruuk
  5. Alek Szahala – Lagash
  6. Alek Szahala – Iron Squid
  7. Alek Szahala -Wraithverge
  8. Alek Szahala – Starcrossed
  9. Alek Szahala – Vengeance (2007 edit)
  10. Alek Szahala – Pax Eranae
  11. Chanel 5 – Never Forget (Alek Szahala remake)

Download here

Betwixt & Between – Nanosecond Eternity

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 19, 2010
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Releases. 6 comments

Some people have already picked up on what must be the biggest news for a long time, but if this isn’t worth a full post I don’t know what is – Betwixt & Between’s first solo album. Titled Nanosecond Eternity, the CD includes 12 tracks, most of which are brand new material. The tracklist starts of with the now-classic Hesotarou Tankobu, finishes with Proteus’ new remix, and also includes City of Solitude and an extended mix of hydra.

It looks like the release is set for early next month, and will be available via Hardcore Tano*C’s webstore and even Amazon Japan. Massive congrats to Betwixt on what has been a long process to get this finished – make sure to show your support once it launches!