I’ve already seen some photos from this weekend’s FINRG & FUTURISTICS in Tampere, and at the time of writing you’ve still got a chance to download Epyx & Cyrez’s mix to tie in with the event.
This is one of those rare sets that I haven’t listened to all the way through before posting, but from my quick check of the connections it was sounding fantastic – heavy on the NRG and a transition from Alek Szahala’s Mageslayer that’s really top level. Grab it while you can!
Quite busy at the moment, but in between I’m slowly working through some of the excellent sets that have appeared over the past couple of weeks, starting with Tyranoid’s Hardform.
This might be one of his most impressive sets so far, with a very strong theme running all the way through and a great mix of old and new. Really interesting to see some UK freeform in there – it’s thankfully not overdone and gives a nice melodic edge to the set, eventually leading into the classic Battle of Dawn. It’s also a lesson in how to set the scene with some slower tracks, then matching them in atmosphere with some well-selected freeform. Very highly recommended, then.
01 Lowroller – No Longer Human
02 SAM – Halluzinogen
03 Tiifa – Pleasure
04 Wragg & Log:One vs Iain Cross – Run For Cover
05 A+D+A+M+ Lab4 & The DiabloTraxx Collective – Infernal Desire (Psycho Surgery Remix)
06 Epyx & Cyrez – Game Over (Tyranoid/Strongstream Remix)
07 Lost Soul – The Answer
08 Douglas – Jonestown
09 Substanced & Alchemiist – Permission To Die (Original/Tornadoz Remix Mashup)
10 Tyranoid/Strongstream – Deepcore (unfinished edit)
11 Tyranoid/Strongstream – You Need Another Drink (Cyrez Remix)
12 Lost Soul – Human Being
13 Epyx & Cyrez – Crossfire
14 Blender & Nomic – Battle Of Dawn
15 Apollo 440 – Stealth Overture
We already know that Alchemiist sets are worth looking out for, and thankfully his recent Freeformaniacs appearance has kept up the standard. There’s a really nice atmosphere in this one, maybe best described as melodic dark freeform – any set with a lot of Alchemiist tunes is going to be pretty nasty, but this one does a good job of switching back to the slightly-lighter side to throw in some melodies. Excellent use of a couple of classic Kreatrix tracks gets the set an extra thumb up.
01. Substanced – Ghost Of The Future (Alchemiist Remix)
02. Transcend & Dyzphazia – Tormenting Flames (Original Mix)
03. Twisted Freq pres. Nightforce – The Ghost Of Jupiter
04. Substanced – Damage Point
05. Ephexis, DJ Rx & Carbon Based – Decimator
06. Alchemiist – Anthrax Injection
07. Alchemiist – Noise Of Thunder
08. Substanced & Alchemiist – Facemelt
09. Twisted Freq – Kreation
10. Endemic – Xen
11. Alchemiist – Neurotic
It’s been a while since we heard from Decion, so here’s a short but atmospheric clip from the end of last year. The trancier-than-usual track in the background is High Contrast by Matt Rains.
One of those tracks that I thought had already been released, the DJ-friendlier version of Silver Cube is now available via FINRG. Most will have seen it already, a must-download if ever there was one.
During the last Munted! I mentioned that I’ve been working (very occasionally) on a goa set, and that Japanese producer K.U.R.O’s tracks were some of the best examples of dark goa I’ve found so far. It seems like the subgenre doesn’t really exist, but one day I’d love to put together a set of darker melodic goa that doesn’t just drift into the droning technical nuttiness of dark psy. I’ve only got 3 or 4 connections I’m happy with so far, but let’s see if I can get it done sometime this year.
K.U.R.O. released a digital-only goa album called Conception last year, which included updated versions of his Zombie Family tracks (minus the brilliant-but-short Hard Zombie). As it happens though, I prefer the original version of Red Zombie, an excellent dark track that just about stays on the goa side of the goa-psytrance divide with some great Ka-Sol-esque melodic filtering. The kick’s harder here too, but sadly the original Zombie Family were only 160kbps releases.
If the goa fans here have suggestions for any other darker tunes I’d love to hear them.
Just a preview at the moment, but Alchemiist’s Neurotic is definitely one to watch out for. I’m not always keen on freeform with drum and bass in the breakdown, but Alchemiist’s done a brilliant job here of blending the genres and creating a nice dark atmosphere.
It’s been tough not to mention this until now, but in June I’ll be joining forces with the Munted! crew again for my first UK set! The event will be Munted’s first of the year, and I’m sure everyone will agree that the lineup’s looking pretty fantastic. Headlining is UK legend Sharkey, followed by UK freeform stalwart Douglas, but here at TYFTH we have to give special, massive kudos to the Munted! crew for supporting the deeper side of the freeform sound with the booking of Aryx and Endemic. Midas is also no stranger to our corner of the scene, while the UK crew are well catered for with Arkitech, A.B and Laith.
I’ll obviously be doing my very best to show what the darker, emotional side of freeform can do – it’s beyond exciting to have a chance to play to a UK crowd, but especially at a time when more labels, DJs and ravers are giving deeper sounds a chance. Hopefully Proteus at next month’s Sinistry will also convert more to the dark side, before we get going in June.
I’m hugely grateful to Munted! for supporting me and the Finnish/Japanese sound over the past year, and determined to repay them in London with as good a set as I can manage. It’ll also be awesome to see as many of the UK/Europe crew as possible on home soil, especially as Finland next month isn’t looking too likely (more on that another time). As an ex-resident of Battersea and Southfields I’m also looking forward to seeing south London for the first time in about 8 years.
There are plenty of exciting events over the next couple of months, but keep an eye on the Munted! event page in the meantime for travel/ticket info and all sorts of animal-based hijinks.
Congratulations to Le Dos-on for his second place in the recent Permission to Die remix competition (which I completely forgot to mention, sorry about that). It’s a brilliant rework of the original, with some awesome synth work that has a slightly rougher (and very welcome) feel to some of his other recent tunes. This deserves to get a lot of play, as does the overall competition winner from Tornadoz.
We’re indebted to Alderz again for this awesome find – 50 minutes of madness from a youthful Proteus and Lab 4 at FreckShow in Australia. While the Lab 4 second half definitely won’t disappoint, it’s fantastic to see Proteus in full flow (complete with dreads), building up a set of NRG before dropping the early FINRG/Proteus anthems.