TYFTH Live, tonight from 11pm (JST)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 11, 2013
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. 2 comments

Live streaming video by Ustream

I’ve decided that for now I won’t be uploading my Lucky Lotus set, as it was intended more as an ‘event set’ that changed things up a lot and introduced folk to some different styles, but will be playing it again tonight for anyone who’s interested/missed it the first time around. I say ‘playing’, but it has crossed my mind to just stream the original mix and have a chat with everyone while we listen – I used 15 or 16 tunes, so would probably be kept too busy preventing trainwrecks to be able to talk that much. Either way, it’ll start at 11pm, provided I remember how to use ustream.

Oh, and the other reason for not uploading the set is that I’m in the early stages of planning my next ‘studio mix’ that’s a bit more consistent in its sound. I’ll hopefully have time to spend on it at the end of summer, but for now I’m focused on Codex tunes.

LRHC ’13

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 11, 2013
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 2 comments

Lithium Records’ new album release might not be prime TYFTH material at first glance, but in amongst the J-Core is Lost, yet another new track from the unstoppable Le Dos-on. This is one of those tunes (and there are a heck of a lot these days, for some reason) where the intro/first half has me thinking that it’s not something I can use in a set, before things change up at the break and head into much more promising territory. Anyway, Lost‘s breakdown features Le Dos-on’s unique combo of UK, Finnish and Japanese styles, with just enough melancholy before the kick returns with some lovely filtering. A quality track then, and the whole album is available for free from the Lithium website.

Alek Szahala – Bom Shiva Shankar Zai Zilumi Zapati / Paokala & Byproduct – Robotics / Byproduct – MUKS Menu Music

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 6, 2013
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Releases. 2 comments

2013’s Assembly has been and gone, and once again Alek Szahala has placed highly with his entries. His solo effort is the eccentrically titled Bom Shiva Shankar Zai Zilumi Zapati, a fabulous snippet of goa-meets-NRG that deservedly got some recognition.

The other track is a collab with Byproduct – I love this one, it does a brilliant job of combining their sounds into something a little different, and the breakdown is pretty special.

Speaking of Byproduct, let me also quickly mention his title track for the recently released MUKS, an indie exploration shooter with echoes of the classic Lunar/Solar Jetman games. Byproduct did a lot of excellent work on the soundtrack, and fans of his trademark melodies will very likely enjoy this one.

Alderz – Freeformaniacs June 2013

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 6, 2013
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 2 comments

Here’s a set I’ve wanted to mention for a couple of months now, another stormer from the one like Alderz. A quick look at the tracklist should be all you need, but worth mentioning the variety here, slipping in some UK freeform (of the more aggressively filtered, Finnish sort) in the middle section, bridging the melodic stuff and the nastier, harder finale.

Alderz’s trademark mixing style means there’s hardly time to draw breath before a new tune comes hammering in, it’s a great way to combine a lot of different material and definitely keeps the interest up. A quality set then, and definitely worth a download.

1. Alek Szahala – Dawnstar (Aryx Remix) / Rebuild 
2. Transcend & Lost Soul – 7 Light Cycles / Watchtower 
3. Amini – Fcking Pirates / Rebuild 
4. Substanced & Alchemiist – Facemelt / Finrg 
5. Betwixt & Between – Liberation / CDR 
6. Nomic – Suicide Machine / Smiling Corpse 
7. Endemic – Xen / Watchtower 
8. Transcend – Lament Configuration / Watchtower 
9. Substanced & Alchemiist – Permission To Die / Finrg 
10. Epyx & Cyrez – A Bit Rougher / Watchtower 
11. Marilyn Manson – This Is The New Shit (Nomic Remix – 2013 Edit) / CDR 
12. Kilamorza – Sirius / Freeformatted 008 

Lucky Lotus Online Electronic Music Festival 3, 2nd – 5th August, lineup and flyer

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 1, 2013
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 4 comments

It’s almost time for Lucky Lotus to begin, and it seems that the timetable is finally settled after redefining ‘fluid’ for the past couple of weeks. That said, I’ve been nicely settled in the Friday lunchtime (GMT) slot for a while now, and am really looking forward to checking out some other sets too.

There’ll be a chat facility on Aniradio (the event’s host), and I’ll be there during my set to say hello and answer any questions from those that might be new to freeform. It’ll also be my first real appearance online for months, so it’d be great to bump into any Horsers that happen to be free then.

Once again, the enormous lineup can be found on the Facebook event page, or the full-size version of the excellent flyer.

Pain on Creation – Lush (remastered version)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 1, 2013
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. Leave a Comment

It’s fair to say that I haven’t been keeping track of freeform recently, but now that the toughest three months for a long time are over I’m able to catch up a little on things. A batch of new and remastered material from Pain on Creation’s the perfect way to start then, with this new version of Lush and the long-awaited release of Chameleon definitely top of the list.

As fabulous a tune as ever, this brings back very happy memories of past freeforming years, as well as a certain June evening in London (more on that later). Wonderful to see some more activity from PoC, but don’t forget to also check out Tyranoid & Strongstream’s superb Drifting Away if you haven’t already.

Buzzmasta

Posted by PlasmaDancer on July 26, 2013
Posted in: Japanese. Leave a Comment

It seems to be public knowledge these days, so before starting things up again at TYFTH I have to pass on the terribly sad news that Buzzmasta has passed away. What with Romancer’s hibernation and Buzz’s move away from hardcore into his other favourite genres I hadn’t seen him for quite a long time, and so the news came as a massive shock to me and rest of the Romancer crew.

Buzz was without doubt one of the nicest people I’ve met in the scene, and I’ll always be grateful for the welcome he showed me when I first turned up here. Thanks to his collabs and DJ gigs he made also quite a reputation for himself in the UK scene, and he was a massive hit with crowds wherever he played a set.

The Tokyo scene has lost a great guy and a talented producer, we’ll all miss him very much.

Sinistry Cybergeddon, 29th June @Electrowerkz, London

Posted by PlasmaDancer on June 24, 2013
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Italian, Releases, UK. 4 comments

What I’d give to be at this event – following up Munted’s superb support for the freeform scene is the latest Sinstry, a three-room spectacular that ticks all the right boxes as far as I’m concerned. The main room can hardly fail to bring in a big crowd, but has a very strong underground feel that will go to the next level with the addition of BRK. As the winner of the recent mix submission contest, he’ll take the main stage into even darker territory with his now top-quality productions and selection. Massive congrats to him.

The freeform room is where we see the real event headliner though – Nomic will be returning to London for the first time in years, with some superb new material that’s surely the perfect fit for Sinistry (check out his amazing preview of Turbulence if you haven’t already).

The cyber theme and Slimelight floor are finishing touches to what looks a fantastic night, surely a must-attend if you’re anywhere near London/the UK. As usual, the Facebook event page has plenty of extra info to check out.

Lucky Lotus Online Electronic Music Festival 3, 2nd – 5th August

Posted by PlasmaDancer on June 22, 2013
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 2 comments

The other upcoming set from me will also be in August, as I’ll be contributing to the Lucky Lotus online event. Truth be told I’m still a little sketchy on the details, but the thinking behind the event seems to be to bring together rookie and more established DJs in a variety of genres. There also seems to be a Japan-centric focus to the event, so when the organisers got in touch I was more than happy to say yes. With Guld and Aryx also signed up, this could be a really interesting event and a nice chance for some new listeners to hear our sort of sound.

Keep an eye on the Facebook event page for more info, and of course I’ll add details here as they appear.