Here’s a recent track from BRK that’s an essential for the NRG heads, and might even be one of his best so far. The melodies and synths are firmly in Lab 4 territory, which is about the highest compliment you can give a Hard NRG tune.
No Mercy was also included in Cyberdyne Seba’s newest set, Hoovers at the Edge of the Universe. The middle section is far too hard-housey for me, but there are some great acid picks here and there with the harder and nastier NRG saved for the second half. Really worth checking out, this one.
It’s finally time for a look back at 10 Years of FINRG and my escapades in Finland and the UK - part of the reason for this write-up’s massive delay is the difficulty of doing justice to what was an utterly stupendous trip from start to finish. This might well be a long one (and in fact is version 3 of the post), but feel free to skip through to the event section where you’ll find my tracklist and a few other bits and pieces of behind the scenes-related stuff.
Important edit: Apologies to Raver71 for not crediting his photo of the Senssi decor. Check here for his awesome album from the night, and clickhere for the equally great Sessions2 photos, where you’ll find me looking especially psychopathic.
Next year’s FINRG & FUTURISTICS event has just been announced, and my oft-delayed look back at 10 Years of FINRG will be coming over the weekend. Before that then, here’s a brief roundup of the FINRG releases from the past month.
The biggest news was of course the recruitment of Alchemiist - great to see FINRG accepting one of the most consistent producers of the past year into its ranks, especially if it means we see more tunes of Permission to Die’squality. Fateis at least as good, and another excellent dark track to add to this year’s collection. Substanced has also added the new version of Crank Cleopatrafor fans of his Facebook page, while Radical Vibeis a lovely new tech-ish trance tune from Solar Emotion.
Finally comes the BRK remix of Hatral, a great balance of the original’s atmosphere and BRK’s brutal hard dance style.
BRK’s newest FINRG release is my favourite so far, and really one to check out if you haven’t yet done so. Plenty of Lab 4 influence as always, this one shows how much progress BRK has made with the quality of his sound, with a nice bassline and some lovely synths in the intro/outro.
This will be the last post before I head off to Helsinki tomorrow - sorry I haven’t been able to post as much as I would have liked this past week, but predictably I underestimated how much time it would take to plan a set as well as my month-long trip. I’ll be posting again from Finland/the UK, but until then, big thanks to everyone for their Hybridize track suggestions, and I hope to bump into a few Horsers this weekend!
Some more posts coming tomorrow, but for now here’s a reminder of a little something that’s happening next month. Now back to set practicing, I’m going to find some inspiration from somewhere even if it kills me…
I might be wrong, but I don’t remember posting about the FINRG Anniversary minisite before. Most will have see it already, but if not there’s plenty of useful info on there for those heading to Lahti next month.
I’ve also got a Hybridize-related question for everyone - thinking back to when Hybridize releases were pretty regular, what were some of your favourite tracks? Of course this is in no way related to the fact that I’m playing a ‘Hybridize set’ in a few weeks’ time…
After his recent releases on FINRG, BRK is back in the mixing game with a nice set that shows us what to expect from his FINRG B2B with Heathen. Starting off with a great intro, Evil Against Evil runs through a lot of the classics of the past few years, plus some excellent tunes from Tommy Pulse and a nice collab between Phil York and Dark by Design that I haven’t heard before. A bit of a surprise not to see any of BRK’s own tracks in here, but for anyone into the Lab 4 / Android Lime sound this is a must listen.
Intro
DJ-X Lab4 - Ephedrine
Android Lime - Sex and Violence
Fausto & Tommy Pulse - Melancholika
Android Lime-robot noize ( DJ-X Lab4 rmx )
Tommy Pulse - Messiah ( Resurrection mix )
Lab4-Requiem ( Heart of Darkness 2009 )
Psycho Keaton - Hellnight ( Android Lime rmx )
Lab4 - Groove Overdrive
Phil York vs Dark By Design-Disarray
Aikon - Dream On ( Schwarzende rmx )
The Engineer and Hellraiser - Legion “For We Are Many” ( God is not here with us mix )
Well well…you can imagine how hard it’s been for me not to mention this until Rx’s announcement last night, but the lineups/venue for March’s 10 Years of FINRG are now decided! The main floor is looking utterly fantastic, and although there are three huge absences in Nomic, Re-Form and Epyx & Cyrez, that’s countered by E-NRG, Pain on Creation’s Live PA (!) and a potentially brutal B2B between Heathen and BRK.
I’ll be there too…and not only that, but I’ll be playing a solo set in the second ‘Urban’ room! I’m genuinely honoured to be taking part in such a huge event, and rest assured that I’ll be doing my very best to represent both Hybridize and Romancer.
This could be the event to end all events, and it’s also going to be awesome to finally meet all the wonderful folk I’ve come to know through FINRG and TYFTH. There’s still plenty of planning to be done, but I’ll obviously be in Helsinki, Lahti and possibly elsewhere if time/money allows. Oh, a bit of practical advice for any Horsers planning to attend - apparently there’s a ski event of some kind on at the same time as the event, so despite it still being some way off, most/all of the hotels in Lahti are already fully booked.
Anyway, the countdown begins now - for the time being, massive thanks to DJ Rx, Drumhead (Carbon Based) and the rest of the FINRG crew!
Massive congratulations to Italian producer/DJ BRK for his new release on FINRG, Keep on Pushing. His production has improved beyond recognition during this past year, and with this and other new material he’s really nailed the Lab 4-style sound.
