Proteus has just uploaded the opening track for his upcoming ErilaZ live spectacular with Adam Lab 4 on drums, and what a monster it is. Showing Proteus’ understanding of how to get a crowd going, this is another genre-crossing effort with industrial, hardcore and even some golden-era drum and bass breaks. Quality stuff, I’d love to see some more from the set as and when.

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do when it comes to Freeformaniacs sets, but this new effort from Custom Built DJs caught my eye with its lively-looking tracklist. As expected, it’s a really nice hour of melodic freeform, with enough of a Finnish influence to ensure there’s a bit of an edge to things.

Nice to see the filter-tastic Gate Crasher in there, as well as less common choices like the tricky-to-mix Immaculate. It’s always great to hear Alek in a set, but this time the incredible atmosphere of Darkstar didn’t really match with the rest of the set, in my opinion - wonder if a more uplifting tune might have worked better to finish things off? Either way it’s a really enjoyable set, and definitely gets a recommend.

1. Jon Doe - Warehouse (Cube::Hard remix)
2. Epyx and Cyrez - Immaculate
3. Grimsoul - Lightshaft
4. Substanced - Wistful
5. Furyan - Galaxias Glaciere
6. Custom Built DJs - Get out of Here
7. Eryk Orpheus - PVC (Lost Soul remix)
8. Penguin Conspiracy - Mechanical Fables
9. Ephexis - Sick Seduction
10. Full Circle DJs - Gate Crasher
11. Horzi - Infernal Psycho
12. Alek Szahala - Darkstar

Download here 

Something I’ve been meaning to check out for a while is the Munted! Monthly! blog/website, but I finally got around to it while catching part of last Saturday’s show. It looks like Dyzphazia/Chip’s doing a fine job on the updates so far, and there’ll soon be MM5 links for the non-facebook crew. The other sets are also archived there, including the very interesting MM4 (which is top of my ‘to listen’ list at the moment).

This one comes via our friends at Watchtower, something that producers in general (and Reason users in particular) should find really useful. Similar to Alek Szahala’s Ziggurat video, here Qygen gives us a tour of his excellent Watchtower release, Past Blaster. This is an amazing look into some of the complex melodies he comes up with, and even if Past Blaster is on slightly more of a conventional freeform tip that some of his previous goacore tracks, this is an absolute must-view for anyone producing in our genre.

I’ve been listening to a few sets recently, so here’s a compilation post with a few of the best. There are still one or two others to check out this week, so they might well have their own posts before too long.

First up we have the Munted! Monthly! sets from January. It was another top quality event with plenty of variety, and a couple of brilliant sets to start off. Sadly I couldn’t wake up in time to hear Aryx on the night (morning), but I checked it out as soon as it was available for download and it didn’t disappoint. With an excellent new work-in-progress track starting things off, it’s another Aryx showcase with some other freeform classics in the second half.

Substanced’s set was an excellent promo for his new album release, as well as some new stuff that still hasn’t been made public. The first half was especially good, but the whole set was a top quality listen. Midas and Dyzphazia finished things off with some UK freeform sounds, even if a lot of Dyzphazia’s tracks were Japanese. Neither set was what you’d call dark, though it made for a nice lively second half to the event (plus an utterly mad tune to finish).

Another set I’ve been enjoying is Substanced’s set for the Free of Form show (at the top of this post). This time the second half was the hardest-hitting, doing a great job of including new and old tracks.

Finally (for now), and away from freeform, I’ve been listen to the various sets that made up the 247drumandbass oldskool session. It’s hard to find a better oldskool DJ than Extreme, and while intelligent jungle is a bit thin on the ground (aside from some nice selections from Omen) the other sets are all excellently mixed, and a nice reminder of the days when drum and bass was a real dance music genre. Check out the massive mp3 here.

Midas was quick off the mark with this one - a set of tunes from Substanced’s fantastic new album. This set covers a lot in 45 minutes, from the Subi DnB to UK freeform remixes, via the nastier Finnish tracks in the middle and a nice nod to the opening sequence with Skullcrush and its ferocious breakbeats. Credit to Midas though, the set’s very nicely mixed even with all that variety, and as the tunes are still very fresh it’s a very nice listen, even if you grabbed the album on release.

1. Subi - Intro
2. Subi - Antidote
3. Subi - Futu-Drum-A
4. Substanced - Reptile Zoo
5. Substanced & J-Mx - Flawless Victory
6. Substanced - Geneva part II (Alchemiist remix)
7. Substanced & Grimsoul - Signal Lost (Endemic remix)
8. Substanced - Seismic Activity (Transcend remix)
9. Substanced - Shadows of Tomorrow (DAT remix)
10. Sam one, Substanced & Horzi - Lionheart (A.B’s varaslahto remix)
11. Substanced - Evolution (Douglas remix)
12. Substanced & Alchemiist - Skullcrush

Substanced - The End of All Things (Aryx Remix) by FINRG Recordings

There’s obviously only one event to be talking about this weekend, the long-awaited arrival of Substanced’s massive album and 25 brand-new tracks. What a monumental effort by Substanced, both for coming up with such consistently high quality tunes and for all the work to organise the remixes. It was worth it though, and has definitely set the standard for any future artist albums.

Standout tracks for me are Skullcrush and Reptile Zoo, but once again it’s Aryx bringing the deepest sounds and some wonderful atmosphere with his remix of The End of All Things. Whatever flavour of freeform you’re into, there should be something for you - download all the tracks (though you probably already have) via FINRG’s SoundCloud.  

Congratulations to everyone involved with last weekend’s Munted! Monthly!, another great event with some quality tunes and a nice group of freeform fans in the chatroom. Sadly I couldn’t wake up in time to hear Aryx’s set (I’m already looking forward to it going online), but Substanced, Midas and Dyzphazia all played some really nice stuff.

While we wait for the recordings, here are the four sets from Episode 1. I’m biased of course, but I thought the timetabling worked almost perfectly, what with Douglas starting off with some brand new UK freeform, Midas opening with more of the same but then adding some Aryx and Alabaster towards the end, and Chip setting me up perfectly with a lovely set of UK, Finnish and Japanese tunes.

Check them all out here (complete with tracklists), but if you haven’t downloaded mine yet, please head over to the FINRG SoundCloud instead.

Dyzphazia & Cuedy - Complexity Of Dreams by Cuedy

Sorry for the brief absence, I went into stasis over the weekend to try and be productive, DJ and production-wise. Sadly it didn’t work at all, so now it’s about time to catch up on the massive crop of mixes that have appeared recently.

First up we have Dyzphazia and Cuedy’s excellent Complexity of Dreams, a really nice mix of freeform and breakbeat hardcore. One of the reasons I stopped bothering too much with BBHC is that most of it seems to sound like modern drum & bass with a few trancier melodies (rather than oldskool hardcore with nice production/a focus on the breakbeats, which is what I hoped it would become). Anyway, Dyzphazia and Cuedy have done a great job of sticking with the style, showing what the newer tunes can sound like when mixed intelligently with some nice freeform selections.

That opening half from Mood Music to Concorde flows especially nicely, but the whole set is a top quality listen and in terms of mixing/selection has to be one of the best I’ve heard for a long while. It’s great to hear a few tracks from Ponder, Reese and Strifell, three of my favourite producers in this genre - one of my resolutions this year is to start mixing intelligent drum & bass again, but maybe I should take another look at BBHC, too.

1. Devastate - Mood Music (Oli G Remix)
2. Alek Szahala - Mermaid
3. Ponder - Calling (See The Light) (Click Remix)
4. Uplift & Stargazer vs. Reese & Cloudskipper - Substance
5. Lukozade - Concorde
6. Creative Synergy - Beware Of My Trance (Ponder Remix)
7. StrifeII - Enough
8. Eric Prydz - Pjanoo (High Contrast Remix)
9. XampaNoid - Blue Tripper
10. StrifeII - Petrichor
11. Gammer - Unforgettable Hope (Douglas Remix)
12. Exia - Devils Contract

Only a few weeks to go until the launch of Substanced’s solo album, and what a project it’s turning out to be. With the mix of genres and artists there really is something for everyone, as a look at the just-released tracklist shows:

CD1: ORIGINAL SIDE

Substanced on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Substanced/61186347220