Top Tens

January Top Ten

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 27, 2010
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, Top Tens, UK. 14 comments

The first Top Ten for quite a while, but first here’s an amazing tune I completely forgot about until a couple of days ago. This week I’ve been listening to a very nice mix of Photek’s mid-90s dark, minimal tunes, and UFO is right in the middle of the set. It has some of the best use of voice samples I’ve ever heard, taking lines from the audio recording of the UFO sighting at Rendlesham Forest in the UK (here’s the second half of the recording that Photek sampled). Whether it’s a hoax or not (!) there are about a million sample-worthy lines, and Photek used them perfectly. With his trademark drums, amazing sub bass and weird sounds, it’s a special tune, no mistake.

Anyway, back to freeform:

  1. Nomic – Muuttolintu
  2. Alek Szahala – Lagash
  3. Nomic – Walking in the Air
  4. Alek Szahala -Astraia
  5. Substanced – Crank Cleopatra
  6. Guld – Hannya X (Proteus “Kampai Forever” remix)
  7. Betwixt & Between – Nemesis
  8. Poly Calamity – Unam Sanctam
  9. Nightforce – Symphony for the Devil (The Virus Escaped)
  10. Hase – Disintegration

Top 3 Tracks of 2009

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 31, 2009
Posted in: Japanese, Top Tens. 11 comments

Here’s the second big post of the day, but hope it’s an interesting one – just in time for the end of the year I’ve managed to ask around the biggest names here for their top 3 tunes of the past year. Some of the guys and girls have been playing a lot of older tracks, so it’s more of a ‘tracks you’ve played a lot’ than a ‘tracks that were released in 2009’ kind of list. One big miss you’ll notice is Betwixt & Between – that’s completely my fault, I forgot (!) until this morning that I hadn’t asked him yet. If he gets back to me in the next few days I’ll add him to the list.

This’ll be the last post of 2009, so I’d just like to add a massive thanks to everyone who has supported TYFTH through the past year. It’s been amazing to see more and more people checking the site, leaving comments, and giving me support too – I really appreciate it. Also a huge kiitos goes to Guld and the FINRG crew for obvious reasons.

So, I hope the lists are worth a look – there were some new tunes for me in here too, and just from the three tracks you can get a nice idea of each DJ’s style. If you had your own favourites this year, definitely feel free to add a Top 3 in the comments section.

Happy New Year!/よいお年を〜

2009 Top 3 Tracks

Guld (NRGetic Romancer)

  1. Guld – Hannya X
  2. Betwixt & Between – City of Solitude (Guld remix)
  3. Guld – Nightmare Freak (Wonderland)

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October Top Ten

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 1, 2009
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Finnish, Japanese, Top Tens. 4 comments

I was at Studio Cube again (!) last night, for the TRANCE Halloween event, featuring former Velfarre resident John Robinson. Of more interest to me was the 4th ‘Hard’ floor, as Zio, Minagi and Aemi were all playing. There might be some video/photos on the way, so stay tuned. The roundup of last week’s NRGetic Romancer will be here tomorrow, too.

Lately I’ve been listening to Nookie again, so here are a couple of my favourite remixes by the great man. The first is a rework of Omni Trio’s Soul Promenade – try to overlook the dodgy sounding piano, this is a perfect example of what jungle was all about back then. That breakdown and the drums at 3.00… Next is a remix of Goldie’s Inner City Life – a seminal tune if ever there was one – Nookie uses some of my favourite breakbeats and a chopped up amen on this version.

Anyway, Top Ten:

  1. Re-form – Walking in the Air (bootleg remix)
  2. Alek Szahala – Voices of Babylon
  3. Epyx & Cyrez – The Most Masochist
  4. Epyx & Cyrez – Unhola (Guld remix)
  5. Laskeuma – Fracture of Connection (Sam one remix)
  6. E-Noid – Order Chaos
  7. Nomic – Aurinkoon
  8. Andre Frauenstein & Tymon – Ethereal
  9. Paocala – Stative II
  10. Nomic – Desolated Dreams

August/September Top Ten

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 12, 2009
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Japanese, Top Tens, UK. 3 comments

Now the Hybridize CD is ‘out’ I can put up a late Top Ten of what I’ve been into over summer. There’s been some great stuff from Hybridize lately (and there’s more on the horizon too), definitely stepping into the gap left by the few FINRG releases. I thought I’d take a break from freeform while I was on holiday, but ended up listening to Alek’s tunes on a Vietnamese beach..it didn’t really fit the mood, but I had to get my fix somewhere.

The video above was taken at August’s NRGetic Romancer – another amazing set from Cogi. I’ll try to get on the case with a proper report once some photos etc eventually turn up…

  1. Alek Szahala – Sunray
  2. Nomic – Desolated Dreams
  3. ADAM Lab 4 – Psychopath (Proteus Hard Boiled remix)
  4. Alek Szahala – Voices of Babylon
  5. Grimsoul – Global Killer (NRGetic Romancer edit)
  6. Alabaster – Aether Storm
  7. DJ Rx – My Serenity (Jnks remix)
  8. Carbon Based – Ancestor
  9. Nomic – Steradian
  10. E-Noid – Order Chaos

May Top Ten

Posted by PlasmaDancer on June 10, 2009
Posted in: Top Tens. 1 comment

static : pulse from Samuel Cockedey on Vimeo.

Not much going on this week, so in the meantime here’s a late Top Ten for last month. The video above is by Samuel Cockeday…Tokyo might look a bit of a mess during the day, but you’d have a hard time finding a more amazing city once the lights come on, and this is a great piece of work.

  1. Substanced – Freeform Mercury
  2. Nomic – Steradian
  3. Alek Szahala – Voices of Babylon
  4. Horzi – The Elegy (Cyrez remix)
  5. ADAM Lab 4 – Psychopath (Proteus Hard Boiled remix)
  6. Betwixt & Between – From the Abyss
  7. Kanon vs Lunch – You Controlling
  8. Betwixt & Between – The Wander of Hesotarou Tankobu
  9. RR-ThermalForce – Rockin’ (Phosphorescence mix)
  10. Nightforce – The Second Redemption 09

April Top Ten

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 10, 2009
Posted in: Top Tens. 5 comments

A bit late with this one, but here’s the top ten for last month. Still no report from NRGetic Romancer, but a few of the tunes in my playlist are here – look out for Freeform Mercury, which I think is one of Substanced’s best tunes yet.

The video up top is a preview of what’s to come when I can gather up the others from NRGetic Romancer – this one features Miran dancing with a ‘double face’. It looks incredibly, incredibly cool, and you might notice Voices of Babylon playing in the background – guess whose set this was?

Anyway, I was listening to plenty of 170bpm+ tunes last month:

  1. Substanced – Freeform Mercury
  2. Nomic – Steradian
  3. Alek Szahala – Voices of Babylon
  4. Psycho Keaton – Hell Night (Android Lime remix)
  5. DJ X Lab 4 – Requiem (Heart of Darkness)
  6. Grimsoul – Moment of Wonder
  7. Nightforce – The Second Redemption 09
  8. ADAM Lab 4 – Psychopath (Proteus Hard Boiled remix)
  9. Alabaster – The Clairvoyance (Distortion Girl)
  10. Betwixt & Between – Tankobu Hesotarou no Houro/The Wander of Hesotarou Tankobu

March Top Ten

Posted by PlasmaDancer on April 11, 2009
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Top Tens. 2 comments

Here’s last month’s top ten – a few promos have started to be er, promoted by the artists now, so they’re ok to be included, I think.

By the way, the tune above can’t really go into this list, but it’s an all-time favourite of mine – Only You by Nookie. I loved the tune when it first came out in 1994, but I only found out the title last week! Ah, those drums….

Back to the top ten:

  1. Alek Szahala – Voices of Babylon
  2. Nomic – Delta Pavonis
  3. Betwixt & Between – The Beginning
  4. Guld – Nightmare Freak 09
  5. Hangover Academy & Decion – Technological Terror
  6. Psycho Keaton – Hell Night (Android Lime remix)
  7. Betwixt & Between – Tankobu Hesotarou no Hourou/The Wander of Hesotarou Tankobu
  8. DJ X Lab 4 – Requiem 2009 (Heart of Darkness)
  9. Betwixt & Between – Broken Visage
  10. V.A.G.A.B.O.N.D – Bonecrusher

January/February Top Ten

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 27, 2009
Posted in: Top Tens. 2 comments

After two events in two months, it’s time for another Top Ten. As a sign of how much I’ve been locked away doing music stuff since the start of the year, I don’t have any photos to start the post off this time – maybe I’ll buy a new camera and start going for wanders around Tokyo or something. Fresh air is a good thing, or so I hear.

Quite a few ‘slower’ tunes in the list this time, for once!

  1. Alek Szahala – Voices of Babylon
  2. Cyrez – Private Demon
  3. Nomic – Awa
  4. ADAM Lab 4 – Psychopath (Proteus Hard Boiled remix)
  5. Hangover Academy vs Decion – Technological Terror
  6. Betwixt & Between – Tankobu Hesotarou no Hourou/The Wander of Hesotarou Tankobu
  7. IAF – Kinky
  8. Betwixt & Between – City of Solitude (Guld remix)
  9. Substanced vs Grimsoul – Signal Lost
  10. Epyx & Cyrez – Distant Illusions

City of Solitude in Proteus’ Top Ten

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 18, 2009
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Top Tens. 2 comments

Goodness me, a week’s passed and no posts – sorry about that. I’ve been desperately trying to sort out a set for NRGetic Romancer on Saturday, it’s coming together at last, but time’s getting a bit short… While my ears are recovering from the last session, I’ll try to catch up on a few newsworthy things tonight.

First of all, Proteus has included Guld’s remix of City of Solitude in his newest top ten. As far as I know it’s the first time a Guld track has made it in there, so big congrats are due. I tend to agree with all of Proteus’ top tens, and this one especially – I haven’t heard that Stereo Junks remix, but I’m 100% with him on the rest. Check it out on Proteus’ site.