Last call for TYFTH Live 009, as it’s been visible in all the usual places since February. That includes Twitch, as it’s highlighted there and shouldn’t disappear anytime soon (if ever?). This was a a very fun set to put together, with many old and new tracks getting a play for the first time. I’m very happy with the atmosphere, even if (as usual) it was a lot of work to put together.

The biggest Horser-related news from the set was that we had two tracks on show – my Cyhyraeth and Sherkel’s superb Concealed. I’ve been trying to work out a way to use it in a set for quite a long time now as it has an extremely long, atmospheric breakdown. The opening three tracks of this set (repurposed from a CODEX appearance) are pretty hectic and absolutely set the tone, but are combined in a way that keeps the long breaks to a minimum. That was the perfect platform for Concealed, then, and I love the flow of that section.

Of the other transitions Perkele! – VPN is probably my favourite, as they’re two tracks I’ve wanted to play for years but are extremely challenging to use well. It was one of those lovely mixing moments when I realised there was potential to combine the two. Another high point was the Twisted Freq section (which needed some 3-deck action to get things working), as I combined the two in that way to reduce the massive breakdowns that you tend to get in Kreatrix tracks. PHASE 6 – Tigris also works really well, linking PHASE 6’s break with Tigris’ intro to deepen the atmosphere some more before the dark-but-melodic final part of the set. Oh and Mirage – Chimaera has never been in any of my online/event sets, but I used a less ambitious version in my first ever freeform mix back in 2006.

I was very happy to see how well the set was received live on Twitch – a massive thanks goes to Shimo for her raid, and to all the Fairy Forest crew who stayed around to listen. I’ve played to far fewer people at many club events, and it was a bit overwhelming to try to keep track of the action in the chat. Apologies to those I missed, and I’ll try to be on top of it next time. It actually crossed my mind to have a mic set up for interacting with everyone listening, but then I’d need to also record the set through Traktor to get the clean audio. I’m wary of adding more stress to my overloaded setup, but I’ll do some tests before deciding one way or the other.

Obviously I missed the March deadline for the next one, but more than ever these days I get the feeling that people expect a certain kind of set from me, and just throwing one together at the last minute wouldn’t really cut it. With all the newcomers to the scene and the ever-increasing distance between now and the release of those 2000s tracks, hopefully my ‘old and new’ style can still hit the sweet spot between introducing the classics to freeform rookies, while pushing the newer tracks and producers that are keeping that spirit alive. On that note, I’ve put in quite a bit of time to the next mix, with an intro just about decided and another section that has some lovely combinations. I’d say it’s pretty likely to appear this month, depending how well I manage the traditionally tricky middle part of the set.