Father Time gave me another slap in the face recently when I realised Melancholia’s last soundcloud set was eight(!) years ago. Almost as surprising is that nobody else has since come close to his hyperactive, genre-mashing brand of freeform/hardcore mixing, so it’s a genuine treat to hear him back at it. There’s no real point of comparison, but those who enjoy Shimo’s current mixing style are at least headed in the right direction. In short, it’s best not to worry too much about the tracklist – tracks appear so briefly and/or mashed up with others that you’ll likely be readjusting to a new tune before you realise it.
Saying that, the opening ticks all the TYFTH boxes with a very strong Betwixt/Guld start. It’s fitting that Aryx and Alek Szahala’s Byrgius is the centrepiece for one of the smoothest segments of the set (just listen to that inspired mix into Stargazer), but another of Melancholia’s strengths is knowing when to get through a transition without mixing in key when the flow of the set needs it. He balances the two approaches almost perfectly, meaning you never know quite what to expect from one section to another. This set also keeps up the tradition of throwing plenty of extra samples into the mix – some of the UK freeform-esque monologues in the longer breakdowns are very similar to past sets and do a fine job of giving the set even more of a distinctive identity, but you might be caught off guard by the extremely wholesome appearances here and there of Melancholia himself.
There’s plenty more that could be said, but I’m sure you get the idea. Whether you’re more of a listener or DJ, this is another inspired, superbly mixed celebration of hardcore by Melancholia, and comes as highly recommended as any set this year.
Shimo slid this blog post into a direct message and I think I said this the last time you posted a mix of mine on here – thank you!! – I feel very flattered! You always know what to say and you say it so nicely, which I appreciate! Thank you for making my day today! The fact TYFTH is still up & active is incredible! 😀
It all began with my friend Neodash – he began his “J-Core Life” Twitch streams during the 2020 lockdowns and the wholesome nature of his community really touched me and drew me back in. I had been away from Hardcore/J-Core for many years, and Neodash’s efforts led to the creation of the Dreasmseeker LP (https://www.discogs.com/master/2960503). Neodash has been adamant in asking me to join every event he directed for close to a decade now… I eventually gave in and decided to participate in this event as it was based on “Boomers” in the J-Core scene. What better time than a Boomer event to drop a new mix after 8 years?
Yes, the last full planned-out mix I did was 8-ish years ago. I did dabble and upload a short mini-mix during the initial COVID lockdowns which you graciously posted on TYFTH, but that mix was more of a test to find my footing after not DJing for so many years. Ultimately, I went back to my origins in sampling (Rent is Too Damn high, Network Speech, etc) which I find suits me best. This mix also evolved multiple times and ended up with the high fluidity & genre jumping you hear now – I am sorry to those that are not into the ‘megamix’ style! I crammed as much as I could into this!
Regardless of the track listing, this mix has a lot of meaning behind it. I’ll touch on just a few things:
1. Much of this mix is a throw back to my previous mixes. Particularily the sampling (ie. Magic Affair – Omen III, The Rent is Too Damn High!, Network Speech, etc) but also the track selection. In addition I am a huge lover of VGM so I threw in references to C&C: Tiberian Sun, Top Gear (SNES) and Chrono Trigger. A lot of the planning behind this mix was for my own mental sake with my own (selfish) desires in mind.
2. Despite pursuing my own desires, I tried to make this mix both wholesome in nature but also specific with various communities in mind. For example the Freeform communities, the J-Core crowd, etc. I won’t go over everything. I do specifically want to mention that the first section was initially drafted as a B&B tribute (the Self Extortion layering with GAJAPINAX made me cry the first time I heard it) but eventually turned into a small section that I personally dedicated to TYFTH, Shimo, and a couple others in my mind. Yes, different sections of this mix are ‘dedicated’ to others, most of who will never find out! People that would never suspect it – people that may have been around me in IRC back in 2010! In fact I’ve had a few people reach out to me to thank me or praise the mixing of the specific section, without them knowing that section or song selection was specifically chosen with them in mind! This has satsified a large part of what I desired to achieve with this mix. 🙂 Lastly, I want to say that the speaking portions are mainly me trying to get my emotions out but failing to do so… It’s hard!! I didn’t know what to say since I didn’t want it to sound too corny and I wanted to avoid repeat listeners from getting tired of hearing my voice… If I could pour my heart out more without it sounding stupid, I would! The communities we are part of have arguably withstood the test of time and are filled with such amazing people! I tried turning the Sylph speech into something motivational that builds up into a climax – somewhat like the structure of The Rent Is Too Damn High or other speech samples I generally use. Not sure if I accomplished that but it certainly was fun!
3. I’ve been using samples like Network Speech and Rent Is Too Damn High for over a decade now. It came as a huge surprise to me when it dawned that these samples have never been more true. Not to be anti-establishment or political, but these samples are arguably more true in 2023 than when they were originally uttered: ” I don’t know what to do about the depression, or the inflation, or the Russians, or the crime on the street…” Just think about it for a minute. It blew my mind. Maybe that’ll make a great theme for a future mix… 😉
4. A good portion of the mix is dedicated to Chrono Trigger, which is my favourite game ever made. Specifically the last 1/5th of the mix is based on Chrono Trigger but also a couple tracks dropped through-out. I touched on this earlier but during the lockdowns I worked to create a Chrono Trigger-based remix album which I fully licensed through Square Enix. If anyone is reading this that is interested, there are a few physical copies left: https://tasrecords.bandcamp.com/
5. The mix ends with Melancholia – Tyranocalypse 65,000,000BC++ which is a horrible track that I am very embarrassed about. But Neodash specifically asked me to include this track in my mix as it was the event “anthem” for his Boomer event – I am an awful producer and this track is from 2009 so you can only imagine… I used it as the last track though, which accomplished his request. 🙂 Thanks again Neodash!
…and thank you to all that have read this far! Cheers!
Thanks for taking the time for this comment, Melancholia, and apologies for the delay in replying! I think you’ve been around TYFTH long enough to know that I genuinely love to hear about the story behind mixes and set construction, so I massively enjoyed reading that 🙂
I like the idea of a sometimes unspoken tribute to scenes or specific members, and it’s funny how much the opening jumped out at me. Mission accomplished! Same goes for the speaking portions – at least to me that really sounded like someone sharing their love for the music and scenes that have kept it going for all these years. I expect I’m not the only one who shares the sentiments.
It was nice to hear that I picked up on some of the important elements of the set, but the Chrono Trigger remixes completely passed me by! I’m going to enjoy listening back to the set again with those in mind.