PlasmaDancer – Munted! Monthly! Episode 1, 17th December 2011 by FINRG Recordings

It seems as though a few people have been good enough to check out this set already, which went online a day or so ago. I genuinely couldn’t have wished for a better reaction from the Krafty chatroom crew on the night, and since then there’s been some really nice feedback from those who missed it first time around. I’ve actually had a couple of questions in the past from Horsers who wanted to know how I construct my sets, so permit me if I may to talk a little a lot about the thinking behind this one.

The general idea was to play exactly what I think freeform should/can sound like these days, but also to show that there’s no reason why the special atmosphere of older Finnish and Japanese tracks should disappear. A quick look at the tracklist shows there’s some really, really old stuff in there, as well as some brand new material.

01. Re-form – Decade
02. Re-form – Hold Your Ground
03. Betwixt & Between – Liberation
04. Dye In Sound – The Storyteller
05. Betwixt & Between – From the Abyss
06. Carbon Based – Psychotherapy
07. Vangelis – Rachel’s Song (Grimsoul bootleg remix)
08. Betwixt & Between – Self Extortion
09. Betwixt & Between – Point of No Return
10. Nomic & Pain on Creation – Chameleon
11. Grimsoul & Pain on Creation – Fury Theme
12. E-Noid – Order Chaos
13. Nomic – Unreal
14. Teranoid vs Betwixt & Between – Ayakashi

Having been clanging mixes together for a few years now I’m lucky enough to receive a lot of promo tracks, but recently I’ve been making a big effort not to include tunes simply because they’re new. I was aiming for a very particular atmosphere in this one, and ended up having to leave out some really excellent new stuff from a few different artists. That’s also the reason for the lack of Alek Szahala this time around – especially after Alek’s excellent HBC set I didn’t think there was much point in a mini ‘Alek section’, while I couldn’t find a way for any individual tunes to fit without changing the direction of the set. Having said that, both Timiquizqueh and Noitavasara were close to going in at one point.

The basic plan was to build the set around that melancholy/beautiful From the Abyss – Psychotherapy – Rachel’s Song section, with a fast/aggressive opening and then build up to a hard/melancholy final third. Overall I’m really happy with how it turned out – I might have liked a more gradual move from the early tunes into From the Abyss, but three ‘sections’ in an hour-long set doesn’t give you too much room for maneuver and I didn’t want to cut anything that was already in there. Oh, there are also a lot more breakdowns that I’d usually play – as it was a radio set, I thought some deeper/musical sounds might be appreciated by the home-listening crew, while still playing hard and nasty in between.

Another highlight for me was managing to use Point of No Return in a way that added to the flow of the set. It was a gamble deciding to include it, but I put a heck of a lot of effort into fitting it in as smoothly as possible. The rest of the Betwixt tunes are older, darker classics, as most of his current melodic/mainfloor tunes wouldn’t have worked this time around.

Congratulations to Re-form on Decade, it’s an amazing track and one that’s already building up quite a reputation since last weekend. It has just the right blend of pace, modern semi-dubstep, approachable melodies, and nasty synths, and it couldn’t have done a better job of starting off my set. As with most Re-form tunes it’s horrendously difficult to mix, but that slightly unexpected connection with Hold Your Ground really saved the day.

Isn’t Chameleon an incredible tune? Each time I listen to it I’m more impressed – it has to be one of the most creative/complex Finnish tracks so far in terms of melody and structure. I’m so glad it got a good response on the night, as did Unreal. Nomic’s omission from the FINRG anniversary lineup is a massive disappointment, so I was determined to show how important his sound is towards the end of the set. Unreal is another wonderful track, brilliantly described as ‘lullabycore’ by one of the chatroom crew.

Well once again, heartfelt thanks to Chip for the opportunity to play to a new group of freeform listeners, the reaction from the UK scene since last weekend has been very encouraging (special thanks to Endemic for a really nice post on the new Watchtower site). Track-related thanks to Re-form, Nomic, Betwixt & Between, Carbon Based and Dye In Sound, as well as to Alek Szahala and Substanced for their help. Final thanks to members of the TYFTH crew who made it into the chatroom on the night – I really appreciated the support, and thanks too for helping out with the tracklist/artist info during my set.

Stay tuned for a post on the other sets, including Chip’s excellent UK/Finnish/Japanese mix. Munted! Monthly! itself is a great concept, and from the sounds of things there’s plenty to look forward to over the coming months.