freshtunes.ca » hard & nasty

Stephane K – Numb

Rupert — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:40:37 +0000

Raw, nasty and cold, this track rocks me every time. An excellent set opener for a dark progressive journey.

Well done, Stephane.

Stephane K – Numb

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Harder Drum & Bass and Breakbeat sampler

Rupert — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 06:31:19 +0000

First off, let’s party like it’s 1997 with remix by one of my favorite D&B artists, Technical Itch.

Shogun – Slipstream (Technical Itch Remix)

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A monster by Ram Trilogy, from ’99. I can’t get enough of this raw track.

Ram Trilogy – System Error (Y2K remix)

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Die & Clipz – Black Doves

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Origin Unknown – Broken Road

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Lomax – Brain Freeze

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Lastly, some hypnotic nastiness from Todd Terry:

Todd Terry – Blackout

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David Alexander – Primal Innuendo 3

Rupert — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 10:24:54 +0000

David Alexander rocked me when this mix was played on Proton Radio several years ago. I saved the stream but only managed to get the last 45 minutes or so of this golden set. So I emailed David, and he hooked me up with this mix in its entirety, and now I’m passing it on to you. This is a very tribal and proggy house set, fierce and nasty, especially towards the end. Virtually all these tracks can be bought and heard on beatport.com, so if you want specific tracks, that where I’d get them.

I hope you love this set as much as I did!

Tracklist: (these are only the releases, not the specific mixes!)

cuba computers – haunting me ( shinichi )
danny sullivan & kemist – snake charmer ( hooj )
pro cut – feel so right ( plastic fantastic )
undisputed truth vs. rebel funk – begin ( creative )
superchumbo – irresistible ( loaded )
rock – resistance ( inversus )
piliavin & zimbardo – voodoo juice ( sondos )
macaluso – lights down ( en-soul )
carlos dall’anese & viktor mora – tribal adventures ( b side )
filterheadz – the one who got caught ( pitch black )
darko – phased ( mechanism )
thomas penton – dirty sanchez ( pure )
dj nukem vs. chab – wanted ( cyber )
marcelo castelli – better days ( low pressings )
jade – the assassin ( method )

David Alexander – Primal Innuendo 3 (2002)

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Druggy housy tracks.

Rupert — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 08:31:25 +0000

Alright, after a long hiatus, it�s time for some freaky house tracks.

Blue Insect by El Farouki is an excellent track; distinct, punctuating, popping percussive quirky beats over top a fuzzy, ultraviolet, buzzing bassline that has a slight, bendy drugginess to it.

El Farouki – Blue Insect

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Unlike the previous track�s subtle drugginess, this next monster whacks you upside the head with its freaky intensity. Undisputed Truth�s remix of Procut�s Feel So Right is awesome. I first heard it on protonradio.com in an outrageously fresh mix by David Alexander, Primal Innuendo 3 (to be posted here soon). A gargantuan bassline storms in, layers upon layers of intense druggy goodness fill in the track and desperate, creepy lyrics surface. I freakin� love this track, which I�ve been listening to for years. Five stars; flawless execution. Well done, Undisputed Truth! This track’s a monster, and a must-have.

Pro Cut – Feel So Right (Undisputed Truth remix)

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Moving into the absurdly druggy, another favorite track of mine is Matthew Dekay and Norman Soares�s More Money, More Power. A ridiculous, clip-cloppy bouncy beat gives the track a silly feel, then duggy waves of sound wash in, swirling and somewhat ear-piercing, and a surreal vocal sample pops in and… confounds me! Quality! Truly weird, but it works.

Matthew Dekay & Norman Soares – More Money, More Power

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Opencloud: not bad, for a beginner!

Rupert — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 08:26:34 +0000

Opencloud is one to watch… I first heard of the duo (Blake Potter, who has a dope remix elsewhere on this site, and Corey Spengler who I’ve never heard of) when they won a remix contest on Protonradio.com and since then, Opencloud has had many fine releases, mostly on the relatively new Proton label.

These guys are prolific, having released like 16 tracks on Beatport… in 2006! And we’ve got half a year to go!

Opencloud – Life

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To grab this Opencloud track for free, sign in to Beatport (or register with them if you haven’t already), search for Opencloud, and view page 2 of their releases… it’s right at the top. You have to be signed in to see free content (of which there’s quite a bit!).

The Fallujah remix is just… raw and nasty. It has almost a Drum & Bass sensibility, and you know how I feel about D&B… This track just steamrolls in like a tank, plowing down everything in its path.

Kriece – Fallujah (Opencloud mix)

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Method: The freshest progressive label ever?

Rupert — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 00:30:51 +0000

Fresher than a thousand freshes, the UK label Method is well worth watching. If you like cold, smooth, synthetic progressive trance with decidedly druggy overtones and stellar production values, you’re in for some head-bopping treats.

My all-time favorite from this label is Central Rush’s Out Of Focus (Tkac and Haverlik remix). One word: WOW. A beautiful, rich, vibrant and enveloping 3 dimensional soundspace surrounds you, disorienting you while tweaked female vocals repeat the drugginess-inspired title of the song. The proggy freshness builds, slowly, into more and more intense, tighter circles of sound around you. What was merely beautiful starts to become vaguely menacing. This song gives me E flashbacks in a big way.

This track will make the hair on your neck stand up. This is a MUST HAVE.

Central Rush – Out Of Focus (Tkac & Haverlik Mix)

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Speaking of druggy proggy trance tracks, this next one will make your teeth rattle with its pounding, merciless, metallic punctuating drones, while freaky male vocals urge you to leave your law-breaking raver friends and find a Safer Place without them. Mind-numblingly hypnotic, and anxiety inducing, you will love this track’s druggy feel… it’s only a matter of time.

Macroscopia – Safer Place (Majority Mix)

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“Render unto Freshtunes.ca what is Fresh”

Rupert — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 10:17:58 +0000

Dieselboy’s Render is an astounding track from America’s most famous D&B DJ/producer. It can be found on the The 6ixth Session, an otherwise uninspiring release. I much prefer his older mix CDs, like A Soldier’s Story, but between 6ixth’s dope cover (I’ve blown it up into a huge poster on my wall) and this one track, I feel I got my money’s worth.

Absurdly funky, yet calculated and synthetic, this track is both organic and flowing, and yet, technological and unfeeling. Beautiful! Try not bopping your head to this unadulterated freshness as you listen… it can’t be done.

Dieselboy – Render

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Killa Bites D&B 2XCD

Rupert — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 09:40:40 +0000

Dom & Roland’s Killabites 2xCD is an excellent mixed UK drum & bass album, from the glory years of drum & bass, back in 2000. Hard, nasty and raw, this foray into synthetic urban sounds is perhaps the best compilation of its kind.

nCode’s track Spasm is my all time favorite nasty drum & bass track, and Dom’s mixing of it is beautiful. Everything I look for in D&B… flawless!

nCode – Spasm

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Other favorites on this album include Bammer’s track Device, a weird, quirky and playful track with hard hitting bass notes and floaty, ethereal overtones finishing the piece. Also, Exile’s Fatal Exception is caustic and nasty… pretty much just distorted stereophonic noise pulsing and flashing and twitching.

Bammer – Device

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Exile – Fatal Exception

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The beauty of this album is that I’d never heard of any of these tracks prior to buying this album several years ago. Dom avoids many of the usual, caned-to-death classics of the time and offers a well mixed, eclectic but excellent 2 CD compilation. This album earned my respect for Dom.

Speedy J: insanely fresh techno

Rupert — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 12:22:04 +0000

When I think of “techno” I think of hard, pounding, nasty, synthetic, distorted, static noise, punctuated by beats and sweeping, spatial stereo effects.

For the longest while, I thought that such a thing did not exist, that my idea of techno only existed in my head. Then I discovered Speedy J.

I’d first heard of Speedy J, or Jochem Paap, many years ago. He had several releases on Plus 8 records, and to be frank, I didn’t like a single one of them, and still do not. Then, he produced some softer material in the mid 1990s, which I also didn’t care for.

But as of Loudboxer, and his freakin awesome live sets, I am a huge fan.

Jochem’s a true techno pioneer. He makes records that only have short endless sound loops on them, his personally crafted loops, which he feeds into Ableton Live, a cutting edge realtime music mixing software. He then tweaks some knobs and creates, live, an organic, flowing, cerebral mindfuck music that slowly mutates and morphs over time. Motifs emerge to the ‘surface’ of the sound and dive back into obscurity; patterns overlap each other, speeding up and slowing down, asynchronously intertwining. Like Plastikman’s seminal Consumed album (but much, much harder), this music is simultaneously purely synthetic and technological, while at the same time organic, fluid and ever-changing.

This is deep, nasty techno, and if you’ve never heard anything like it, you’re in for a treat!

Hear Jochem cook up a cerebral, spatial, morphing main course for the adoring crowd with these incredible live sets:

Speedy J – Live at the Cocoon Club (2001)

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Speedy J – Live at Shockers (2003)

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Speedy J – Live at Midnight Run (2004)

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