I have been planning on recording a new set for quite some time now. I’ve gone through the normal preparation procedures of picking tracks and trying to find ones that fit well together. Basically what I am doing is trying to find a way to make the set sound the way I like sets to sound. A good set however is not made by the DJ for himself but for all the people he plans to introduce the set to. This got me thinking.

If you are in a hurry or a bit too much ADHD, you can jump over the babble to the “real” content of this post.

I know pretty well what makes a set good, or better, spectacular, in my opinion, but I realized that I really do not know that well what other people hold in high regard. During the years practicing the art of mixing, I have been pondering this issue quite much, but to date, have not found any decent logic behind it.

Don’t get me wrong here, I am sure there is logic to be found. It’s just that to my understanding people seem to judge DJ sets in many different ways and my way seems not to be the most common one. I have quite tight criteria which the set has to  fulfill in order for me to like it. These are mainly: decent beat mixing, no harsh key clashes, decent track selection and an all-around good flow and structure. I have noticed that most of the time DJs here seem to only concentrate in the beat mixing and track selection, which is quite a shame as, at least in my opinion, those do not really help the least bit, if the set fails miserably in the other areas. My understanding is also that the crowd seems to follow these preferences, which is quite understandable as they are the most obvious ways to judge a set.

So having said all that, I am challenging you to post your favorite sets to the comments section below. I would also love to know why you like the set(s) you posted. What makes the sets so good, what makes them stand out? To make it interesting and to give you some motivation to post stuff, I will reward one lucky participant with a brand new Concussion T-shirt (hope that person is size L, because I have one of those already “in stock” )! Dig deep into your archives, take a pen and a piece of paper and start ranking!

Breakfastaz – Crazy (Apologies for the low quality :/)

Feels a bit stupid pasting URLs here instead of just embedding YouTube videos, but seems like those tracks are sadly starting to be forgotten by the Great Internetz.

These and many other NSB tracks bring really nice memories back, because that was basically the stuff that got me into DJing in the first place. One nice thing about this music is also that it is really entertaining for the DJ as well, because you can do all kinds of neat crossfader, eq, etc. tricks when spinning these. Remember what blast it was to get drunk with my mate Joose aka Roister-5 aka Johnnie No-Skool on some random evening during the week to just kick back, relax and give the mixer knobs a good beating while blending these tracks.

Now, I hate to be the guy that is grieving about things of past, but I can’t help feeling a bit sad that this wonderful genre has more or less died out. Luckily loads of new genres and styles have emerged since so I can find my comfort in them. Would be nice though if someone would make a new track following the sounds of the great breaks artists such as The Breakfastaz, Ed209, Baobinga, Distortionz, etc. Anyone up for the challenge?

Found something so neat that could not resist on writing something to our humble blog. And as it is me (elysion) writing this, you probably can guess what I’m going to be all about – pure and solid, quality drum & bass!

Have been following closely two producers lately hailing from the great capitol of Czech (incredibly hard to remember how to spell Czech btw.) republic – Prague (or Praha as we Finns and the Czechs correctly call it). If you have been following the dnb scene recently, you should by now have guessed that I’m referring to the incredibly talented duo who go by the names of Hybris and Rido.

Neither of these guys can be really referred to as new on the scene though. Rido’s first releases date back to somewhere ’round 2006 and while Hybris is a rather new alias, the guy behind the name, Evan Vischi, has been producing dnb even earlier while being a part of the US based trio called Robot Death Squad. The reason I am refering to these two artists as a duo is because Evan aka Hybris moved to Prague a few years ago and has been collaborating with Rido there with absolutely fantastic results. Results that can be heard on, for instance, The Prague Connection EP, which was released just recently at the beginning of this month on the legendary Metalheadz label.

Here are links to two tracks from the EP: First Contact and Memento, prove my point about the quality:

I came across Hybris’ production the first time when I heard his production on the Invisible EP 003 released on Noisia’s Vision Recordings sublabel Invisible. I was really impressed by the sounds on the tracks – the nice, sharp and choppy, composition with deep bass and really clever drum programming. Seems like the years in Europe have done good to the guy since he has moved away from the US style, straight forward kind of vibes towards more deeper sounds.

Rido on the other hand has not been on top of my list of best producers since very recently. I have heard many of his tunes during the years, but none of them have really struck as all that interesting. The reason has probably been that I got bored of the neurofunk/hardstep/whatever sounds since quite a while ago, and that is exactly what Rido has been working around for the past years. Even his earlier releases this year have not been all that intriguing, but the most recent are absolutely phenomenal – here are two of them: “Exoplanet” and the track I am hugely hyped up about at the moment called “Twisted”:

Btw. if you can spot the breaks used on Twisted, pop a comment to this post! There are a couple in there, and that makes this track even more spectacular in my opinion.

To leave no doubt about the party being totally smashing, we are giving a small preview of what to expect of it tonight at the Concussion show, as Gradon and Janky will be joining me at the studio. Remember to tune in at 5PM GMT (7 o’clock Finnish time) to http://www.nubreak.com/hifi.m3u! (Video stream will probably be available also, but don’t remember the url and can’t be certain that I get it to work. Check out Concussion’s wall @ Facebook for more info on that.)

Some ruff Concussion action going down in Vaasa tonight, as I will be dropping some serious beats @Fiksaatio Laudatur Party! One thing that is especially nice with this party is that I was booked rather than organizer of the event and thus this time I actually had quite a lot of time to prepare for the set (=concentrate on the thing that really matters ). Am quite confident in saying that this will be a set not to miss! So, if you are near Vaasa tonight, make sure to come to the Royal Night -club!

Together we will be promoting the styles that are going to be played at the opening event of the brand new Litku club at Volume, Tampere. So to get a sneak preview of what’s to expect in the event’s musical front, join us next Monday at 7PM Finnish time (5PM GMT) @ NuBreaks.com!

You might be wondering who exactly are the people behind Litku? Here is a (very) brief introduction:

gr

An experienced junglist whose record bag contains everything from the lightest to the very roughest of dnb. After being a part of the backbone of Spinni by taking care of various crucial parts in the operation for many years, gr took up the ultimate challenge and accepted the post of chairman of the club. You have probably already spotted him behind the decks at various edm events in Kuopio, Tampere, Helsinki etc.

nocomply

In spite of his young age, this lad has been active organizing parties (such as Konehuone) at Kajaani for quite a while now. After moving to Tampere for studies at TUT, this new talent has been keeping himself busy also by organizing various events as a member of Spinni. As the only one in the crew who is doing deejaying as his profession, nocomply is well aware of what sounds move people at the moment.

T.H.U.G.

Summery, jazzy, soulful – that’s what this guys selection is all about. You might remember him from a few older Concussion Shows, where he helped us with the MC’ing.

elysion

The mascot for the club .

You have probably already noticed how M-za has been keeping himself busy with side projects such as Meditation Steps, Funkin’ Up Your Friday, Groovy Goose, the upcoming Love Hangover etc. Well, now it is time for me (elysion) to try something a bit different.

I gathered up a small group of talented Jungleheads from Spinni and we came up with the following:

So what is this new club about? Pure melodic, liquid dnb sounds with some heavier tunes blended in the mix for added ruffness! Perfect music for a friday night out, where you don’t need to use effort into understanding the complex ins and outs of the music, but can just kick back, enjoy the music and have fun! For more details, check out the event on Facebook!

So why organize a new club and not do it under the Concussion name? There are a couple of reasons for this:

First and foremost, I’m the only one in the Concussion Crew that is constantly following the dnb scene and getting new tracks. Although I really love the music, playing the stuff for over 5 hours in one night isn’t exactly my idea of fun.

Secondly, I have been attending local edm parties and dj’ing for quite a long time now and have noticed a certain void between what the local clubs offer and what the crowd wants. There are a lot of top quality clubs here, but the problem is that the music played in those events is not that accessible for people not that familiar with drum & bass. The idea behind Litku is to be an event where more accessible music is played for the crowd to make dnb more familiar to them and to also make them get more interested in the sounds. After all, you have to start somewhere, even with dnb!

Where the latter does not fit with the Concussion stuff is that while Concussion is about organizing wild parties for people to get off the hook, it is still more focused on introducing new and interesting sounds that are just gaining momentum in the scene. Concussion is also about making the events something really interesting and different also besides the music. We felt that with the offerings at hand, we could not have pushed things as far as we would have wanted.

But fear not, even with all this other stuff going around, we are also pushing things forward with Concussion. We have loads of great stuff planned for the upcoming months, so stay tuned!

The Concussion Crew has been preparing itself for a Helsinki invasion on next Saturday. We will be joining the local Defence crew that organizes its monthly, self titled club at the beating center of the capital of Finland. The venue is more suited for get-togethers among friends, where they can sit down, kick back and enjoy good music, drinks and company rather than wild raving and thus the crew will have to adjust to these new circumstances and try to behave.

If you are in the neighborhood (and even if not), come drop by and enjoy the deeper, more gentle side of the Concussion offering!

event @ FB