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Pearsall presents Rampage Turbo 20: The Best of Freeform 2013

2 hours of the finest freeform from 2013! Featuring tracks by Substanced, Le Dos-On, A.B., Pearsall, Aryx, UFO, and many more!

Rampage Turbo 20

Pearsall presents Rampage Turbo 20: The Best of Freeform 2013

right-click, save as to download this free mp3 mix

Cover by Woofy

Mixed in Berlin, November 2013
(115:58, 265 MB, 320 kbps MP3)

Zip file (split into separate tracks)
Big cover
Cue file

Style: Freeform Hardcore – The Best of 2013!

direct link to the mix:
http://sonicrampage.org/mixes/rt20/Pearsall-RampageTurbo20.mp3

Tracklisting:

01. Lab 4 – Candyman (Guld Remix) (Soundcloud.com/GuldJP)
02. B.R.K. – Rhythm Is A Dancer (Kilana Overdrive 2013) (Finrg)
03. Shox vs Beston – Sweet Nightmares (Sinthetic Digital)
04. Horzi – Human Hater (Substanced Remix) (Finrg)
05. Epyx & Cyrez – Unohdetut 2011 (Guld’s ‘The Meaning Of Life’ Remix) (Electrode)
06. Cyrez – Raver’s Legacy (Freeform Mix) (ReBuild Music)
07. Aryx – Celestia (ReBuild Music)
08. Cyrez & Substanced – Lost Souls (Penguin Conspiracy Remix) (Electrode)
09. A.B. – Phoenix (Stamina Slam Series)
10. Andy Dee – Forever Yours (Dark Mix) (Stamina Recordings)
11. Shox vs Big-D & Bolo – Escape (Sinthetic)
12. Substanced – Anxious Soul (ReBuild Music)
13. Le Dos-On – Sanctuary (Freeformatted)
14. Custom Built DJs – Myriad (Freeformatted)
15. UFO & K-Wire – Placid (ReBuild Music)
16. Pearsall – Dreaming Of Berlin (Freeformatted)
17. Greg Peaks – Techno Tribe (Electrode)
18. Sc@r & Haze – Bass Shake (Scarred Digital)
19. The Beatniq – MoonTrip (Soundcloud)
20. DJ Nau feat Mauri & Kan – Inside Base (Sinthetic Digital)
21. Sino – Aciz Base (Injection Editions)
22. David Traya & Jordi GM – Acid Dimension Bassline (Distrito)
23. Meke vs SamHard – Heaven & Hell (Freeformatted)
24. M-Project vs DJ Sharpnel – Dawn Of The Kore (Xavi BCN Remix) (X-Treme Hard)
25. jD-KiD – Reborn (BForm Beats)
26. Alchemiist – Empire (Finrg)
27. Alchemiist & J-Mx – Escape Velocity (Smiling Corpse)
28. Vyral XIII – Auracite (2013 Edit) (vyral13.bandcamp.com)
29. Transcend – Spirit Of Hades (Stamina Slam Series)
30. A.B. – Carburettor (Stamina)
31. Ranzor – Acidcore (Relentless Digital)
32. UFO – Far From Gone (UFOlogy)
33. Le Dos-On – X Ray (ReBuild Music)
34. Substanced – Rise From The Darkness (Finrg)
35. J-Mx – Lost Scars (Smiling Corpse)

So, that’s it for 2013 – wow, what a year it’s been!

And what better way to cap the year than with a very special two hour mix to celebtrate the milestone 20th edition in my Rampage Turbo series of freeform mixes?

Rampage Turbo 20 is a particularly appropriate sign off for 2013, because it features two hours of some of the very best freeform to be released this year (plus a few sneak peeks at forthcoming material). 2013 has been the year of freeform for me, in three big ways:

  1. Including RT20, I’ve now done seven freeform mixes this year!
  2. For most of the year I was running the Freeformaniacs podcast (which I only gave up when the logistical chaos of our move to Germany made continuing impossible)
  3. Last but not least, I finally made a tune, Dreaming of Berlin, with A.B. as engineer, and it was released on the Freeformatted Vol. 2 compilation; check it out here:

Of course, it would have been pointless to devote so much effort to freeform this year if it wasn’t also a good year for the scene in general. Which it has been! I mean, fuck … listen to these tunes! OK sure, this isn’t a definitive ‘best of’ selection, nor is it meant to only showcase the quote unquote ‘biggest’ tunes of the year from the biggest artists (I would have liked to include at least one tune from Qygen), but if I do say so myself this is a pretty damn rocking mix! As usual, I’ve tried to encompass all of the angles of the sound, from euphoric hard trancey rushers to raw as fuck Spanish base tracks through to the darkest of the dark, with tracks and remixes from Finland, the UK, Japan, Spain, Australia, and Slovenia … and even myself! I couldn’t finally make a track and not include it, could I? Also, big thanks to Woofy for the awesome cover!

There’s been a lot of exciting stuff happening in the freeform scene over the last couple of years, and this year has been no exception, with two very strong compilations from Thumpa’s ReBuild Music (‘Freeformania’ and ‘Against All Odds’), the excellent Epyx & Cyrez artist album ‘Two Against The Void’ on Watchtower, the Electronica Exposed camp’s epic Freeform Exposed 2 album, our own Freeformatted Vol. 2, a string of massive singles from labels like Finrg and Stamina, the return of trancecore legend UFO to the scene (check the two tracks I’ve featured here if you have any doubts that he still has what it takes), more freeform raves in the UK, Japan and Finland (big shout to I Love Hard Beats, Finrg, and Sinistry), a few freeform tunes on the Fallen Angels Vol. 2 comp from DJ 3star, loads of awesome tunes from Spain (I think this is the year that Spanish Makina producers like David Traya, Dani Delirio and jD-KiD really crossed over to the UK freeform audience), and plenty of freebies on Soundcloud scattered liberally throughout the year. Plus there’s even been some crossover of freeform to the wider hardcore scene, as dj’s like A.B., Douglas, Endemic, and Thumpa have had sets in the main room at events like Westfest, HTID in the Sun, and Hardcore Heave, plus Thumpa and Obie mixed a cd on Hardcore Underground 6. Truly a long-awaited outbreak of taste in the perpetual suckfest that is the UK Hardcore scene.

Overall, I’d say that it’s been a great year for the music!

(Plus, speaking of Thumpa, he’s also just dropped his own 2013 retrospective)

There’s also been some comedy moments along the way – for example, how the hell did Kutski win Best Freeform DJ at the Hardcore Heaven Awards when he never actually plays freeform?!?

From that farce has come some good, though, as Stray has set up the Freeform Awards 2013 – vote now for Round 2!

And there’s also been some sad news, too – Thumpa is giving up running ReBuild Music when his little girl is born in the spring, which is a damn shame as it’s been one of the key labels in the revival of freeform over the last few years. Still, as someone whose own daughter is turning three soon, I know very well how much of a challenge combining my own minor mixing hobby is with family life and full-time work – running a label would be a lot more difficult! Good luck to you, Olly.

Even so, there’s a lot to look forward to freeform-wise in 2014. Off the top of my head, I can think of the following albums that are due to be released in this coming year:

  • Ain’t No Grave – the final ReBuild compilation
  • Strength In Numbers – Stamina vs Strictly For The Purist compilation
  • Substanced – Futureform (his second artist album)
  • Smiling Corpse Vol. 2
  • Qygen artist album on Smiling Corpse
  • Watchtower Vol. 3
  • apparently the long-rumored Sharkey artist album on Hardcore Underground will also be coming out

As for me, I think this is an appropriate moment to take a bit of a freeform breather. As you know, I love a broad spectrum of electronic music, and after doing seven freeform mixes in one year, I want to take some time to do various other projects that I have put on the back burner while I have been smashing together all of these mixes. This doesn’t mean I am ‘retiring’ from freeform or anything like that, just that for the next six months (at least) I will do other things. I’m still going to be keeping track of the scene, still buying the releases, still checking out people’s mixes on Soundcloud, but for myself I want to use my limited free time to put together some more jungle, dubstep, house, techno, acid and hard trance mixes.

So, thanks for joining me throughout the last couple of years, and I look forward to continuing to entertain you in 2014. Have a great New Year’s Eve!

My year in Freeform:

Rampage Turbo 15 – March – My first freeform mix for the year was an epic two hour journey into the best freeform sounds of 2011 and 2012, and was my first ever mix recorded entirely on CDJ’s. Plasma Dancer’s review.

Rampage Turbo 16 (An Electronica Exposed Tribute) – April – My all-vinyl tribute to the amazing Electronica Exposed label family.

Munted Takeover – June – I dropped the last half hour of this awesome Munted preview special, alongside Plasma Dancer from Thank You For The Horse, DJ Midas, and Aryx.

Rampage Turbo 17 (Hardcore History – Bonkerz Special) – June – A short(ish) mix for DJ Hellfury’s humongous Hardcore History project – I put together an all-vinyl tribute to Sharkey’s legendary Bonkerz label.

Rampage Turbo 18 – July – For number 18 I went back to the roots of Rampage Turbo and picked out three tracks from each of the first six mixes in the series (6×3=18, understand?)

Rampage Turbo 19: The Lost Years – September – Since I missed out on several years’ worth of freeform by not having CDJs, it was only appropriate to finally put together some of my favorite tunes from roughly 2004 to 2011. It’s an epic selection, featuring monster tunes from Carbon Based, Alek Szahala, Lost Soul, Twisted Freq, Betwixt & Between (RIP), Alabaster, David Traya, Kevin Energy, and many more.