So here we are, at the end of our short journey through the various twists and turns that the Italian label Titanic took in the past month. We’ve had towering highs in TNT’s Yeah! / Pulsation, but we’ve also experienced disastrous lows in Technoboy’s duo of releases. With only a single release left, can Antonio Donà, known more famously as Tuneboy pick up the slack that his label-mate created?

Tuneboy is a man that has a lot of history behind him. He is essentially one of the pioneers of hardstyle, laying the foundations of the genre with tracks such as Demolition, Dirty and Age of Reverse Bass (the latter as Hardstyle Masterz). He has also participated in the creation of many other classics under the SAIFAM brand of labels, defining hardstyle as we know it today. Tuneboy has proved that he can emulate an older style of music just as well, if not better than the authentic material.

Hear This, the first track on the three track ‘E.P.’ is a sign, along with TNT’s Yeah!, that elements of both old and new tracks can be moulded and mashed into something that works well for both sides of the nustyle argument.

Hear This opens with a normal, uninteresting intro followed by the sound of a record being played, crackling and all, to provide a backing track for an old-school hard house vocal sample, going (what I can only assume) “woo!” with a decent bass accompanying it. It speeds up, becoming indiscernible until a vocal snaps the track back to reality. It tells us “Don’t believe everything you’ve heard so far”, and then a sharp, reverb-laden lead kicks in, taking us through the mid-intro phrase. The mid-intro is very powerful and the hi-hat that goes with the kick drums just makes it one of the best I’ve heard all year.

Exiting the mid-intro, the vocal continues with the titular “Hear this, motherfucker” looping as snare drums gently build up to reveal the same vocal sample and bass pattern, heard during the bridge from the intro and mid-intro. A stuttering, distorted voice repeats the aforementioned sentiments, with the “motherfucker” pitched lower. This leads to a melody that just screams old school with its cold tone, but flows simply enough to make it fit the track like a glove. You can hear the bass, which isn’t reversed, peak through the melody and give an interesting little touch of distortion to the whole production.

The SAIFAM group have been kind enough to include a radio cut of Hear This. It’s pretty short, but if you’re the type of person who doesn’t enjoy intro’s in their tracks, it’s certainly worth it, as Hear This’ intro isn’t quite interesting enough to warrant multiple listens.

Hear This is by no means overproduced. Tuneboy didn’t try for anything elaborate or epic in the production, and it pays off, conveying a feeling that the public hasn’t felt for years;  it’s something that anyone can enjoy, regardless of how estranged they’ve become with the hardstyle scene. Tuneboy has crafted an excellent track that, while not catchy, is just fun to listen to.

The second track on the release is titled Eins Zwei Telefunken. What that means exactly, I have no clue. Eins and zwei are German for one and two, but the only thing I can find on telefunken is the name of a German company and a type of electrical socket, mostly used for electric razors. So the title of the track is nonsensical, which isn’t to say that’s a bad thing. Not at all. Some of the best SAIFAM tracks are the ones that don’t make any sense, and this is just one of those tracks.

Eins Zwei Telefunken is reminiscent of Ombrello Maledetto (but only slightly), a track released under the Tuneboy name earlier this year. It’s very drum heavy, but instead of the constant build up, Tuneboy opts for a constant barrage of drums from all directions, aided by a whiny synth that snakes its way throughout the track. It has a very old school feel to it, almost reaching the point of the acidic 303 sound. It’s extremely unique, and makes me think of some sort of oriental dance ceremony and I absolutely love it.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons between Eins Zwei and Ombrello Maledetto, but the former is much more structured than its older brother. It has what one could sort-of label a climax, where the kicks gain a sense of urgency, while the ever-prevalent whine gains a few extra flourishes. The track is interrupted occasionally by an absolutely huge, newer-sounding kick drum which adds something to the track that you would’ve never expected, launching it above and beyond Ombrello’s monotonous drum patterns.

Tracks like Eins Zwei Telefunken are rare. There’s just something refreshing when hearing a track that tries something completely different and succeeds. This whole release is an example of that. Hear This seems like an attempt to bring the hard back into hardstyle, but does so in a way that could be mistaken for being plucked straight out of 2006, given a remastering and then chucked out onto the turntables of DJs around the world. That’s the general feeling that I get from this release, and it’s a feeling that creates warmth in my heart.

Score: 89/100

Well, that’s certainly been a journey, hasn’t it? We’ve gone from good to bad, bad to worse and then back up to the exceptional quality that SAIFAM built its hardstyle brand on. While the Technoboy alias didn’t exactly produce the highest quality tracks, the auxiliary artists under the Titanic label stepped up and produced some of the best tracks you’ll find this year. With TNT (and SAIFAM’s token female DJ in Stephanie) booked for Qlimax on the 27th of November, it’ll be an exciting preview as to what the illustrious label has in store for 2011, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting to see what path they continue down.

Discuss Tuneboy – Hear This / Eins Zwei Telefunken on the forums.

Out now on Titanic Records (TTC064), purchase at junodownload.

A1 Tuneboy – Hear This  (Original Mix)
A2 Tuneboy – Eins Zwei Telefunken (Original Mix)
B1 Tuneboy – Hear This (Radio Edit)

This was a guest post by Orbi. If you’d like to review a release, let us know!

Titanic Records are one of the most revered and respected labels in the hardstyle genre, known for being the home of a great number of classic tracks from the talented minds at the SAIFAM group. Now, they’ve churned out four releases in October after staying silent for a number of months, and it’s time to see whether this latest batch of productions can live up to the huge weight of expectations placed upon them.

These four releases encompass SAIFAM’s three biggest names: Technoboy, Tuneboy and TNT (which is just simply Technoboy and Tuneboy collaborating). These are two personalities that have been around the block in regards to production, and what they bring to the table in these tracks can vary from truly disappointing to surprisingly superb. Some may say that the SAIFAM group, owners of Titanic, are back to their old glory, while others will be doomsayers for their failure in the light of ‘commercialisation’. What view you take depends on which tracks you look at.

All that aside, let’s start with Titanic’s 61st release:

TNT – Yeah! and Pulsation really don’t feel like TNT tracks. Instead, they just simply sound like Tuneboy solo productions. Although Giusberti will have participated in the creation of these tracks as he does for almost every SAIFAM production, the use of elements from a previous Tuneboy release (Tunebeat / Ombrello Maledetto) in Yeah! give the impression that Giusberti didn’t have as much input as he probably should have for a collaboration.

Of course, that’s not a bad thing. Yeah! is a very decent track that uses reverb-laden lead and drum patterns, reminiscent of Tunebeat and Ombrello Maledetto respectively, to great effect. It’s very melodic but TNT’s crunchy kick and bass soon springs into action, keeping the track in check. The vocals are absurd, talking about how people are born with special gifts or powers and how some have the ability to make music from a single sound. It works well coming into the climax though, with the titular “Oh yeah, like this!” serving to get the crowd pumped up. Speaking of the climax, the Italian duo add a “second sound” to the mix during the break. This unique melody could be considered cheesy, but like the rest of the track, a healthy dose of distortion on the bass really helps rein it in to make a track that is simply fascinating to listen to all the way through.

Yeah! / Pulsation also comes with an Old School mix of Yeah! where the change is the addition of reverse bass to the kick instead of the usual crunch, with parts of the track changing to fit it. It’s not a bad choice by any means and will be welcomed by the older SAIFAM fans, but the implementation isn’t as good as it could have been. When the bass comes in during the mid-intro, it cuts very suddenly to the reverse bass without any other sounds supporting it, so it sounds very sparse. While that does emphasize the bass, it just feels lazy. The climax hasn’t been changed as well, and you can barely hear the reverse bass during it, which doesn’t sound nearly as good as the original mix.

Now, I may be misinterpreting the intentions of the producers, but this Old School mix seems like a way to say “Hey! We still make stuff that you like, come and listen to this!” to those who’ve moved away from hardstyle over the past few years but it’s hard to tell whether it’s an honest plea or not. I honestly don’t know. The pessimist in me wants to say that they’re just doing it to recapture an older, more active demographic, while the optimist is just rejoicing the fact that they’re acknowledging that there are now multiple types of hardstyle and accommodating for both.

Pulsation, the second track of two on this release, continues on with the style of bass found in Yeah!, but sharp synths and a female vocalist talking about the “ultimate seduction” give it a different feel. It’s not dark, but definitely heavier than the ‘A-Side’. There’s no melody per se, but it doesn’t need one, with the sounds keeping the listener’s attention through the length of the track. There’s nothing that really manages to make Pulsation memorable, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that it’s just a plain decent track.

Yeah! / Pulsation is just one of those releases that offers something for everyone, from those jaded ex-hardstyle followers to those that enjoy their melodic, trance-esque, cheesy ‘nustyle’. That’s a good thing to see SAIFAM attempting, as hardstyle is a genre that seems to be going in only one direction, with only a limited amount of producers trying to swim against the tide. Neither track will become a classic, but for the time being they’re a great change of pace.

Score: 84/100

Discuss TNT – Yeah! / Pulsation on the forums.

Out now on Titanic Records (TTC061), purchase at junodownload.

A1 TNT – Yeah! (Original Mix)
A2 TNT – Yeah! (Old School Mix)
B1 TNT – Pulsation (Original Mix)

This was a guest post by Orbi. If you’d like to review a release, let us know!

Antonio Dona, better known as Tuneboy and Hardstyle Masterz, and co-producer of projects such as Technoboy, K-Traxx, The KGB’s, 2 Best Enemies, Dark Oscillators, Zappaman, TNT, Builder, The Raiders and DJ Phil Ty, just to name a few, has finally launched his artist website, tuneboy.it.

In recent months we have seen an explosion of artist to fan interactions, such as the establishment of Twitter accounts, official label YouTube channels and various brandings of both artists and labels. This, like many other new artist sites, does exactly that. It serves as a way of putting a face to a name, or many names in this case. Tuneboy is also now sporting a sexy new logo to match the sexy new site, further aiding the brand.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we begin to see Tuneboy appearing at a few more events in the future, and I for one couldn’t be more pleased, because if any man with such a long history in the scene and the skills to match (just check out the discography on his site) deserves it, it’s Antonio Dona.

I tip my hat to you, Mr Dona.

Fun bonus: A high quality preview of Tuneboy’s new track ‘Overkill’ is available on his site.