Another mix for you, this time DJ Rx’s freeform set from last summer’s Freeformation event in the UK. There are plenty of anthems familar to people who know the Finnish scene, but it’s great to see tracks like Android Lime’s remix of Hell Night in there too. I haven’t got an official tracklist, but head over to the Nu-Energy site where you can stream or download the set.
One big drawback on this one is the MC, making it almost unlistenable at times…very glad we don’t often have that sort of thing at Japanese freeform events. Do your best to get past that, though – it’s definitely the kind of quality set you’d expect from Rx.
After double checking with everyone involved, I’ve finally got the all-clear to put the 5th Anniversary mix online! Still no news about the next batch of CDs, but I’m hoping that something’ll be organised before NRGetic Romancer this month.
The mix itself was really hard to put together within the time limit, especially finding the right kind of tracks to show the ‘Hybridize style’, while still being the kind of set that the darker NRGetic Romancer ravers would want to listen to. Eventually I decided to start off with some trancy/melodic freeform, then some twisted NRGetic Romancer style tunes, and finally a mix of the two at about 175bpm. You’ll see that Surendrajit is in there again, but this time it’s a decent mix between it and the other tracks, I hope.
I had a lot of help rounding up the tunes for this one – especially big thanks to Epyx & Cyrez and Grimsoul for their ‘NRGetic Romancer edits’, but also to DJ Swoosh, Shanty, Nomic, Substanced, Jnks, Betwixt & Between and Alabaster. Finally, huge thanks to Guld for giving me the chance to mix the CD in the first place, and for all his work on the design/distribution side of things.
Some more official info on this month’s NRGetic Romancer – as I was saying before, entrance is free and only drinks need paying for, but now the Adrenaline floor has been fully announced too. As expected, Gokuraku & Yusuke will be part of Adrenaline, which most likely means that I’ll be opening the night on the NRGetic Romancer floor.
NRGetic Romancer is a bit different to somewhere like THC, where people are ready to dance to 175bpm+ sounds right from the beginning, and so I might change it up a bit if I am to start things off this time. No need for people to get in touch re. guest lists, but of course anyone who’ll be in Tokyo around that weekend is very welcome.
Android Lime’s next radio show arrives tomorrow, and Hard NRG madness is guaranteed this time with guest DJ BRK. I’m really looking forward to BRK’s selection, hopefully we’ll get a bit of the MASSIVE style alongside Android. DJ X is up at 10pm UK time tomorrow, with Android Lime vs BRK at 11. If that’s a reasonable time in your part of the world, get over to the LSO site to listen live.
No flyer yet, but after talking with Guld I think it’s ok to announce that a pretty special NRGetic Romancer will be held this month after all, on the 23rd (which is a Friday). What’s more, entry is free! You’ll only have to worry about paying for drinks this time, so hopefully there’ll be a big attendance – and adding to that is the fact that the schranz event ‘Adrenaline’ is taking place on (I think) the 4th floor. To tell the truth I didn’t know much about it until a couple of days ago, but the Adrenaline collective includes NRGetic Romancer’s own Gokuraku & Yusuke, and has played at Heavy Sick, Deseo, all the usual spots for a hard party.
It all adds up to a very decent looking event, but I’ve got no idea of final lineups/timetables yet…we should hear something pretty soon.
I completely forgot about this, but before my holiday I signed up for a SoundCloud account. I haven’t heard much about it in the freeform scene, but it’s been getting good feedback from other DJs/producers, and so I’ve finally added (almost) all of my mixes.
If you haven’t seen it before, it’s very user-friendly, and allows you to stream a mix before downloading it (complete with a very nice clickable waveform), and even leave comments on certain points of the track or mix that you liked. You can also ‘follow’ interesting artists, that sort of thing, but from what I can tell none of the Finnish guys are using it yet. From now on I’ll be uploading sets there, so I’ll update the Mixes section here ASAP.
One last thing, the Hybridize x NRGetic Romancer set will be uploaded very soon, but I haven’t forgotten about the people who asked for CDs – they haven’t arrived yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything.
Thanks to the mysterious Mr Bod for pointing out that the April NRGetic Romancer set link has been dead for a while now. I’m having some trouble with Mediafire, so for the time being I’ve uploaded it to the not-so-user-friendly Rapidshare: Download here if you missed it before.
Sorry to say I didn’t have time to go to Tano*C yesterday afternoon, but as I was free in the evening I decided to see Yoji play for the first time at UNIT in Daikanyama. I’d noticed that Kangu was going, but wasn’t really expecting many other people I knew…it was a nice surprise then to see a huge group of NRGetic Romancer guys and girls there too, including Guld. He said the same as me, he didn’t think anyone else would be there (but being a family man these days he had to bail out before Yoji’s 3am set). Zio was there too, the first time we’ve managed to meet up for quite a while.
Anyway, as I was expecting, a lot of the music wasn’t really my thing – just incredibly, incredibly slow (Zio kept telling me ‘the bpm isn’t going to get any faster tonight, you know’)…the basement floor had some slightly faster tunes (played by DJ Torikai, Mad Child, Overflow and Rinrin), but as Guld said, the speakers were a disaster – tiny and struggling with the bass. On the main floor I was only there for Yoji, as Remo-con has been pretty disappointing every time I’ve seen him, and most of the NRG crew seemed to be thinking the same.
Everyone was hoping for some older tunes, but Yoji stuck pretty much to his current style, starting off again with his anthem Airport. The rest of the set was mostly similar catchy/simple melodies with a slow heavy kick, but most of the crowd loved it, and UNIT was absolutely packed. His stage presence was as good as people say, but I wasn’t brave enough to go too far into the crowd (I was in about the same spot as Soham in his video above). I had to leave before the end of his set, but it was definitely worth taking the chance to see Yoji at long last. Next week is the Trance Enough vs Hell’s Gate event, wonder if I’ll have the energy for that too..
Recently upped, here’s the video for the previous Hardcore Tano*C in Tokyo. If you’re not so interested in the anime-themed J-Core, skip to around 4.40 where Betwixt and Between plays alongside Alabaster – using the name ‘Butabaster’ (combining Alabaster with Betwixt’s other alias, Butabanahakase). Looks like it was a really interesting set, and I’ll definitely be going tomorrow if they do something similar… Having said that, looks like there were some nice tunes from the other artists too.
It’s already been and gone, but congratulations to Loki and the FUNERAL crew in Nagoya for their 4th Anniversary event this month. I expect you can guess from the photo, but Betwixt & Between was the guest this time (following on from Guld at the last event), and I’m hoping some video might show up sometime soon. [photo courtesy of SHINOSAN]
