Alchemiist – Winds of Yesterday

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 20, 2008
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. Leave a Comment

今日Alchemiistというフィンランドのアーティストはかっこいい曲できました。Finrgフォラムで「日本の曲から霊感を受けた」と言いまして、Betwixt & Betweenな感じと思います。メロディーはフィンランドっぽいところがありますから、ちょっと新しいジャンルみたいですね。

ダウンロードはこちらです

Alchemiist has posted up a new track today, Winds of Yesterday – and apart from being a really nice tune, it’s interesting for the fact the he was very much inspired by Japanese tracks/Betwixt & Between. For a first attempt at this sort of thing it’s a really nice effort, and as the melody still has something of the Alchemiist/Substanced/Epyx & Cyrez feel about it, the tune sounds very fresh in an almost-a-new-subgenre kind of way. Looking forward to hearing a few more Japanese-influenced tracks in the future, it’s a promising start.

Download here

BREAK THE BOUNDARY 2nd LIVE @ Akihabara, May 18th

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 14, 2008
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

This is an interesting one – Betwixt & Between and Alabaster are playing alongside some less familiar names on the 18th, in Akihabara of all places. As for the other DJs – I won’t pretend to be too knowlegable, but apparently DJ 490 vs Luna Express are a Hardcore duo, while Clavia MAXXHEART leans more toward trance. This event is free, which makes it pretty tempting, although I’m already busy on Sunday, sadly (but looking forward to the following week’s Hell’s Gate, of course).

May 18th, 13.00 start @ ADst Akihabara

  • Ered Nust (aka Asuka Sakurai)
  • Alabaster
  • Betwixt & Between
  • DJ 490 vs Luna Express
  • Calvia MAXXHEAR
  • dust.c

Fanatic Hardcore – 東方Projectハードコアアレンジアルバム / Touhou Project Arrange Album

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 11, 2008
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. Leave a Comment

Here’s yet another release on the ALiCE’S EMOTION label, this time two CDs of tracks based upon the manic shooting games under the Touhou Project banner, and created by amateur/hobbyist shoot ’em up developer Team Shanghai Alice. As something of a shoot ’em up fiend, I’ve often wanted to play the Alice games, but never seem to have gotten around to it – not to get into too much detail, but on the rare occasions I pop into an arcade/play a shmup these days, Cave’s games are the ones for me.

Sorry, where was I? As I’m not too familar with the games themselves, perhaps the most interesting news for freeform fans is the inclusion of two Betwixt & Between tracks – Dust to Dust, an Rx-style track with guitars and fantastic pacey main melody, and Wide Awake, a tune that Betwixt may have played at the last NRGetic Romancer (I’m not sure, but I’ve definitely heard it before somewhere). There are some other nice tracks too, particularly on the ‘harder’ Black Label CD presented by Technetium , and so it’s a release worth seeking out, if you can. For a disorienting sample of every track on the CD, a full look at the artwork, and the tracklist itself, check the release page on RED ALiCE’s site.

Full Circle Recordings – Volume 1 – Psychadelic New Rose

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 11, 2008
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. Leave a Comment

After DJ Yousuke’s Hardcore Baby’s Revenge, the Full Circling continues with another release, this time on Electronica Exposed! Anyone who downloaded the recent-ish Full Circle mix from February’s NRGetic Romancer will be familar with quite a few of these tunes, but look out for new tracks from Buzzmasta – my personal favourite is Eufonica, I think. As for the Full Circle tunes, Alchemy is a fabulous tune, and up there with Halcyon as one of their best so far (even if it is a bit slow…). For once, this a CD that’s probably easier to get hold of outside Japan, so rejoice if that applies to you.

Guld’s Requiem released – EXIT TRANCE presents Trancemaster

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 11, 2008
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Releases. 3 comments

                            

Guld’s recent Hard NRG stormer, Requiem (RUA Remix) was released last Friday on Quake Records. As Guld himself recently said, all the other tunes on the Trancemaster CD are classic Trance – but his is definitely NRG. If you haven’t heard it already, get yourself over to Guld’s MySpace page, where you can hear both Requiem and his recent DragonBall Z remix, Solid State Scouter.

You might remember the Bouncy Techno event that was held in Shibuya last week? Well, I did make it after all – but I must admit that in the end Guld, Cogi and I made it (just) in time for Guld’s set at 7pm, and so I only caught the final few tunes of the previous set. Rather than going the happy-ish Nu-NRG route though, Guld ended up nearly killing the bouncy techno crew with a ferocious set that ran from Requiem, DJ Rx’s very hard Lab 4 style tune Singularity (which was played at NRGetic Romancer last month, after all), various Lab 4/Adam/Hase tracks, and finished with almegiddo! Very nice, and the few NRGetic Romancer regulars that were present certainly enjoyed it. Worth mentioning that, as with his old track Hannya8000, Guld’s new tunes really do sound great through a club PA.

Decion – Life After Death

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 11, 2008
Posted in: Finnish, Mixes. 3 comments

Before you say anything, I’m not only giving this a shout because there are two Japanese tunes included – this is simply a great mix, and (in my opinion) Decion’s best so far. The tracklist (as you’ll see below) is fantastic, and flows very well, rather than just being a list of cool-but-not-related-to-each-other promos. Kudos to Decion for including Hase/Psyfix’s Void of Farthest, a very hard tune to mix well, I think. The other Japanese track is Betwixt & Between’s classic City of Solitude, a great example of insanely hard old-style Betwixt. Anyway, other highlights are Nomic’s The Last Breath, and Tyranoid/Strongstream/Substanced’s Still Hope? Highly recommended.

1. Tyranoid / Strongstream & Substanced – Still Hope?
2. Twisted Freq – Hanuman Visits Lanka ( Epyx & Cyrez Remix)
3. Alek Száhala – Iron Squid
4. Cyrez & Substanced – Cry For The Pain
5. Nomic – The Last Breath
6. Substanced & Horzi & Sam one – Lionheart
7. Nomic – Desolated Dreams
8. Hase & Psyfix – Void of Farthest
9. Nightforce & Substanced – Operation Stardust
10. Betwixt & Between – City of Solitude

Download here

NRGetic Romancer, June 14th – Flyer design

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 5, 2008
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 3 comments

Still a month to go, but here’s the final flyer design for the next NRGetic Romancer. This time I’ve included the ‘other side’ – a shame Cogi still doesn’t get a ‘bio’, but nice design as always (and once again Evangelion-themed, if I’m not mistaken) Edit: I was mistaken – the image is from Karas – thanks NightForce!

Scouse! TOKYO – United Kingdom of Donk, 6th May @Shibuya NOSTYLE

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 2, 2008
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

Good grief – I think we can stop accepting entries for ‘Maddest Post Title 2008’ after this, don’t you think? Anyway, it seems like the most unlikely combination you could think of, but next week Guld is playing at the fairly regular Bouncy Techno (or Scouse House, surely the best ever name for a subgenre) event, at Shibuya’s NOSTYLE. Quite what he’s going to play, I have no idea – but it’ll have to be the merriest Nu-NRG set in history if he’s going to fit in with the rest of the DJs, by the looks of things.

Speaking of other DJs, two other guests are invited to this event – Hayashi and karas, neither of whom I know a great deal about, I must admit. Among the Scouse! TOKYO regulars, though, is OkamOTO…he hails from Hiroshima, and so will undoubtedly steal the show. If you don’t believe me, check the end of this post to find a brief YouTube clip of the man in action.

Back in the day, Bouncy Techno completely passed me by, as Jungle/Hardcore was more my thing, but it might be nice to hear some happier tunes for once, after months of brow-furrowing/melancholy Freeform. This event starts at 2pm on Tuesday, which isn’t as crazy as it sounds – next week is Golden Week, a holiday for everyone – and my regular day off these days is Wednesday….which all means that I should really try to make it to this one.

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DJ Rx – Lacrima (bootleg)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 1, 2008
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. Leave a Comment

Just as I was writing the Top Ten for last month, I noticed on the FINRG forum that DJ Rx’s new track, Lacrima, is now available as a free download! It could well be my favourite Rx track so far – so much energy, and a really confident tune (if that makes any sense). Betwixt & Between also loves this tune, but what with it being a bootleg, we were very doubtful of it seeing a release. This really was the best case scenario, so three cheers for Rx – hopefully this will be the nudge needed for Alek Szahala to do something similar with the Last of the Mohicans remix.

A couple more pieces of news to come tomorrow, but time for bed now.

April Top 10

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 1, 2008
Posted in: Top Tens. Leave a Comment

                               

I’ve heard some very nice tunes this month – I’m getting a few ideas for the style of the next mix, that’s for sure.

  1. DJ Rx – Lacrima (bootleg)
  2. Guld – Requiem
  3. Hase – Galatea (unreleased version)
  4. DJ Technorch – Table Talk Music
  5. Nomic – The Dead Angel
  6. Osmo – 2023 (Tyranoid vs Michael Strongstream remix)
  7. Adam Lab 4 – Boot Licker
  8. Betwixt & Between – Self Extortion
  9. Alek Szahala – Alanamra (Arkitech’s Product of Finland remix)
  10. Trevor Jones – The Last of the Mohicans Title (Alek Szahala remix)