Japanese

Dyzphazia – Hardcore Summer Bash 2015

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 16, 2015
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 1 comment

Hardcore Summer Bash 2015 was a great event, but as so often happens when there’s a flood of good sets, some tend to get overlooked. Dyzphazia’s set has been on my radar for ages, and now I’ve finally checked it out it’s most definitely deserving of a mention here.

This is probably the first set for many months that has a tracklist that I’m 100% interested in – if you’re pining for the golden age of FINRG and the wonderful showcase sets we would regularly hear a few years ago, then delay no further and give this one a listen.

These tracks have been around for a long, long time (still sounding as glorious as ever, I’d add), and some rock-solid mixing shows how comfortable Dyzphazia is with a lot of these. There are some gentle shifts from one key to the next to keep the variety up, while hitting the sweet spot between the melancholy melodies and darker tracks.

The whole set is an excellent listen, but the selection of Savage Man coincides with what I think is the smoothest sequence of tunes – following it up with Tindaros and then Fisheye pretty much has it all. A nostalgic trip for most of us, and an excellent primer for anyone else who has joined the scene more recently, this one comes very highly recommended.

Dark Dimension 1st Compilation tracklist

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 9, 2015
Posted in: Events, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Releases. 1 comment

Following on from the last post, here’s the tracklist for the upcoming Dark Dimension compilation. Turns out that Guld will be contributing two tracks, his new remix of Dryad Machine and what’s hopefully a remastered version of the Lamento della Sirena remix.

I’m also looking forward to Evil Fairy and Suke’s tracks, and it looks like there’ll be some interesting industrial tracks from Takuya Angel, Sisen and MonSiii.

Dark Dimension CD Compilation

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 2, 2015
Posted in: Events, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Releases. 1 comment

Dark Dimension has been doing a superb job over the past few years of supporting Tokyo’s darker music scenes, with everything from industrial to NRG featured at one time or another. Next month’s event is a special one though, marking the release of the first Dark Dimension CD release.

The full tracklist is still unannounced, but some of the biggest names to appear at DD will be on there, including Sisen, Takuya Angel, Satoshi Honjou and (until now) non-producing DJs such as Akira and Ray Trak. Most interesting for the TYFTH crew will probably be Guld’s track, and I’ll be sure to post again once more tracklist info shows up.

I’ll be getting the CD on the day, but for those outside Japan there’ll be a chance to buy it too – that is if you happen to be in Germany (Essen, specifically) on the 17th-18th October. Takuya Angel will be playing at the Astan Asia Days event, and will have some CDs for sale there.

Watchtower Vol. 3

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 1, 2015
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Finnish, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Releases, UK, USA. Leave a Comment

Watchtower Vo. 3 is finally emerging Rip Van Winkle-like from schedule stasis, with two CDs of high quality freeform and NRG. For TYFTH purposes the best news is the appearance of two brilliant Japanese tracks in Guld’s remix of Hatral and Le Dos-on’s Chemical Wash, but there’s also a very strong Finnish showing from Alek Szahala, Alchemiist, Grimsoul, Substanced, and Epyx & Cyrez / Tyranoid & Strongstream. Throw in some great tracks from Qygen and Aryx, and there’s a lot of material here for our side of the freeform spectrum, plus the expected new releases from Transcend, Lost Soul et al. A must buy, then, and preorders are already open on the Watchtower site, with the release a few days away.

CODEX5, 2nd May @Shibuya R-Lounge

Posted by PlasmaDancer on July 27, 2015
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Japanese. 2 comments

Brief respite here before I get back into more music-related busyness, and time for a belated look back at the last edition of CODEX. The biggest draw was the return of Alek Szahala after seven years away from Tokyo, but the whole event was a massive success, uniting the enthusiasm of the original CODEX crowd and the darker style of NRGetic Romancer’s ravers.

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Rinsed Radio Podcast #20 – 13th June 2015

Posted by PlasmaDancer on July 21, 2015
Posted in: Finnish, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Mixes, UK. Leave a Comment

I had a pleasant surprise the other week when I noticed my Lucky Lotus set included as one of the mixes of the week on New Zealand’s Rinsed Radio Podcast. The other selection was Alchemiist’s Lucky Lotus mix (very well worth checking out, if you haven’t already), so I was definitely in good company.

The whole podcast is very recommended, as after two 30-minute segments of the guest sets, host DJ Orphic plays an hour or so of quality freeform, most of it from Smiling Corpse’s latest release. Big thanks once again to Orphic for the support, and plenty of respect for pushing our sound in that corner of the world.

Suncore – Freeform propaganda

Posted by PlasmaDancer on July 18, 2015
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. Leave a Comment

Suncore – Freeform propaganda by Suncore on Mixcloud

Suncore’s very active at the moment, and I couldn’t resist giving a shout to his most recent set. Typically idiosyncratic, there are a couple of surprising moments combined with the kind of freeform and NRG that TYFTH loves best.

Truth be told I’m not a massive fan of the various versions of Silence a Prayer, but it seems to be quite an anthem these days and works well here as an intro, before a great little sequence of old and new Japanese tracks. Niflheimr is another quality Falchion tune, and the transition into Betwixt & Between’s Stand and Fight works very well. There’s definitely an element of ‘overused promo’ syndrome here though, as the tune outstays its welcome and doesn’t move too smoothly into Phaedra.

Post-Phaedra things go unconventional again, with the bpm suddenly dropping to bring in Hokkai – nothing necessarily wrong with that of course, but the move into Gozenzeuna is a bit sketchy and feels like a missed opportunity. Making up for that is a really nice use of the silent moment towards the end of the track, smoothly bringing in Adagio for Strings’ breakdown. The distinctive atmosphere so far is rounded off well with Betwixt & Between’s Outro, leaving us with a set that has its faults, but also shows some real promise. If Suncore can iron out a few transition quirks, his future (longer?) sets should be really worth looking out for.

01 A.B & Nick235 – Silence A Prayer (Intro Mix)
02 DJ FALCHiON – Niflheimr
03 Betwixt & Between – stand_and_fight
04 Betwixt & Between – Phaedra
05 Hase – Hokkai (Reloop)
06 GULD – Gozenzeuna
07 Alek Szahala – Barbers Adagio for Strings
08 TOTAL DISCOMMUNICATION – Outro

Shimotsukei – Lucky Lotus Festival 5 Mix

Posted by PlasmaDancer on July 13, 2015
Posted in: Finnish, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Mixes, Swedish, UK, USA. Leave a Comment

Slowly getting around to some more Lucky Lotus sets, including this one from Shimotsukei that’s been a pretty regular listen for me over the past few weeks. Another Shimotsukei set that really effectively mixes freeform with a few other genres, this is definitely recommended if you’re after something out of the ordinary.

The first third is probably the most conventional, with some hard dance from Ultraform, Adam Lab 4 etc. keeping the melodies straightforward and danceable, before Mermaid signals some familar freeform. Look out for some classic tracks from Druggy’s Acid Rack, then a superb Betwixt & Between sequence of Broken Visage and Hydra.

This is without a doubt the best example so far of Shimotsukei incorporating demented dark psy into his sets, and the transition from Hydra into Breaking Point is very close to seamless. Such a smooth flow seems to make a crucial difference, as this time around I found myself buying into the change in atmosphere much more readily. There’s no let up as the set hurtles into the finale, but it’s a hugely enjoyable ride of the kind only Shimotsukei seems to be creating at the moment.

01. Modulate – Hard & Dirty (A.D.A.M. Lab4 Mix) [Infacted Recordings]
02. Ultraform – Music Is Movin’ [Ultraform Productions KB]
03. Ultraform – Sense Your Mind [Ultraform Productions KB]
04. Alek Száhala – Mermaid [FINRG]
05. Le Dos-on – Benetnasch [Solidbox Records]
06. Ark-Z – lunatic satelite [Druggy’s Acid RacK]
07. LV.4 – Angel dust [Druggy’s Acid RacK]
08. Betwixt & Between – Broken Visage [Cis-Trance/東方カーニバル]
09. Betwixt & Between – Hydra (Long Edit) [Hardcore Tano*C]
10. CinderVOMIT Ft Luuli – Breaking Point [Horrordelic]
11. Junxpunx – Ruten [Osom Music]
12. CinderVOMIT – Distorted Visual Depth Perception [Horrordelic]
13. Junxpunx – Neomeow [Osom Music]

PlasmaDancer – Lucky Lotus 5, 6th June 2015

Posted by PlasmaDancer on July 4, 2015
Posted in: Canadian, Finnish, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Mixes, USA. 2 comments

Probably about time for a quick note on my Lucky Lotus set, broadcast a few weeks ago and now up on the FINRG SoundCloud.

I actually put a lot of effort into this one, and hoped to follow up my old (and very melodic) LL mix with something a bit darker. In the end I decided on a dark first half, before a psychedelic midsection and a slightly lighter finale – I’m (occasionally) working on a special set for TYFTH at the moment which’ll be heavy on the melancholy, and so I wanted to keep things energetic this time around.

As is usual these days, you’ll notice that most of the tracks are very old, and even one or two of the connections might be familiar-ish if you’ve listened to some of the more ancient sets listed here. It wasn’t the plan from the outset to use so many oldies, but it’s of course hard to find a similar atmosphere in many modern tracks – it’s a nice feeling to be so familiar with a lot of these tunes, and hopefully that’s reflected in some fairly interesting connections and a flow I’m very happy with.

edit: To add something a bit more informative, a really important part of the first half was Superstition – I’ve always wanted to use it in a set, and the track actually changes key after the intro, which is incredibly useful if you’re going for a smooth sequence of tunes. Pink Magic is another Alek track that does something similar.

I was actually quite pleased with the next part too – I’m not the first or last to try to connect a few psychedelic tracks to Supriya, but this was my best attempt so far, and I really like the progression to Le Dos-on’s Mezame bootleg. Having melodically fumbled my way out of that section, I was looking forward to smoothly progressing things towards the finale. Sadly though, time restraints meant I couldn’t mess around with Mezame experiments for too long, and I decided to switch things up and lead into the Mediterranean Summer – Spatial Healing combination I’ve been sitting on for a while. A shame to let the momentum of the previous 45 minutes trickle away a bit, but there was the silver lining of using Rift in a set for the first time ever.

Apparently there was quite a positive response to the set during the broadcast, and once again a few new listeners seem to have checked out our brand of freeform as a result (if some sudden action on the TYFTH SoundCloud is anything to go by). That was the main objective of course, so huge thanks once again to the Lucky Lotus organisers for another chance to spread the word.

Hardcore Summer Bash 2015, 18th – 25th July

Posted by PlasmaDancer on June 14, 2015
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. 7 comments

A quick note to draw attention to Hardcore Summer Bash 2015, for which I’m prepping another set. This one will be a special ‘vs’ hour with Guld, and we’re already going all-out to bring some surprises and proper NRGetic Romancer sound to the event.

The timetable won’t be announced for a while yet, but keep an eye on the Facebook event page for now, and of course there’ll be more info up here as and when.