Japanese

Thanatos – Rise (Render Regalia Remix)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 27, 2013
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 6 comments

Time for a confession here – this is the only time I’ve discovered a brilliant (released) tune of interest to TYFTH and decided to keep it away from the site for a while, saving it for use in a set/event. Now that CODEX has been and gone (more on that later), it’s about time to finally give a wider shout out to Thanatos’ wonderful remix of Rise, the main theme of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

There’s quite a bit of ‘noisiness’ in the top end, but with so much sampling going on it’s easy to forgive, especially as Thanatos has done such a fine job with the track’s structure. I spent a very long time indeed thinking about the the connections into and out of this tune, and at least to my ears it fitted right into the atmosphere I was going for at CODEX (and indeed the connection will appear again in my next recorded set). The video up the top uses the radio edit of the track, but I’m sure you get the idea. Finally, massive thanks to Gaia for initially letting me know about the track, this has to be one of the best recommendations I’ve ever received.

edit: Big thanks to raqhow for reminding me of the link to buy the track – you can find it here.

Nrgray – Into the Darkness

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 22, 2013
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 2 comments

The first set for a while from Nrgray is a nice 30 minute showcase of darker, melodic tracks. The big attraction here is obviously the Altered States version of Moving Flare, a beautiful tune that brings back lots of memories, but the set properly gets into its stride with Innocence into Morokai, nicely anchoring that all-important middle section of the mix.

1. ThermalForce – Moving Flare (Altered States) (CDR)
2. Transcend – Mindglow (Rebuild Music)
3. Nomic – Innocence (CDR)
4. Aryx – Morokai (Smiling Corpse)
5. Substanced & Alchemiist – Skullcrush (Transcend & Dyzphazia remix) (F/C FINRG Recordings)
6. Ikaruga_nex – Dodomeki (F/C Smiling Corpse)

Dyzphazia – Lucky Lotus 3

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 22, 2013
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 3 comments

Been quite busy this week, and too occupied with Codex prep to check out all the mixes that have appeared recently. Here are a couple though, and I’ll catch up on the rest asap – there’re some really tasty sets floating around at the moment.

First up is Dyzphazia’s Lucky Lotus set, a really interesting hour that eases into the freeform after a slower start. I went for a similar ‘rookie friendly’ start, but here the lower bpm works especially well, then moving up through the gears and eventually finishing with Hydra. Lots of newer stuff on show throughout, but for me the standout moment of the set was definitely the Skullcrush – Anthrax Injection combo, a really nice mix of melodies and nastiness that flows very well. A shame it doesn’t continue in the same vein a little longer, but you won’t find a bad tune in the tracklist, that’s for sure (though Pink Magic doesn’t actually seem to be in there..?).

  1. Marilyn Manson – Resident Evil Main Theme (J-Gear Bootleg) [CDr]
  2. Wyrm & Surtr – Tesseract [Electrode]
  3. Cosmic Gate – Back to Earth (Alchemiist Bootleg) [CDr]
  4. Alek Szahala – Lagash (Original Mix) [CDr]
  5. Betwixt & Between – East of Eden [CDr]
  6. Substanced & Alchemiist – Skullcrush (Transcend & Dyzphazia Remix) [F/C FiNRG]
  7. Alchemiist – Anthrax Injection [Smiling Corpse]
  8. Epyx & Cyrez – Unohdetut 2011 [Electrode]
  9. Yuki Kajiura – Mezame (Nomic Bootleg) [CDr]
  10. Proteus & Kevin Energy – London Helsinki Underground (Proteus Warcry Remix) [NuEnergy]
  11. Qygen – gXX-XeY-XQn 2010 [CDr]
  12. Alek Szahala – Pink Magic [FiNRG]
  13. Betwixt & Between – Hydra (Long Edit) [Hardcore Tano*C] 

RIP Studio Cube 326

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 16, 2013
Posted in: Japanese. Leave a Comment

This is pretty old news now for anyone in Tokyo, but Studio Cube closed down a few months ago. The venue for NRGetic Romancer, Tokyo Hardcore Construction, and a variety of harder events, the loss of Cube is a massive blow to Tokyo’s underground club scene. Anyone who played/visited there will agree that the main floor PA was absolutely top drawer (better than any harder event I’ve attended here or outside Japan), while the layout was perfectly set up for the kind of serious dancing that went on at Romancer.

Coupled to that was Cube’s location – a winding 15-20 minute walk through the waterside hotels and side streets of Tamachi (an ‘armpit of Tokyo’ as a friend once described it) meant that anyone heading along to an event very likely knew what they were getting into. Unlike clubs in the standard entertainment districts, this meant that random Shibuya bimbos or Roppongi ‘clubbers’ were a mercifully rare sight, and instead it was always about the club’s wonderful community of dedicated, knowledgeable ravers. One of the very few places in Tokyo I’ve genuinely felt at home, finding a replacement is probably going to be impossible.

Anyway, RIP Studio Cube. I have plenty of awesome memories, but the video up above might be one of the best – Miran’s double mask dancing while I played Voices of Babylon, back in 2009.

Le Dos-on – Obsidian

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 16, 2013
Posted in: Japanese, Releases, UK. 1 comment

Yet more releases from Le Dos-on, this time an upcoming EP on Relentless Digital. The track that caught my ear from the preview was Obsidian, but anyone into slightly lighter sounds will also find much to like in the other two. By all accounts there’s a lot of new Le Dos-on material set to appear on other labels too, I’m really looking forward to hearing which ones he picks for his Codex set next week.

TYFTH Live, tonight from 11pm (JST)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 11, 2013
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. 2 comments

Live streaming video by Ustream

I’ve decided that for now I won’t be uploading my Lucky Lotus set, as it was intended more as an ‘event set’ that changed things up a lot and introduced folk to some different styles, but will be playing it again tonight for anyone who’s interested/missed it the first time around. I say ‘playing’, but it has crossed my mind to just stream the original mix and have a chat with everyone while we listen – I used 15 or 16 tunes, so would probably be kept too busy preventing trainwrecks to be able to talk that much. Either way, it’ll start at 11pm, provided I remember how to use ustream.

Oh, and the other reason for not uploading the set is that I’m in the early stages of planning my next ‘studio mix’ that’s a bit more consistent in its sound. I’ll hopefully have time to spend on it at the end of summer, but for now I’m focused on Codex tunes.

LRHC ’13

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 11, 2013
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 2 comments

Lithium Records’ new album release might not be prime TYFTH material at first glance, but in amongst the J-Core is Lost, yet another new track from the unstoppable Le Dos-on. This is one of those tunes (and there are a heck of a lot these days, for some reason) where the intro/first half has me thinking that it’s not something I can use in a set, before things change up at the break and head into much more promising territory. Anyway, Lost‘s breakdown features Le Dos-on’s unique combo of UK, Finnish and Japanese styles, with just enough melancholy before the kick returns with some lovely filtering. A quality track then, and the whole album is available for free from the Lithium website.

Alderz – Freeformaniacs June 2013

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 6, 2013
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 2 comments

Here’s a set I’ve wanted to mention for a couple of months now, another stormer from the one like Alderz. A quick look at the tracklist should be all you need, but worth mentioning the variety here, slipping in some UK freeform (of the more aggressively filtered, Finnish sort) in the middle section, bridging the melodic stuff and the nastier, harder finale.

Alderz’s trademark mixing style means there’s hardly time to draw breath before a new tune comes hammering in, it’s a great way to combine a lot of different material and definitely keeps the interest up. A quality set then, and definitely worth a download.

1. Alek Szahala – Dawnstar (Aryx Remix) / Rebuild 
2. Transcend & Lost Soul – 7 Light Cycles / Watchtower 
3. Amini – Fcking Pirates / Rebuild 
4. Substanced & Alchemiist – Facemelt / Finrg 
5. Betwixt & Between – Liberation / CDR 
6. Nomic – Suicide Machine / Smiling Corpse 
7. Endemic – Xen / Watchtower 
8. Transcend – Lament Configuration / Watchtower 
9. Substanced & Alchemiist – Permission To Die / Finrg 
10. Epyx & Cyrez – A Bit Rougher / Watchtower 
11. Marilyn Manson – This Is The New Shit (Nomic Remix – 2013 Edit) / CDR 
12. Kilamorza – Sirius / Freeformatted 008 

Lucky Lotus Online Electronic Music Festival 3, 2nd – 5th August, lineup and flyer

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 1, 2013
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 4 comments

It’s almost time for Lucky Lotus to begin, and it seems that the timetable is finally settled after redefining ‘fluid’ for the past couple of weeks. That said, I’ve been nicely settled in the Friday lunchtime (GMT) slot for a while now, and am really looking forward to checking out some other sets too.

There’ll be a chat facility on Aniradio (the event’s host), and I’ll be there during my set to say hello and answer any questions from those that might be new to freeform. It’ll also be my first real appearance online for months, so it’d be great to bump into any Horsers that happen to be free then.

Once again, the enormous lineup can be found on the Facebook event page, or the full-size version of the excellent flyer.

Buzzmasta

Posted by PlasmaDancer on July 26, 2013
Posted in: Japanese. Leave a Comment

It seems to be public knowledge these days, so before starting things up again at TYFTH I have to pass on the terribly sad news that Buzzmasta has passed away. What with Romancer’s hibernation and Buzz’s move away from hardcore into his other favourite genres I hadn’t seen him for quite a long time, and so the news came as a massive shock to me and rest of the Romancer crew.

Buzz was without doubt one of the nicest people I’ve met in the scene, and I’ll always be grateful for the welcome he showed me when I first turned up here. Thanks to his collabs and DJ gigs he made also quite a reputation for himself in the UK scene, and he was a massive hit with crowds wherever he played a set.

The Tokyo scene has lost a great guy and a talented producer, we’ll all miss him very much.