Another non-hardcore event (before Destroyed High next weekend), yet again including the Rituals crew, but this time in collaboration with infamous goth event Tokyo Dark Castle. With DJs and bands alternating on stage, it was very different to what I’m used to, but there was plenty of interesting/inspiring stuff to listen to.

The video at the top was actually the penultimate set, from a Prodigy-inspired/tribute group somewhat painfully called The Kusogigy –  ‘kuso’ usually translating most gently as ‘damn’ or something similar. They were surprisingly good, even if their original tunes weren’t a patch on the ‘tributes’. The video was taken right at the end of their set, and is obviously their version of Smack My Bitch Up.

Click below for all sorts of other madness…

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Last Friday I went along to the latest installment of Rituals, and had a great time meeting some of the crew of this super-niche fashion/music event. The early sets were pretty left-field, with a tribal set followed by a totally unexpected piano/synths live performance, but I was mainly there to see Siki and P.R.D. They both came up with some excellent stuff, and P.R.D’s set in particular was an awesomely atmospheric mix of slower but darker genres.

Designer/DJ/Vocalist Kenzo-A’s set was also great, leaning towards electro and rock, while the encore also had some quality tracks, like the demented Mario sound effect-ridden tune that I seem to be hearing everywhere these days.

I ended up spending the following night in a tiny visual kei (!) bar in Kabukicho, and at some point managed to commandeer the PC/sound system to play a few FINRG tracks from SoundCloud. I went for Private Demon, Maruuk and Voices of Babylon – the elegantly gothic decor of this fantastic little place fitted the tunes perfectly.

You’ve probably noticed that TYFTH has shut down all non-essential systems at the moment – I’m horribly busy, meaning fun stuff like Ustream is having to wait for another time. The forum is also still on pause unfortunately, as I”d like to be able to keep track of what’s happening on there/contribute in the early days. On the bright side, I’m coming up with some possible posts/competitions/interesting things ready for when it does eventually surface.

Anyway, last weekend I made the most of my evening off to attend Tokyo Decadance’s enormous Halloween event (I also went to last month’s Petit Decadance, but haven’t had time for a post yet). Taking up the whole of Christon Cafe and Decadance Bar, the scale of the event took me by surprise, with perhaps more than 1000 people crammed in by about halfway through the evening.

Crazy subculture gathering or not, after a couple of hours the bouncy electro on the main floor was starting to dissolve my brain, so I spent the rest of the time up on the industrial/goth ‘Dark Floor’. I’m glad I did, as Tokyo Dark Castle resident DJ Chihiro was fantastic – I haven’t heard such a well-considered/atmospheric set since the last NRGetic Romancer, when Yousuke came up with a stormer (that massively delayed post is still on the to-do list, by the way).

Following Chihiro was Siki, who played a far harder set than I was expecting, full of schranz and some awesome dark psy. It was all too much for most people though, and somehow (considering this was one of the biggest Halloween events in Tokyo) the floor almost completely emptied at one point, leaving four of the NRGetic Romancer regulars and some of the Decadance crew. I didn’t pick the best time for a video, but hopefully you get the idea.

I’ll be at another event this coming Sunday, but this time as a staff member (not a DJ, though). More on that later in the week…

You have to wonder if the Tokyo scene’s big enough to support all the new events that seem to be springing up lately, but this new project from Kohaku and UK is definitely trying something different. Dark Dimension’s theme is pretty obvious, and there’s a nice selection of darker DJs/genres in the initial lineup.

It’s also time for Destroyed High tonight – the fantastic news is that Zio will be playing an NRG set! Less fantastic is that he’ll be on the 4th floor of Cube, where the infamous speakers make a mess of anything you play through them…

【Dark Dimension】

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