Events

Shimotsukei – Lunch Tribute Mix

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 25, 2017
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes, USA. Leave a Comment

I’m ever so late with this one, but as it’s hard to keep up with Shimotsukei’s mix-posting schedule there might well be some who missed her excellent tribute to Lunch. As the founder of Tokyo Hardcore Construction it’s not overstating things to say that there wouldn’t be much of a gabber scene here without Lunch’s music and events.

Shimotsukei’s set does a fine job of representing Lunch’s sounds (and even sourcing them in the first place), running through his final tracks on Pure Existence as well as far earlier work and some big THC anthems like Oldskool Terrorist (one of my personal favourites) and Hardcore Ravers Motherfucker. The mixing is also top drawer with some interesting, longer transitions that you wouldn’t often hear at THC – such was Lunch’s (justified) confidence in his timing he would usually play the next track with both faders at max volume from the very start.

More than any other recent set, this brings back all sorts of memories of the Tokyo harder scene of years past, but even without the nostalgia element it’ll be pretty hard for newcomers to resist melodies as manic and catchy as these.

Adrenaline TV Season 0 Episodes 1 and 2

Posted by PlasmaDancer on August 6, 2017
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. Leave a Comment

Satoshi Honjo will be a name familiar to many, even if only for his Hannya schranz remix back in the day. He’s still very active though, both with Adrenaline and surprise appearances at darker Tokyo events like Dark Dimension. He and the Adrenaline crew look to be starting a video mix series, and while his set is a lot lighter than anything you’d expect at DD the second (nicely mixed) episode featuring K-Hole goes in a harder direction.

Proteus / Betwixt & Between / PlasmaDancer – Live @NRGetic Romancer

Posted by PlasmaDancer on July 14, 2017
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Japanese, Mixes. 3 comments

I took the chance to upload a few more NRGetic Romancer sets today, including a rare Proteus recording and the original Betwixt set that got me into freeform in the first place. Bringing up the rear is my old set from 2009 – all three confirm once again that Romancer’s atmosphere just couldn’t be beaten, and putting audio quality complaints to one side for now, I love reminiscing while hearing the crowd madness of these mic recordings.

The Proteus set is probably of most interest to many, recorded in 2007 at NRGetic Romancer’s 3rd anniversary. Although I don’t seem to have the other headlining sets from Guld and ADAM Lab 4, this one is a pretty special hour and a quarter that really shows what Proteus was all about at the time. Featuring plenty of the tracks on his then-upcoming The Nature of the Beast, the set also includes some excellent older NRG. I haven’t given a tracklist a try yet, but I’d love to know who’s responsible for the Manson remix around 16.17.

The Romancer playlist is pretty impressive already, but there might well be more to come…

Shimotsukei & PlasmaDancer – Lucky Lotus 7

Posted by PlasmaDancer on June 30, 2017
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Events, Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, USA. 3 comments

Apologies to the Lucky Lotus chat crew who have been expecting this for almost a week, but hopefully late is better than never – best we take a look at this one before we work through some other very promising sets from last weekend.

You might remember that we were both originally on the lineup to play individual sets, but what with one thing and another it worked out easiest for us both to go for another collab. Not that I’m complaining – last year was really good fun, while this one was a great way to get over a slight lack of recent freeform inspiration on my part. I have a darker set in the very early works, but last year’s In Praise of Shadows mix worked out so well I’m having trouble matching that for the time being.

Instead I thought a slightly more melodic approach might be interesting this time, including some of the freeform side of IPoS. Shimotsukei had her own ideas of course, and the set somehow worked out very nicely with minimal rejigging of the tracklist. My toughest job was to come up with pre-Fleshfest sequence which led me to settle on Some More. Years of diddling around with the track has still left me with no decent transitions, and so after spending time on all sorts of bizarre combos I gave up and went for a Grimsoul-only opening. We don’t hear his tracks often enough these days (Sentimental Pain aside), plus it was my first time to use any of the three in a set.

Shimotsukei’s sequences are all fantastic, from the standout NRG of Fleshfest – Mad Man to the so-mad-it-might-just-work finale of Voodoo to Xochitlan. Each sequence is made all the more impressive by the fact that Shimotsukei was mostly working with my completed sections of the set, once I had cheerily passed them on for her to struggle with.

My own favourite section is Syxautik to Ascend to the Stars, even if it’s the most roughly mixed (with some suspect levels that definitely didn’t seem as bad while mixing). I was trying a dark, deeper atmosphere there, with some more emotional sounds coming in as it progressed – I think it’s pretty successful, and a bit of a preview of the kind of thing I’d like from the next solo set.

It was very nice to see the positive reaction to the set in the LL chat, as well as exchange a few words with Horsers for the first time in far too long. Big thanks of course to LL for the invitation, and especially to Shimotsukei for all the hard work to get the set ready in time. I hope we’ve still got a few more collabs ahead of us, they’re going well so far.

I haven’t given up thoughts of the occasional live set stream (on chew, twitch, or somewhere else) and will keep you all posted, but I do at least have a new mix approaching completion – not the usual thing at all, but hopefully it’ll be the kick needed for a more productive second half of the year.

01. Grimsoul – Escape Forever [Electronica Exposed]
02. Grimsoul – Pahus [Electronica Exposed]
03. Grimsoul – Some More [Electronica Exposed]
04. Carbon Based, DJ Rx & Proteus – Fleshfest [FINRG]
05. Proteus, Ephexis & Ting – Angel of Hell [UHOtrax]
06. FEN Project – Mad Man [FINRG]
07. DJ Rx – Fisheye [FINRG]
08. Morita Yuuhei – The Ghost [Thank You For The Horse]
09. Alek Szahala – Dryad Machine (Hyphen Remix) [Thank You For The Horse]
10. Nightforce & Substanced – Operation Stardust [Electronica Exposed]
11. Pain on Creation – Mortality [FINRG]
12. Twisted Freq – Syxautik [Electronica Exposed]
13. Mellow Sonic – Paradoxon [Cosmicopia Records]
14. Alek Szahala – Ascend to the Stars (Qygen Remix) [ReBuild Music}
15. Anon – Voodoo (Power Mix) [White Label]
16. DJ Eclipse – Ultra World 5 [Bonkers Records]
17. Betwixt & Between – East of Eden (Remaster) [CDR]
18. Alek Száhala – Xochitlán [FINRG]

Lucky Lotus Online Music Festival 7

Posted by PlasmaDancer on June 17, 2017
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Japanese, UK, USA. 1 comment

Only a week to go until this year’s Lucky Lotus, including my first recorded set of the year. Once again it’ll be a back to back with Shimotsukei, but this time with more of a freeform feel than our previous collab.

As always the lineup for the rest of the event is as good as you could hope for, happily with another good showing from the freeform scene. Names that leap out so far include Horzi, Hedonistik Ritual, Orphic, Alabaster, Solvynt, Decion, Byproduct and Alek Szahala, but as the festival runs for the usual three days it’s definitely worth checking the event page for updates and timetable info. Shimotsukei and I are scheduled for Saturday the 24th at 13:35 GMT.

COGI – Live @NRGetic Romancer 4th Anniversary, 16th August 2008

Posted by PlasmaDancer on April 6, 2017
Posted in: Events, Goa / Psy, Japanese, Mixes. Leave a Comment

The mining for Romancer mixes continues, uncovering a classic, almost decade-old COGI set that I thought had long since disappeared. This is a short (and through the mic again, I’m afraid) recording from NRGetic Romancer’s 4th anniversary, right around the time that COGI was experimenting with various configurations of dark psy and freeform.

He fits a lot into the 35 minutes, starting with Void Of Farthest and ending on Cosmo and OSOM’s Instrumental, via some really interesting transitions. The Epyx & Cyrez remix of Hanuman Visits Lanka was always one of his favourite tracks, while he does very well to shenanigan a mix between Ultimate Protection and Invitation. It’s a superb, if short set that brings back some very fond memories, and I hope the rest of you enjoy listening back as much as I have.

I’m sketchy on the three (?) dark psy tracks in the middle of the set, but here’s what I’ve made of the tracklist so far:

01. Hase vs Psyfix – Void Of Farthest
02. Twisted Freq – Hanuman Visits Lanka (Epyx & Cyrez remix)
03. ?
04. ?
05. ?
06. Carbon Based – Utimate Protection
07. Alek Száhala – Invitation
08. Cosmo vs OSOM – Instrumental

GULD – Live @NRGetic Romancer, June 2007

Posted by PlasmaDancer on March 12, 2017
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. 7 comments

Sorry there’s been a pause in the set uploads – but the next one, from Guld, is actually a nice follow-up to today’s Lab 4 post. This time it’s a mic-recorded Romancer set from 2007, a time when Guld was getting a feel for his own sound while Hase and Betwixt were already at the top of their games.

An excellent, aggressive 70 minutes that shows just what his sets sounded (and often still sound) like, Guld finds time for a fine selection of Lab 4 promos, some old and new tracks of his own, and a couple of unknowns that I really should be able to ID. Any ideas?

01. Hase – Meditation
02. GULD – Nightmare Freak
03. ?
04. Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK (Lab 4 remix)
05. ?
06. Lab 4 – Perfect Drug
07. Lab 4 – Falling Down
08. ?
09. Nish – Heart Breaker (Guld’s Hellfire remix)
10. Proteus – I See Things You Don’t See (GULD remix)
11. GULD – Hannya
12. GULD vs Betwixt & Between – Hatral
13. Lab 4 – Transformation
[encore] ?

 

Lab 4 Live @ Dark Dimension Tokyo, 4th March 2017

Posted by PlasmaDancer on March 12, 2017
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 2 comments

About time some posts started appearing again, starting with a recording of Lab 4’s set from last weekend’s Dark Dimension. By most accounts it was as good an event as you’d expect but I had to miss it, making this upload a welcome chance to catch up.

Overall this is a slightly disappointing set when compared to Lab 4’s previous Japanese appearance (at Ageha a few years ago), as it tries to find a middle ground between their pure NRG of the past and newer tracks that take in semi-hardstyle, fewer filtered leads and even some dubstep breakdowns. On the other hand this selection likely has wider appeal than an hour of ten-year-old NRG, and I’ve only heard good responses to the set so far. A nice selection of the classics also helps of course, my favourite being a lovely edit of Psychopath that introduces the final ‘old school’ section, ending with Candyman.

edit: Thanks to Shimotsukei for the tracklist, via DJ X:

Intro
Efini – 00.39
Rave Revolućion – 5.15
Last Night ( Lab4_Unit13 feat Steve Blue Eyes) – 9.19
Requiem – 14.16
London ( Party All Night ) – 19.54
Come With Us ( Genetic Response ) – 24.10
No One’s Gonna Take Us Alive – 28.05
Ex Machina_( Weaponised ) – 30.25
We Live _ Mash Up – 35.06
Psychopath – 39.32
The Uprising – 45.18
Candyman ( Drop Glitch ) – 52.58

Orfeus – Live @NRGetic Romancer, 30th October 2004

Posted by PlasmaDancer on March 1, 2017
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Japanese, Mixes. 8 comments

The next NRGetic Romancer set is a pretty formative one for the whole event, with Orfeus setting the standard for guest bookings for the rest of the decade. A lot of the FINRG artists were already in full flow by this point, possibly making Orfeus a surprising first choice until you skip through this absolutely on-point hour and a bit of NRG and early golden-era FINRG. The booking says a lot for Guld’s knowledge of the scene even 13 years ago, and Orfeus of course went on to use the deadly combo of Japanese and Finnish tracks in a lot of sets, a good few years before I started doing the same.

This is a live recording via the mixer, giving a nice clean sound minus crowd noise and any nasty volume changes. The tracklist is a tricky one though, as apart from the obvious selections I’m having a really tough time identifying many. I love the first track after the intro, but up until the Kraken – Epilim combination I don’t have much of a clue what’s playing. Would anyone like to give it a go?

Even without the tracklist this is a lovely set in classic Proteus/Guld style – slanted towards NRG, plus melodic FINRG tracks as interludes that are still hard and dark enough to slot in smoothly. This might be my favourite of the Romancer sets I’ve discovered, but there’s more to come.

edit: Thanks to SteTN and Solvynt we’ve already got a pretty respectable tracklist. Feel free to pitch in if you have some ideas for what’s left!

00:00 = PoC & Orfeus – Intro (uses parts from a very early prototype of PoC & Orfeus – The Sanctuary)
1:27 – 8:30 = Proteus – Dark Queen (?)
…
14:24 – 19:54 = Reyes – Fuck You / Captain Tinrib – The Kraken (?)
19:54 = Epilim – Rapid Fire
…
30:30 – 35:09 = Flatus – Cloaca
…
45:25 = Alek Szahala – Chimaera
51:20 = Epilim – Plasma
56:20 = RX – Uprising
1:03:16 = Epilim – Desert Eagle

Betwixt & Between – NRGetic Romancer Promo CD

Posted by PlasmaDancer on February 23, 2017
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. 7 comments

Here then is the first of what’ll be a few Romancer-related uploads to TYFTH’s YouTube channel – a set from Betwixt & Between that’s probably a new listen for anyone who wasn’t a regular at NRGetic Romancer back in 2008.

This set was mixed for Romancer and handed out as a CD promo, around the time that promotional mixes were becoming a common sight at the event. The mixing is a bit haphazard in places, but production-wise it really shows Betwixt at his best, a period when a lot of his oldies still got play alongside newer tracks like Wide Awake and Surendrajit.

I hope everyone enjoys it and will be looking forward to more – there might eventually be a downloadable home for the sets but they will be collected here for the time being.

edit: Almost forgot to mention, but in the original recording the transition from Genshi Kurage to Zusammengehorigkeit suddenly (and I assume accidentally) cuts off, with silence for a few seconds before a second version of the transition cuts back in and continues the set. It’s not a pleasant listen, so I’ve cleaned up that 20 second section to allow Zusammengehorigkeit to play without interruption. Full disclosure, and all that.