Events

TYFTH Live, 21st January @19:00 (JST)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 11, 2018
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. Leave a Comment

Let’s try that again, shall we?

Obviously I’d like to offer some huge apologies for cancelling the twitch stream at such short notice – and not even officially cancelling it here, as the couple of lines on Facebook were the very best I could manage at the time. Late on Saturday I managed to get some pretty severe food poisoning that put me completely out of action for a couple of days. An extra nice combo with the remnants of jetlag, as you can imagine…

Anyway, as the first set I’ve ever missed for any reason I’m pretty keen to make up for it ASAP. The plan is to reschedule for 10 days from now, once again at 19:00 JST. I’ll do some wider word-spreading nearer the day, but wanted to update everyone here first.

Before that I’ll be trying to catch up on a few things I’ve had planned, as well as continue with some minor and not-so-minor additions to the site. I’ve been thinking that it would be nice for TYFTH to do a better job of archiving and referencing info, both for Horsers and myself, so that’s something in the works alongside all these other posts I keep mentioning.

TYFTH Live, 7th January @19:00 (JST)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 29, 2017
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. 3 comments

This would be another of those things that have been planned for an age, but what with 2017 being the first year without a club set since 2008 it’s probably about time to spring into action. Even if Shimotsukei levels of activity are a bit unlikely, I’ll be aiming for at least one set a month, starting in January. Part of the thinking behind it is to keep me match fit for any sets next year, but also just to get me back into the swing of planning event-style mixes more regularly.

Right now I’m away from TYFTH Towers, but once I return to Japan there’ll be some action on what are usually the end-of-year posts. January will tentatively see the twitch stream, the 2017 top mixes (and hopefully tracks), along with a couple of other things that have been delayed for a while. And while 2017 wasn’t the easiest time for all sorts of reasons, TYFTH will definitely be a bit more active come the new year.

FINRG accepting track submissions

Posted by PlasmaDancer on September 29, 2017
Posted in: Events, Finnish. 1 comment

Aspiring freeform producers who missed the recent(ish) announcement should note that FINRG is accepting track submissions. Another promising sign (after Substanced’s Pure Freeform) that the label is resurrecting itself for the end of the year, and it can’t come soon enough.

As much as I’d love to be accepting tracks to be be released on TYFTH that’s not a possibility for the forseeable future, so it’d be lovely to see some IPoS-inspired darker tracks surfacing on FINRG in the meantime. Surely getting in touch through any of the usual channels will do the trick, but the orginal announcement can be found on the FINRG Facebook page.

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] ?