Hello, I’ve been a bit lazy for the past week – but thankfully not too much seems to have happened in the freeform world, so I’m safe.

Anyway, I managed to get to the Enough/Hell’s event last night, and it was good fun. Shinjuku M’s is located smack in the middle of Tokyo’s biggest red-light/gay district, and not somewhere I frequent too often. Cue me getting lost among the dodgy side streets,  and no doubt looking like someone in search of just the right kind of host/hostess bar while I gazed at all the signs.

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This is starting to turn into the Hell’s Gate blog, but another Hell’s-related event has recently been announced. Psychadelic Enough vs Hell’s will see both collectives play more of a euphoric/psychadelic style, along with hard house and I’m guessing some hard style from Zio.

Obviously it might not be the time or place to be crashing in with 175bpm freeform, so I’m not playing at this one. KA>NA is, but not the dark Hard NRG that she’s famous for – something more along the psych lines this time, I hear. take-de-x is also playing at the event (it seems tailor made for him), but he’s involved in some group-swapping hijinks, and so he’ll be part of the Enough crowd. I’ve never been to Shinjuku M’s, and so I might head along to support the others this time, especially as Zio has mentioned that he’ll playing harder tunes towards the end, too (in a similar style to Dance or Die vs Hell’s a month or so back).

The lineups:

ZIO (HELLS GATE/JP)
KA-NA (HELLS GATE/JP)
MKT (HELLS GATE/JP)
MINAGI aka Raythm (HELLS GATE/JP)

addict88(ENOUGH/JP)
壱 (STARCLASS/JP)
take-de-x (HELLS GATE/JP)
SHINME (ENOUGH/JP)
SOUTA (ENOUGH/JP)
KOUTA (ENOUGH/JP)

I’m back from playing at Hell’s Gate, and I lived to tell the tale – but more on that soon. There’ll hopefully be some photos etc on the way, as well as a no-doubt overly long post describing exactly what went on.

This post is all about last month’s NRGetic Romancer, though – a little later than planned, but at least there are now some pictures to look at (there may be video coming later too, so stay tuned for that).

Of course this was a special event for a few reasons, first of all the occasion of NRGetic Romancer’s 4th anniversary, but also that DJ X Lab 4 was making his first solo appearance in Tokyo (not Japan though, as he’d played the day before in Osaka, if you remember).

Anyway, first up as always was Horny, or the new duo of gokuraku and Yuusuke. Playing energetic schranz, they did a fine job of warming up for the other DJs, even if the tunes seemed to slip from hard and fast into slightly cheesy a little too often for comfort. Still, their set offers something different from the rest of the night, which can only be a good thing. Cogi followed them, playing Psytrance and classic FINRG once more (as well as Halcyon, if I remember correctly). The pace really increased towards the end, and included Alek Szahala’s Invitation, a Cogi favourite but one I haven’t heard him play for quite some time. It would be great to see him let loose in the middle of the event, but the schedule seems pretty fixed for the time being – and he really knows how to build his set with the aim of preparing everyone for the following DJs (without stealing their tracks)…selfless stuff, and a lot harder than it looks, I bet.

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The next NRGetic Romancer is just a month away, and Guld has just released the new flyer. Digging into my not-very-up-to-date anime knowledge, I’d say this one is…Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex?

Although there are no special guests this time, DJ X has come up with a mix that will be given out to everyone making it to the event – his set last month was fantastic, and so I wouldn’t complain if that’s the set included on the CD. Thinking about it, that reminds me that I haven’t managed to write up anything about the 4th Anniversary event yet. Bear with me, I’ll see if I can get hold of some more photos asap. Worth mentioning also that the artist previously known as ‘Horny’ has now become a duo, gokuraku & Yuusuke. Their last set in August was very good, so I’ll be looking forward to what they come up with this time.

10 more days until Hell’s Gate, and to mark the occasion Stanfield has come up with another inspired design (above left). Above right is the official timetable, to be used during the event at Studio Cube. Stanfield has also produced a few other notices/information posters, all looking very professional indeed.

There have also been some whispers of a new track by Zio, under construction as we speak – and if ready in time, it’ll be getting its first airing next week. Good news for fans of his first track (Glacial) is that this one is also Hard NRG/freeform, rather than the Hardstyle that he’s often been tinkering with recently.