Much delayed, but it’s finally time for our annual roundup of the Japanese scene’s favourite tunes. As usual, it’s a mix of tunes released in 2012 and other tracks that DJs found themselves playing a lot, but hopefully it’s just interesting for everyone to see what sounds were most popular here.
Sadly the Japanese NRG/freeform scene is very quiet this year, and has so far been totally ignored by other hardcore events (just check the lineup for this year’s Tokyo ‘Hard’ Groove Session for proof). Hopefully things will pick up again as the year progresses – one of the great things about last year was the emergence of a few new DJs, from raqhow and Nrgray gaining more experience at Experience!, to ikaruga_nex’s switch to freeform and Mii’s debut in the darker scene. Alabaster wasn’t very active last year and so isn’t part of this year’s roundup, but hopefully he’ll be back on his game to contribute next time.
Massive thanks as always to everyone for taking the time to choose, and it’d be interesting to hear everyone else’s picks, if you can remember back that far.
—–
Guld (NRGetic Romancer)
1. Epyx Cyrez – Unohdetut 2011 (Guld’s ‘The Meaning of Life’ Remix)
2. Betwixt & Between feat. Yukacco – Nothing Compares 2 U
3. N/A
—–
Le Dos-on (Splash Energy Recordings)
1. Endemic – Xen
2. Ephexis – Alien Sonic
3. Metric – Black Sheep (Transcend bootie)
—–
ASAHI (EUREKA)
1. BRK – The Nobodies
2. Grendel – Harsh Generation
3. JODY 6 & ConfigSys Project – Japanese Ghost Train
—–
raqhow (Experience!)
1. Substanced & Alchemiist – Permission to Die
2. Aryx – Morokai
3. Re-form – Decade
—–
ikaruga_nex (Experience!)
1. A.B. – Relax
2. Substanced & Alchemiist – Skullcrush
3. Aryx – Morokai
—–
魅衣 [Mii] (Dark Dimension)
1. Nomic – Fortuna
2. Betwixt & Between – Hollow
3. Horzi – The Elegy
—–
Nrgray (Experience!)
1. Yuki Kajiura – Mezame (Nomic bootleg remix)
2. Alek Szahala – Mageslayer
3. Grimsoul – Sorceresses
—–
PlasmaDancer (NRGetic Romancer/FINRG)
1. Substanced – The End of All Things (Aryx remix)
2. Betwixt & Between – Flowless
3. Le Dos-on – Epatoivo
In no particular order…
Wyrm & Surtr – Yggdrasil
Betwixt & Between – Flowless
Wyrm – Tendrils of Reality
Speaking of Ikaruga-san, catch him this weekend on Smiling Corpse Dead Happy Podcast as my guest 🙂
Thanks for the insight!!
For me it would be: Grimsoul – Pyromaniac Firefighter
Transcend – Mindglow
and I concur with Jon on:
Substanced – The End of All Things (Aryx remix)
It’s so hard to answer this without being biased, totally agree with the love for Morokai and Flowless. Nomic’s suicide machine was another stand out track. Penguin Conspiracy were a stand out duo, but I’d struggle to pick a favourite. Qygen had a great year, again sounding biased, Earth Shine was Qygen’s best of last year. 60hz being his best to date… I’m not voting, its’s too difficult! Haha
Substanced – The End of All Things (Aryx remix) very very nearly made it in there, but not quite. It’s a very strong 4th though!
Alek Száhala – Koolasuchus (Radio Edit)
Qygen – Temporal Temple
Nomic – Black Lotus
This ones a bit of hard one for me to be fair.
So in no particular order.
Ikaruga_Nex – Dilapidated
Substanced & Alchemiist – Permission to Die
BTW – Zusammengehorigkeit (Hommarju Remix for RIP Betwixt & Between)
This barely scratches the surface as last year was a good year for the darker sounds of freeform
Endemic – Xen
Transcend & Lost Soul – 7 Light Cycles
Nomic – Suicide Machine
Honourable mentions to;
Alek Szahala – Lovestream
Aryx – Sylph
Substanced & Alchemiist – Facemelt
Very hard to pick three…
Vice Tek Heavy Industry – 3M3SIS
Substanced & Alchemist – Skullcrush
Betwixt & Between – Flowless
Honorable mention:
Re-Form – Decade
Aryx – Morokai and Polaris
Le-Dos on – Toivomus and Stance -AS- (both versions)
Substanced – Ghost of the Future
Aran – Taranis (Qygen Remix)
Amini – Guitarian
Alek Száhala – Deimos
Transcend & Dyzphazia – Tormenting Flames
Substanced – The End Of All Things (Aryx Remix)
1. Endemic – Xen
2. Amane – Respective Feature
3. Transcend – Eons
“Very hard to pick three…”
Yes.
______
1. Betwixt & Between – Flowless
2. Dystopia – Segmentation Fault
3. Aryx – Polaris
Honorable mentions:
Vice Tek Heavy Industry – 3M3SIS
Pain on Creation – FINRG 10 Years Theme
Re-form – Decade
Nice to see Flowless in so many top 3’s! Especially considering it had practically no airtime last year 😀
Thanks a lot everyone! There’s a pretty consistent sound when you look through all the lists 🙂
If we’re talking honourable mentions then I’d have to add Morokai and Decade, as well as Fury Theme, a real slow burner that grew on me a lot as the year went on.