Apologies for the lack of posting last week – I’m back from Kyoto, Gifu and Nagoya now, and just about survived the weekend while somehow managing to get to NRGetic Romancer (with DJ X Lab 4, so well worth the effort).

Now we’re stepping into a time machine, going back, back, back….all the way back to…er, the 14th June. Cogi has kindly provided me with some photos, so here’s a quick sum up of what I can remember from the last but one event (photos/video from last weekend coming soon, I think). By the way, the photo (taken by Cogi) at the top of this post is me – or at least, my t-shirt – it’s become my regular NRGetic Romancer uniform, and will probably get another airing next month while I clang through some tunes at Hell’s Gate.

You might remember that Betwixt & Between had an impossible schedule that weekend, playing at Hardcore Tano*C (if I remember correctly) earlier in the afternoon? Well, he came up with a novel way of coping – er, don’t play at NRGetic Romancer. It wasn’t looking very feasible, really, and so Guld, Cogi and Yousuke raided their tune collections and played for an extra 30-40mins or so each instead.

Once again, I caught the last third or so of Horny’s set, and his style seems to be working quite well as a warm up – if there’s adecent enough crowd. Sadly this time, the combination of it being a ‘normal’ NRGetic Romancer with no special guests, and Betwixt’s absence, meant that attendance was the lowest I’ve ever seen. It’s obvious now how many regulars are coming mainly to see Betwixt’s set each time….so it was a very weird atmosphere at some points, with about 15 people trying to make the best of things…it did fill up a little more as the night wore on though.

Anyway, Cogi played a variation on the set that he has been experimenting with for a few events now, mixing old FINRG with psy-trance for a slightly retro and really unique hour or more. Thsi time around he had more time to run through his tunes, and although there are a good few peaks and troughs, energy-wise, when mixing two such distinct genres, it’s really inspiring to listen to.

Yousuke played a fantastic freeform set, mixing UK and Finnish tunes very nicely. Of course, things were definitely more UK-centric, but his selection as always was spot-on, keeping the pace and power much higher than I was expecting. He even made up for Betwixt’s absence by sneaking in The Awakening. Great stuff once again.

Guld, like Cogi, seems to have recently hit on a selection of tunes that he’s regularly giving an airing, adjusting the arrangement each time. As always, he started off with some thudding NRG tracks, including DJ X/Proteus’ Full Metal Jacket, a great tune. Once again, the pace built up nicely, and Alek Szahala tunes were quite prominent – highlights of the set being Chimaera and Last of the Mohicans, but the killer had to be Hase’s unreleased version of Galatea. I would give both arms for this tune, it’s an absolute stormer – and Guld knows just the right moment to drop it into a set.

So, despite the anaemic attendance, this was a really good Romancer – last Saturday was a completely different effort altogether, though, being absolutely crammed – but as the 4th anniversary event, that was to be expected. More on that some other time, mind.