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.

Next up were the Full Circle DJs, with an incredibly powerful Live PA, maybe their best so far. With Yousuke on Guitar and Buzzmasta in charge of everything else, this was a really excellent set, and one that you can download from here (if the link hasn’t shut itself down yet).

Betwixt & Between played another impressive set, using two of his batch of new tracks. The emphasis was on power this time, and so Zusammengehorigkeit was folowed by his new schranz track, The Moon From Below. I retract what I’ve said before about it being difficult to mix, I think the huge kick drum must have scared me or something – it actually seems like quite a useful tune, having long sequences with only the kick, and an understated melody that can be mixed with other tunes quite easily (*cough cough* could it be that I’m speaking from experience…?). Although this was definitely a great set, I can’t help wishing that Mirage, The Awakening etc was the only kind of Betwixt that we could hear these days – those tunes have such an incredibly unique (and uniquely Japanese) style that it seems a shame that he isn’t continuing along that line a little more. Still, the other new track, 7th World, is very interesting, with a kind of retro Finnish-meets Betwixt kind of feel to it. The end of the track is when things really get going, but I definitely like this one.

As expected, DJ X’s set was a killer, and exactly the kind of thing that the NRGetic Romancer crowd goes for. I don’t have a tracklist of what he played handy, but there were a huge number of my favourites, including Requiem, Hellboy and Full Metal Jacket. I don’t remember hearing Neo London though, a track I’m looking forward to a lot. The intro is really worth mentioning, an edit of the tune that climbed the UK charts back in the day, Spaceman by…er, someone. It definitely did the job, and he blasted from that straight into Requiem.
Anyway, X gave a masterclass in how to build a set, and how to nicely use those long ‘kick drum and bassline’ initial parts of a track, playing long sequences after the previous (usually epic) tune. It kind of ‘cleans up’ the mix, if you see what I mean, and prepares the crowd for the next anthem when it eventually builds up again. I don’t usually mix in that way, and it was really interesting to hear. The only disappointment was that there was no Nue Messiah in the middle of all this – it remains one of my absolute favourite Lab 4/X/Adam tracks, for sure.

All in all, it was a great set, especially considering the crazy heat and the effects of travelling from the UK to Osaka then Tokyo in such a short space of time. I was lucky enough to have a chat with him at the end of the night, and can confirm that he’s an extremely nice guy as well as something of an NRG legend. He finished of the evening with a fantastic B2B with Guld, but not before Guld’s own solo set, of course…

[above] A view of the Studio Cube 2nd floor (always used for NRGetic Romancer etc), looking towards the VJ screens/DJ booth

Guld pulled out all the stops, as you’d expect, starting off with Adam’s Boot Licker…what a fierce tune that is. He followed it up with Hase’s Meditation, a really unexpected combination into one of my favourite recent tunes. As always, the bpm rose and rose, and all the anthems of the past year came out – The Last of the Mohicans, Galatea, Almegiddo, Singularity… Guld also ran through his own tracks, including Solid State Scouter, Hatral and his remix of Proteus’ I See The Things That You Don’t See. An incredible set, in short.

Finishing things off was one of the nicest B2Bs I’ve ever seen, not only for the great tracks being played, but it genuinely seemed like the two of them were having a great time. As Cogi has said, seeing the two of them laughing away while mixing at the end of the night is hard to forget. While DJ X ran through some unreleased/classic Lab 4 tunes, Guld brought out the best of Japanese Hard NRG, playing Eternal Cannon and his new track, Jupiter. Even more crazed than his recent work, it still seemed to be slightly under construction, with a definite lack of bass – but it’s an inspired tune, and another example of his eye for a good reworking opportunity.

As well as being a fantastic NRGetic Romancer, the DVD ‘birthday present’ for everyone attending was also great, running through the whole 4 years, and has some very good footage of Betwixt & Between, Orfeus, Proteus, Guld etc etc, as well as photos/flyers from other events. Great stuff, and congratulations to Guld for all his efforts to get NRGetic Romancer to this stage – and what with his profile growing outside Japan, the event is sure to go from strength to strength, I’d say.

Big thanks to Guld for the use of his photos this time.