I’m now recovering from completing the Hybridize mix CD, so it’s a good chance to round up the last event before the next one on Saturday. This time there might be a few gaps, for a few different reasons, but bear with me….it was another really good event though, and it was nice to meet both Jody 6 and Justin Charge (plus DJ Silver who came along too).

The attendance was actually pretty good in the end, but we were missing a few of the regulars this time as Tokyo Hardcore Construction took place on the following day. Anyway, for some reason most people were later than usual getting to Cube this time, and so I don’t have any photos/video of Gokuraku and Yuusuke’s set. It was another good one from them, but it’s a real shame that the floor was practically empty for most of it..

I was next, as usual….but playing from 11.50 meant that this time almost nobody was there, at least at the start. I’ve been sort of ‘fast tracked’ through the scene so far, and haven’t played in front of so few people before, so it was definitely a weird feeling. People gradually started turning up towards the end, but my set was only 40 minutes long this time – anyway, thanks very much to a couple of ravers who got right into the set from the start, plus Betwixt & Between, Buzzmasta and Minagi for the support. Guests were thin on the ground, but big thanks to Yuhei, coming to his first ever NRGetic Romancer.

As for the tracklist….I won’t write it this time, mainly because I might re-use a few combinations on Saturday. Although the set was only 40 minutes, I somehow managed to use 12 tracks – especially in the first half I was mixing like a madman, including trying to make a combination tune from Kinky and Carbon Based & DJ Rx’s new track American Trick. The ‘theme’ for this one to play the sort of freeform that would show how different it is to slower hard dance (this was the ‘world war’ event, after all), so there was lots of twisty/dark stuff going on, and I might just try to do an expanded version of that this weekend.

Finally, the set included my debut track! Not writing about it on here until now feels like I’ve been keeping a secret from my best friend or something, but it’s a remix of an unfinished track by Zio, appropriately titled Hell’s Gate. I’ll post up a preview in the next day or two (I’m not 100% sure it’s finished yet..), but it’s 170bpm and I’ve tried to get things as dark as they should be for a tune with this title. By some miracle it’s been getting quite positive feedback from people here and in Finland, but I couldn’t really judge the reaction from the few people on the floor last event…I’ll be giving it another try on Saturday though!

Next up was Cogi, but sadly I can’t tell you much about his set either – Soham hadn’t arrived to take his usual photos/video, and I was down at reception working on the front entrance. I did hear the first tune though, twisted psy as usual, and Cogi recorded everything this time too, so hopefully I’ll hear the whole set in the future.

It seems like the crowd at NRGetic Romancer have really got the hang of the new Full Circle DJs style, and their set went down very well. It might have helped having fans of Justin Charge/Jody 6 there, as the bpm was more their kind of thing, but a lot of the regulars have adjusted their dancing speed too. Buzzmasta was getting some amazing acid style sounds out of his kit this time, and I’ll be looking forward to their longer set on Saturday.

Justin Charge was next, and he started off his set great style with a hard dance/Prodigy mash-up. He told me afterwards that there were 4 or 5 tunes in total, just cutting from one to the other, but it worked really well as an intro…a shame a few of the tunes couldn’t have been allowed to run for a bit longer, mind.

The rest of the set was relatively low bpm, uplifting hard dance – quite different to what the crowd usually hear, but they got into it nicely. I actually ended up getting a lesson in VJing from VX Pasta during this set, which was quality – messing around with effects during the breakdown and then trying to bring new things in when the kick starts was really good fun, and showed me how good Pasta is at it all. Watching him react to the tune and change the mood on the screen in a second or two was pretty amazing…

Betwixt & Between played another great set, but with the crowd being a mixture of NRGetic Romancers and slower hard dance fans the atmosphere was slightly different this time around. He also played for 40 minutes, but managed to fit in two new tunes, one of which featured an acoustic guitar (I think) in a nice breakdown. Hopefully we’ll hear more of that in his set this weekend.

Next was Jody 6, playing sometimes nasty, sometimes uplifting hard house. He brought along plenty of fans, and the atmosphere was very good. The video above shows him playing Japanese Robot Girl, a favourite of Guld’s, and Justin was pointing out a few of his other anthems while the set went on. Unfortunately, the only shame was Jody and Justin were heading back to Australia the following day, so they had to get going during Guld’s set.

Last was Guld, opening with a long sequence of guitar-styled tunes. They worked very well together, and he suddenly brought in some melodies by playing a pitched down Elegy, by Hybridize artist Horzi. He also played the new version of Requiem (which I absolutely love) and Betwixt & Between’s Airwave remix. He’s obviously got permission to play it, but Betwixt had actually used it in his set too! He kept things pretty dark throughout, and ended with Proteus’ new Black Light Discipline remix, a great track – but somehow he forgot (!) to play the new remix he’s been working on. That’ll be another one for this Saturday, then.

Sorry for the shorter round up this time, but it was another quality event, as you can see. Even though there are no special guests for Saturday’s 5th Anniversary, it looks like everyone will be playing for a full hour and we’re looking forward to it a lot – non-stop NRGetic Romancer style. If anyone will be in Tokyo on Saturday, feel free to leave a message here/get in touch somehow to get on the guest list!