Last weekend I managed to head along to Experience!, and even remembered to take a few videos. It was an excellent event that gives me hope that there might be a future for freeform at Tokyo hardcore events after all, especially with producers of the quality of the outstanding Le Dos-on and up-and-coming DJs like raqhow and Nrgray.

It was great to meet both raq and Le Dos-on (as well as ikaruga) for the first time, and their b2b set was just phenomenal. Le Dos-on’s production is coming on at an amazing rate, and his newest material is sounding like a powerful mix of FINRG, Hybridize and Betwixt & Between. Raqhow also came up with some quality selections – the combination of an artist playing his own stuff while a DJ responds with tracks from around the scene was amazingly effective, I’d love to see that happen more often. Here are the two videos from their set, click below for a quick look at what else was going on.

Nrgray played one of the standout sets for me of course, heavy on Finnish freeform and Japanese tunes. He started off with the NRGetic Romancer edit of Global Killer, before squeezing in a lot of his favourite tracks. The mixing was very impressive (especially while dealing with the lounge speakers), but he actually recorded a studio version that apparently is that bit smoother. Check for yourself, just down below, and hopefully we’ll be hearing more from him during this year.

It was great to see 490 again, and as a fellow digital DJ (with a truly insane collection of gear) we always have some interesting chats about how we’re getting on/what we’re using these days . He was back on the CDJs this time though, playing UK Hardcore that really got the crowd going. I didn’t remember to take a video, sadly, but here are two more – some quality hardcore/speedcore from Ikaruga_nex and high bpm schranz from EXCALiPUR.

Finally, don’t forget to check out raqhow’s excellent promomix for Experience! It’s a really nice set (especially the danceable melancholy of the first section), and is highly recommended: