SonofSam – Freeform Mix March ’10  by  MedusaForm

Always nice to come across a new set, and here’s a freeform mix from Son of Sam that’s heavy on the twisty synths. The selection is more than fine, but the main reason I’m giving it a shout is for the really well thought-out transition from Matt England’s Psiosis to Carbon Based’s Eye of the War. As well as that, the first half of the set manages the always tricky job of keeping the sound consistent while using tracks from a lot of different artists, and even if it doesn’t quite keep the same standards up in the second half it’s been way too long since we heard tunes like Darkstar and Noitavasara in a mix.

1. Matt England – Psiosis
2. Carbon Based – Eye of the War
3. Grimsoul – Kadotettu Todellisuus
4. Alek Szahala – Voices of Babylon
5. Nightforce – Raindrops
6. Alek Szahala – Darkstar
7. Alek Szahala – Noitavasara

What might be the event of the year is taking place at Studio Cube on the 7th May – pretty much every part of Tokyo’s underground/harder scene will be represented at an absolutely massive NRGetic Romancer.

Part of a Japan tour in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, BOOTEK will be headlining as the main guest. As if that wasn’t enough, Energetic Trance’s Munetica and StripE will be performing as ‘friendship DJs’ alongside all the Romancer regulars. Finally, an edition of ever free (!) will take place on Cube’s sub floor, featuring Kanon, Inugami, Kaz-B and HiDE, among others. It’ll be amazing to play alongside so many friends and big names from the scene, and definitely one of my biggest events as a DJ so far. Here’s the full info from the soon-to-be-released flyer:

NRGetic Romancer

BOOTEK JAPAN TOUR in TOKYO

2010.5.7(FRI)
@ARK STUDIO CUBE326(http://www.studiocube326.com)
DOOR:3500yen W.F:3000yen and BOOTEK LIVE Mix CD『BOOTEK ‘LIVE’ @Creamfields』
OPEN 23:00

■SPECIAL SHOWCASE ‘LIVE’
BOOTEK(BOOTEK Records, www.bootekdjs.com)

■ET Friend Ship DJ
Munetica+StripE (Energetic Trance)

■DJ
GULD
COGI
PlasmaDancer

■LIVE
Full Circle DJs
Betwixt & Between

■VJ
VX PASTA
コケカキイキイ

-ever free floor-

■DJ
Kanon(TOKYO HARDCORE CONSTRUCTION/Party Pill)
狗神(TOKYO HARDCORE CONSTRUCTION)
DJ WILD PARTY(赤線企画)
HiDE(TWIST/xxx)
DJギズモ(ever free/C-NEON)
DJ Kaz-B(ever free/C-NEON)
手乗りおーかみ(ever free)
sxoxa(ever free)
原(NICONICONIGHT)

Support by FINRG, Full Circle Recordings, Kreatrix Recordings, Guhroovy and Anarchy

THC vs Twist turned out to be a really good event, and I’ve just finished uploading some videos. Still need a bit more practice, and could definitely do with an extra memory card or two, but hopefully you can get a decent idea of the atmosphere this time.

The turnout was very good, and it was nice to hear a variety of different sets from the Twist crew. I tried to check out as many as I could in between the usuals from THC. As I arrived WILD PARTY was finishing off his hardcore set, and next up was Twist’s JaQwa. The opening track started with deep subs and ambient pads, and I couldn’t believe it when it turned out to be an ambient dnb track in the style of Horizons. Following that was a classic mashed up amen track, and I was in absolute heaven for 10 minutes or so (even if it was literally just me and VX Pasta dancing to the tunes). Sadly though, the set gradually became more and more ‘modern’, and the breakbeats and pads gave way to two-step drums and Pendulum style wobble basslines. Things changed up again with a long sequence of dubstep tunes that completely confused the crowd, nobody had a clue how they were supposed to dance to them. Full marks for variation, but if only things had kept going in the early style… The video above was taken just at the end of the second track of the set.

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Vangelis – Rachel’s Song (Grimsoul bootleg remix) by FINRG Recordings

Just when I was starting to worry about the lack of melancholy freeform lately, Grimsoul has come to the rescue with a great bootleg of Vangelis’ Rachel’s Song. The main melody is perfect for freeform, and the track goes next level from the main breakdown – the vocal leading into the growly synths is really really nice. It’s available now on the FINRG SoundCloud in .wav format.

THC vs Twist tonight, and Lunch has released a preview just in time. Instead of the usual montage of DJ clips, this one goes the psychedelic route with some great visuals in time to Lunch’s newest remix of Tokyo Hardcore Construction. The second tune (Traffic, by HiDE) isn’t really my thing (mainly because I can’t stand that kind of hardstyle-esque vocal), but shows there could be a good mix of ravers at the event.

Good chance to post this up, too – at the event there’ll be temporary tattoos available, some featuring this extremely awesome THC skull-butterfly thing.

It’s a bit removed from our scene, but definitely worth a mention – hardcore tracks from M-Project and DJ Shimamura were played by Kutski on his latest radio show for the UK’s BBC Radio 1. The show seems to have been a Japanese themed edition, but the rest of the Japanese artists in the ‘freerange mix’ are mostly the more predictable choices like Remo-con, Yoji and Nish. Anyway, this kind of thing would have been unthinkable when I was last back in the UK, so huge credit to Kutski for the selections.

Just a couple of days to go before THC vs Twist, and the timetable is already out. Great to see LALA on the lineup, I’ve missed a few of his sets recently.

Main
23:00 – 00:00 DJ WILD PARTY
00:00 – 01:00 JaQwa
01:00 – 02:00 狗神
02:00 – 03:00 ETiENNE
03:00 – 04:00 Kanon
04:00 – 05:00 HiDE
05:00 – 06:00 Lunch

Sub
23:00 – 00:00 P.R.D
00:00 – 00:30 A10 Device
00:30 – 01:00 DJ Technetium vs. MC Tyrant
01:00 – 02:00 CaZ
02:00 – 02:30 LALA
02:30 – 03:00 Redd
03:00 – 04:00 MILKY
04:00 – 05:00 caress128
05:00 – 06:00 Alain


DJ PROTEUS @ MONDAY BAR SPRING BREAK CRUISE (SWEDEN)
アップロード者 Tranergy. – 音楽動画、アーティストのインタビュー、コンサートやその他色々。

The Monday Bar Spring Break Cruise 2010 has been and gone, this time starring a lot of the FINRG crew. Hopefully there’ll be some more video on the way, but for now here’s a great sequence of clips from Proteus’ set. Kudos to him as always for upping the bpm in the second half, and as you’ll hear he played his remix of Guld’s Hannya X. Seeing the reaction to Guld’s lead melody was a bit special, hope he enjoys watching this video as much as I did.

Sorry for the delay again, but last night I finally got back from Nagoya via sunny Wakayama prefecture. You’ll notice a few videos this time – I decided to get my act together and invest in a camera, so from now on I’ll be trying to film sets wherever I end up (including Tokyo Hardcore Construction this weekend).

Of course the main draws for this event were the Live PA from ConfigSys PROJECT and the DJ set from Fez, but I was also really looking forward to checking out some new DJs and seeing Loki Rinomaria’s set for the first time. He’s a hardcore supporter of NRGetic Romancer (and my sets), so it was the least I could do to get along to this one. Thanks to him for a great night, as well as to the FUNERAL crew who were as friendly a group of ravers as you could hope to meet. Other shouts to hardcore/freeform DJs Taber and Paranoia, DJ AYAYA, and the extremely talented psychadelic artist who was doing some live 3D art during the event (see above). Finally cheers and respect to ConfigSys and Fez, both genuinely nice guys who will hopefully be back in Japan before too long.

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