The voting is underway for LOUD magazine’s annual Japanese/world DJ ranking – it would be great for Guld (and the scene here) to have some support in the Best Japanese DJ category (which he’s ranked into for a few years running now). The voting form is in Japanese, but take a look here if you’d like to fill it out.

As usual with things like this, only the parts marked with an asterisk are required, and are (from top to bottom):

Name (surname first)

Birthdate (in year/month/day format, followed by which sign of the Chinese zodiac you are…the world probably won’t end if you just pick a random one, though)

Email address

Same email address again

No.1 DJ in Japan (then no.2 and 3, if you feel like it)

No.1 DJ outside Japan

[plus the right of the two buttons at the bottom to finish things off]

By the way, the video at the top of the post was taken at the last NRGetic Romancer – Guld playing the extremely awesome new version of Requiem. The full report will be coming soon, I’m just trying to find out a couple of track titles before I post everything up.

The lineup is looking good for the next Tokyo Hardcore Construction, with Betwixt & Between playing again. No DJ Stanfield though, it’d be good to see him playing out somewhere soon.

ACT:

Lunch (TOKYO HARDCORE CONSTRUCTION/S.H.C.)
NDE (NIGHTNARELAND)
Betwixt & Between (NRGetic Romancer)
Kanon (A.I.N.)
狗神 (NIGHTNARELAND)
DJ WILD PARTY (赤線企画)
DJ Technetium vs. MC Tyrant (Cis-Trance)
LALA (LoveScreamTerror/SUPER GABBERS)
DJ Takahashit (RODEO)

VJ:VX PASTA
Floor Decoration:ARTHUR
Movie & Report Work:TAK666 (Cradle to Grave)

Guld only finished this remake of his first released track a couple of weeks ago, but it’s scheduled for a release this week via Trackitdown, on the NRGetic Romancer label. It’s one of Guld’s best so far I think – he played it last weekend at NRGetic Romancer and it really sounded good through the Cube speakers…some great twisty synth stuff going on, as you’d expect.

A roundup of what happened last Saturday should be coming soon too, by the way.

Here are a couple of videos of the ‘super raver’ Detch (でっち/Decchi as he’s known here) at the last Tokyo Hardcore Construction. The first [above] shows his pretty amazing glowstick style….he often uses more throws and so on, but this clip is still a great example. He’s one of the very best dancers here, and can/could be found at Hell’s Gate, NRGetic Romancer, THC and all the less regular events too.

I can vouch for his ‘crowd-uplifting’ abilities too, as every time I play Alanamra he’s up the front, doing his thing – I made sure to thank him after my first set, he made all the difference. The second clip [below] is a kind of fusion of Melbourne Shuffle and the typical raver step that you find at most events here – smooth stuff.

Here’s last month’s top ten – a few promos have started to be er, promoted by the artists now, so they’re ok to be included, I think.

By the way, the tune above can’t really go into this list, but it’s an all-time favourite of mine – Only You by Nookie. I loved the tune when it first came out in 1994, but I only found out the title last week! Ah, those drums….

Back to the top ten:

  1. Alek Szahala – Voices of Babylon
  2. Nomic – Delta Pavonis
  3. Betwixt & Between – The Beginning
  4. Guld – Nightmare Freak 09
  5. Hangover Academy & Decion – Technological Terror
  6. Psycho Keaton – Hell Night (Android Lime remix)
  7. Betwixt & Between – Tankobu Hesotarou no Hourou/The Wander of Hesotarou Tankobu
  8. DJ X Lab 4 – Requiem 2009 (Heart of Darkness)
  9. Betwixt & Between – Broken Visage
  10. V.A.G.A.B.O.N.D – Bonecrusher

I’m late posting this one up, but the new NRGetic Romancer flyer has been completed by Captain Multi-talented himself, Android Lime. As for me, work is kicking back in again now and I’m having trouble getting together the tunes I was hoping to play – there’s still time though. I’ve stumbled on some pretty nice combinations to throw in at certain spots, and it’s going to be a bit darker this time, all being well.

Thanks again for about the millionth time to Decion, this time for letting me know about a nice mix of freeform from around the world that includes a few Japanese tunes. It starts off with Eternal Cannon….it’s tough to find anything to follow that, but the set has a lot of energy and would definitely be a good one to hear live.

Decion found it in a thread on the Hullabaloo forums, which also very kindly bigs up my mixes and Decion’s Metaform.

RaverRoseTF – Eternal Cannon
Dok & Ponder – Ribcage (Oli G Remix)
Nomic – Holocaust
MINAMOTOYA – Miss You
Betwixt & Between – GENSHI KURAGE
Mark Smith – Bring On The Noize
Oli G – Cordelia
Ephexis & Seventy-7 – Psymbiosis (Blistering Breaks Mix)
EFM-7 – Dream Machine
Kevin Energy & K Complex – Suck My Rock
Tazz vs. Digital Anarchy – Kickin It Ruff
EFM-7 – Pulse 2
Addiction – Senselessness NRG
Oli G – Gir (Arkitech Remix)
Ephexis – Nan Chuan
Teranoid vs Betwixt & Between – AYAKASHI

Download here

I’ve finally seen some photos from last month’s NRGetic Romancer, so time for a round-up of what happened there. Of course, the venue and other DJs were nothing new to me, but to be actually playing alongside some of my best friends in the scene at the most famous event of its kind in Japan was, well…you can imagine, can’t you?

First thing was the pre-event meet up, and being shown the staff ropes by Guld – I’ll be helping out on the reception etc next time, all the stuff that the other DJs have to do too (until Hard NRG smashes into the mainstream and we can afford to pay reception staff, that is). There isn’t too much decor to put up at NRGetic Romancer, but this time there was some kind of problem with the flyers and they weren’t printed. A shame, as I wanted one for myself – but the front of the DJ booth is usually covered with them too, to obscure the rummaging for records/messing around with gear that goes on at most events.

After the sound check, gokuraku & Yuusuke started off their epic 1hr 50min set, running through a lot of their usual crowd pleasers, even if the floor was practically empty for the first part of the set. I was away with Guld at the reception for a lot of the time, but still heard some of the set through the speakers they have down there. A great thing about schranz as a warm up is that the bpm is pretty high from the start, and so the crowd were ready for more of the same by the time 12.50 rolled around.

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