Proteus – My Year In Hard Dance

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 14, 2008
Posted in: Finnish. Leave a Comment

Here’s a really interesting interview that Guld drew my attention to – it’s connected to the Hard Dance Awards, and Proteus runs through the best bits of his year. The highlight might be that when asked about his label of the year, he’s gone for Hybridize! It’s hard to argue, even if I am outrageously biased…FINRG itself has been a bit too quiet to qualify this year.

Also there’s this gem re. the Ground Zero festival (with Grady G) in the Netherlands:

“We played at the main stage and the stage was floating at the lake! It was the craziest show ever and during the last track we threw each other to the lake and we basically had to swim back to the stage to finish the set!!”

Eh? Floating in a lake? Anyway, click here to read the whole article. Shame on them though, in the stats box in the corner they forget to list Japan among Proteus’ visited countries…

DJ Yousuke – In The Mix Vol. 5

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 11, 2008
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Japanese, Mixes, UK. Leave a Comment

This isn’t a brand new mix, but Yousuke recently uploaded it while he tries to come up with another one. Not every track is my sort of thing, but it’s a great example of Yousuke’s mixing style, and his ridiculously wide knowledge of hardcore/drum and bass. It’s generally UK Hardcore/Freeform style, but drifts into harder tunes and amen-style jungle tracks too. It’s the first time for me to hear Ephexis and Oli G’s Enchanter, very nice tune…but a lot of the tracks are a few steps away from what I usually listen to, and it’s a mix well worth checking out.

01. Think You Really Missed Me (Smoothjam Mix) / Digital Tekniq & Sparky
02. Diva Beaver / DJ Stormtrooper
03. Gate Crasher / Full Circle DJs
04. Warehouse (Cube::Hard Remix) / Jon Doe
05. Enchanter / Ephexis & Oli G
06. Velvet Heaven 2006 / Sparky
07. I Wonder Why (Darwin Mix) / Adam L feat Ant Johnson
08. Free Fallin (Hard Mix) / Attention Seekers
09. Stand Back / Idealz
10. Elastoplast / Kinematic
11. Twice Around The Moon / Rampant & Obie Vs Darwin & Ant Johnson
12. Sybratis Part 1 / Kev Willow
13. Shadow Of A Memory / Arkitech
14. Pack Of Wolves (Pendulum Remix) / Nightbreed
15. Release Me (Darwin Remix) / CLSM feat Niki Mak
16. Love Me Habibi / The Panacea
17. In Kontrol / Nu Foundation
18. Pumpin / Sean Apollo
19. When The Rain Comes (Remix) / The Acolyte feat Amy
20. Fantasy Island / Darwin & Ant Johnson
21. Heads Burst Rewind / Hattrixx
22. Dreaming Of Another Way (Oli G Remix) / Contraption

Download here

Tano*C 8th Strike @ Shibuya Amate-raxi, December 13th

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 8, 2008
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 2 comments

Ah, now this is disappointing – I was looking for news on the next Hardcore Tano*C event, and it turns out that it’s this coming Saturday afternoon, at Shibuya’s Amate-raxi. Once again, work will make that impossible…I was especially hoping to catch Betwixt & Between, Alabaster and USAO’s sets. No Umbrella this time, which is a shame after he played at the last event in Osaka. Perhaps I’ll check if any of the sets get recorded, they always seem to take a ton of video at these events, so it’s possible.

KONTON Compilation CD

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 8, 2008
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 2 comments

Betwixt & Between was playing yesterday afternoon in Shibuya at the KONTON event. I was meaning to go, as this was a DJ set by Betwixt (mostly using tracks from other artists) and I was really keen to hear what he’d chosen. Sadly I didn’t know what time he was playing until too late, and to tell the truth I wasn’t keen enough on all of the other artists to be there from the very start. Anyway, there was also a compilation CD produced in fairly limited numbers (500, I believe), featuring Betwixt’s new track, Matter of Fact (which I played at the the last Hell’s Gate). Here’s the full tracklist, but I’ve had to translate a couple of tracks quite literally – I’ve no idea if that’s what the English title should really be. Bear with me, eh?

[edit: Seems like Matter of Fact will only be released on this compilation, rather than also on a Hardcore Tano*C CD, which is what I was thinking at first..]

  1. Betwixt & Between – Matter of Fact
  2. IOSYS – ボーダー戦隊ミソジンジャー [Border Corps Miso Ginger]
  3. 源屋 [Minamotoya] – Solitary Hero
  4. Technetium – tc-ma-010
  5. エコロちゃん／とろ美 [Ekoro-chan/Toromi] – 自然派戦士 [Nature Clan Warrior]
  6. REDALiCE – Solidus
  7. SHITAGI☆PROJECT – Fighting Girl

Guld on Dark Side radio

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 8, 2008
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Releases. 1 comment

For some reason I thought I’d already posted about this, but for anyone (like me) who couldn’t catch Proteus’ Dark Side radio show with Guld, it has been recorded by Jiipez. Let’s all be grateful to him for that, and you can download it here. It’s a brilliant show, and Guld picked some blinding tunes to give some airtime. Maybe most exciting is that you can hear Hase’s first two new tunes for a very long time, but there are plenty of other excellent tracks:

1. Fields Of The Nephilim – Shroud
2. Black Light Discipline – For All You Heavy-Hearted
3. Hase – Attacker
4. GULD – Requiem
5. Betwixt & Between – City Of Solitude
6. GULD – Solid State Scouter
7. Hase – Disintegration
8. Black Light Discipline – Tides
9. GULD – Jupiter
10. Rx – Hellfire (Betwixt & Between Remix)
11. Android Lime – Robot Noize (Dj X Lab4 Remix)
12. RR-ThermalForce – Al Megiddo
13. Popeda – Elän Itselleni
14. GULD – Hannya 8000

November Top Ten

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 6, 2008
Posted in: Top Tens. 2 comments

Right, time for another Top Ten before I get going on some new recorded mixes (one will hopefully be appearing this month…). The photo was taken during the dance performance at Hell’s Gate last weekend, and if you can manage to look past the dancers themselves you might spot Zio up in the DJ booth.

  1. Epyx & Cyrez – Distant Illusions
  2. Betwixt & Between – Matter of Fact
  3. Substanced vs Grimsoul – Harder Than U Think
  4. Sam One vs Horzi – Fear of Reality
  5. Shanty vs Epyx & Cyrez – Frozen Abyss (Full Circle DJs remix)
  6. Hase – Disintegration
  7. The Acolyte – Neurotoxin
  8. Carbon Based & DJ Rx – Titor’s Quantum Theory
  9. Proteus, Ephexis, Ting – Angel of Hell
  10. Orkidea – Unity (Tyranoid/Strongstream remix)

By the way, I was listening to Clanger’s Seadog the other day, and realised that it’s the Way Out West remix that should be in my all-time Top Ten. An absolute 100% classic, it is.

FINRG 512

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 5, 2008
Posted in: Events, Finnish. Leave a Comment

Tonight’s the night for one of the biggest events of the year – FINRG 512, in Helsinki. Of course, I can’t get to Finland for this, but it should be great – I’ve been hearing tales of what the Hybridize Live PA has planned, and it sounds incredible. I think Nightforce and myself are the only Hybridize members not to be there, which is a bit of a killer, but I’m already looking forward to hearing any sets that get recorded tonight.

All the best to all the artists involved, and let’s hope it turns out to be as awesome an event as it should.

Hell’s Gate 1st Anniversary, 29th November – Videos

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 2, 2008
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

It’s been a YouTube frenzy recently, and here are a few more videos to eat up your idle moments. The first one is predictably me, playing Substanced and Grimsoul’s Harder Than U Think. I love this tune, and it went down really well with the crowd, helped no doubt by my *cough* carefully choreographed arm waving etc. Not quite Betwixt yet, am I?

The second video is a great glowsticking performance during Stanfield’s gabber set. This kind of atmosphere is why I love Hell’s Gate and NRGetic Romancer – it really is ‘otherwordly’ kind of stuff. Check IBM8001’s YouTube page for videos of KA-NA, Raithm and Stanfield (but no Zio, sadly).

Hell’s Gate 1st Anniversary, 29th November

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 1, 2008
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

Right, first the bad news – at the last possible minute, Hellraiser pulled out. There was a little bit of confusion as to exactly why, but Zio decided to go with the regular Hell’s DJs rather than getting another emergency backup guest in. It turned out to be a good choice, as although the attendance was nowhere near what it would have been otherwise, all the DJs pulled out the stops to give some great performances. Alongside the dance performances and glowstickers, it was a pretty spectacular event. Thanks to Hellraiser’s cancellation, I was shifted further down the schedule, playing again about halfway through the night (after Raithm/Minagi and before Stanfield).

We had plenty of time to get things set up pre-event this time (even if everyone except myself and VX Pasta were later than expected…), and so no troubles on that front. Warming up the crowd was DJ M.K.T, who played fairly pacy hard house with hardstyle and even gabber elements. I’ve only seen him play a couple of times before, but this was the best of his sets so far and a nice way to get things going.

Continue Reading

Guld live @ Säde, 22nd November

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 27, 2008
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Japanese. Leave a Comment

Guld has completed the first part of his European tour, playing at Helsinki’s Säde. A decent crop of videos have already turned up online, and as you can see from the clip here, Guld seems to have done the business in no short order, playing new tracks from himself, Hase, Betwixt & Between, and others. He’ll be heading to Italy next, playing at the Massive event on Saturday.