An interesting new techno/trance/electronica compilation was released on Saturday, and includes a remix by Betwixt & Between of Dee!’s Leave the Nest. I haven’t heard the original, but I’m guessing it’s a vocal Eurobeat-style number – Betwixt has done a decent job of bringing his own style to the track, but can’t completely smother the happiness of it all.

Other tracks also seem pretty nice from the previews up on the site, and I’m actually quite interested in this release. I’m not a huge fan of Tano*C style J-Core, but this is a lot more eclectic, even if a few of the Tano*C crew have contributed tunes – including M Project, Roughsketch and Thanatos (although Thanatos is really developing his style these days and is becoming one to watch, for sure).

                          

Apologies for the lack of posting last week – I’m back from Kyoto, Gifu and Nagoya now, and just about survived the weekend while somehow managing to get to NRGetic Romancer (with DJ X Lab 4, so well worth the effort).

Now we’re stepping into a time machine, going back, back, back….all the way back to…er, the 14th June. Cogi has kindly provided me with some photos, so here’s a quick sum up of what I can remember from the last but one event (photos/video from last weekend coming soon, I think). By the way, the photo (taken by Cogi) at the top of this post is me – or at least, my t-shirt – it’s become my regular NRGetic Romancer uniform, and will probably get another airing next month while I clang through some tunes at Hell’s Gate.

You might remember that Betwixt & Between had an impossible schedule that weekend, playing at Hardcore Tano*C (if I remember correctly) earlier in the afternoon? Well, he came up with a novel way of coping – er, don’t play at NRGetic Romancer. It wasn’t looking very feasible, really, and so Guld, Cogi and Yousuke raided their tune collections and played for an extra 30-40mins or so each instead.

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ジオさんおかげで、次のヘルズでDJやります!デブユーですからやっぱりちょっと緊張してるけどたくさんリリースされてないフィンランドと日本の曲をかける予定してます。イベントは日曜日ですが月曜日が休みですね。よかったら日本に住んでいる方がいたらぜひ遊びにきて下さい!一生懸命頑張って本当に楽しみしてます!

I still think I’m hallucinating every time I look at the flyer, but thanks to the efforts of Zio I’ll be playing at the next Hell’s Gate! Good grief, eh? A year and a bit after going to my first Japanese event at Studio Cube (May 2007’s NRGetic Romancer), to be playing there is more than incredible, and naturally the nerves will be setting in soon, I reckon. There are a few other DJs making their debuts/second appearance, mind, so I’m not alone.

The plan is to bring a bit of the NRG Monogatari style to a live/event set, but the tunes will be slightly more Finnish than Japanese this time, I think (so a reverse of my usual Japan-promoting mixes, in a way). I’ve already got a few unreleased/brand new tunes from both countries in mind, and now I’m trying to sort out a structure of some sort….it usually takes me an ice age or two to decide on tracks to use in a set – I haven’t got that luxury this time – but I might use a few tunes originally planned for NRG Monogatari 3. Twisted/melodic freeform all the way though, that’s the main idea so far.

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DJ X has got a pretty tough schedule next week – I just heard that he’ll be playing at the New Sentiment event in Osaka on the 15th (Friday), before heading to Tokyo for NRGetic Romancer on the 16th. New Sentiment seems to be more slanted towards Tech Dance and Drum and Bass, so it might well be a very different experience to Saturday’s event. Funnily enough, I’m coming back from Kyoto on Friday (to be back in time for NRGetic Romancer), and so it’s conceivable that I could make it to this event too – Osaka is next door to Kyoto, after all. I think I’ll do the sensible thing though and give this one a miss, the recent batch of events (Bootek tour, Hell’s Gate, Dance or Die) took some recovering from, after all…

Hard NRGとAcidの曲を作ってるフィンランドのTyranoid & Strongstreamというユニットは「Filth God」の新曲できました。すごくダークでハードなボカルの曲だと思ってダウンロードが無料ですから本当におすすめです。サイトでほかの曲もすごいかっこいいです。

Up on Tyranoid & Strongstream’s site now is a ferocious bootleg of Panzer AG’s Filth God, which really does a great job of moving the track into acid electronic territory. Dark, hard and aggressive, it might not be the kind of NRG that I often listen to, but you can’t beat a bit of raw power now and then – especially when done this well.

                               

The sequel to Hardcore Syndrome was released here yesterday, and Betwixt & Between’s new City of Traitors has found its way on there. The rest of the tracks look like standard Hardcore Tano*C fare, so if you’re into that kind of thing, this is a must-get. I want to hear Alabaster’s Void in particular, as apparently he’s been working on some ‘Lab 4-style’ tracks recently. I wonder if this is one of them? Umbrella’s Olive will almost definitely be worth a listen too, going by the quality of his last few tracks.

The tracklist:

01.Joshka – Serotonin 2008
02.Ryu* – orion
03.REDALiCE – Cross Breeding
04.DX PASTA – Steampunk
05.DJ TECHNORCH – 虚無への供物 〜For Nothing〜
06.DJ-Technetium – Tc-ma_009
07.Alabaster – Void
08.源屋 – Make me Feel
09.umbrella – Olive
10.kenta-v.ez. – you ArE NEvEr ALoNE oN thE dANcEfLoor
11.Betwixt & Between – City of Traitors
12.RoughSketch – No Eyes
13.USAO – Unstable shake
14.t+pazolite – to Luv me I *** for u.

                             

I got back from Hell’s Gate this morning (report/photos coming soonish, hopefully), so I’m not entirely awake again yet, but here’s a nice bit of news – the next Full Circle is just around the corner, and entitled Big Kisses and Darkness. Maybe not quite as great a title as Psychadelic New Rose, and so far not so much has been revealed re. the tracklist – all I’ve heard so far is that there’ll be some remixes as well as original tunes on this one. For the time being, then, we’ve just got the cover art to gaze at – but it should be available pretty soon on Electronica Exposed and later as an mp3 release.

                               

The full releases aren’t until September, but Hybridize have come up with some preview CDs that contain some definite future classics. Maybe you can make out the track titles from the photo above – Sam One’s hard trance stormer The Future and the absolutely fantastic Extinguish by Nomic.

Other releases so far are Substanced – Geneva / DJ Air – Alone With Me (Swoosh vs Carbon Based Remix), and also Epyx & Cyrez – Polyhedra 08 / Substanced & Sam One & Horzi – Lionheart. All are available for a mere 6 euros – highly highly recommended.

If that wasn’t enough, one more Nomic-only CD is still (soon) to come, featuring Nomic – The Last Breath / Nomic – Falling Star 08.

Yesterday ended up being a really good event, even if a group of us did disappear two thirds of the way through for dinner…. The DJs of interest to freeform/NRG fans had already played by then, mind, so I didn’t miss too much.

It was my first trip to Club Asia (next door to the fabulous ATOM), and the main floor is nice enough, if a little cramped. The second (Hardcore, this time) floor is a different story though – feeling like someone’s refitted living room, there are only two tiny speakers perched up at the back of the room – resulting in a weak sound that seems to be coming from the wrong direction. Not the best idea, eh?

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