A vicious new track from Betwixt & Between, City of Traitors is almost impossible to describe. Hard NRG? Schranz? Industrial? I’m not too sure, but it’s definitely got a Betwixt feel to it, despite the low bpm. He’s been experimenting with a few different styles lately, and this one might be the most successful for a good while. The structure really is great – hopefully there’ll be some similarly styled freeform on the way before long. There’s a decent length sample up on his MySpace, so I suggest that you immediately head over there and give it a listen.
I don’t think any photos were taken at this event, but here’s a quick sum up of what went on last night (or the night before, as it’s 1am now). As I expected, Zio’s set was the highlight, but there were some other nice performances from DJs that I haven’t seen much of at all until now. Alas, the venue and a few other things did however take the shine off the night slightly. I was warned pre-event about ATOM, and now I see why – a classic mix of Shibuya girls tottering around on high heels and Thursday evening office folk, all jiving away to cookie-cutter trance. Add hilariously over-zealous staff/security, and it’s obviously not going to have quite the same atmosphere as the dedicated nights at Cube/Kinoto etc.
Anyway, the DoD vs HG DJs themselves played a nice mix of styles, and Ayako’s hard house set in particular was very good. She’s playing at the next Hell’s Gate, and probably hard house again. I was a bit disappointed that Dance or Die’s DJ Ozawa didn’t play any Finnish tunes, as I’d been told beforehand that his speciality was freeform. This time seemed to be high bpm happy-ish tunes, almost UK Hardcore but not quite… Zio’s set, while short, was excellent – starting off with some tech dance, he finished up with some of my favourite tunes. Getting Lab 4’s Falling Down, Remo-Con’s Narky Light and Code of Silence into a 7 track set is pretty impressive, no? He even took on the challenge of mixing the impossible-to-mix Lacrima at the end.
Only another week until Hell’s Gate, and the Bootek event’s the day after tomorrow. Good thing I’ve got next week off, eh?
Yes, it’s someone dancing. But I’ve heard that this style is slightly unique to Tokyo/Japan, and so I thought it might be of interest to those who are wondering what it’s like at Japanese freeform events. I was actually at this NRGetic Romancer (the one I bullet-trained up from Hiroshima to get to), at Studio Cube, but was camped upstairs on the dancefloor for the whole time and didn’t see any of this. Keen-eared listeners will be able to hear Betwixt & Between’s Skybreak playing in the background, too. On a good night there will be a fair sized group of folk dancing like this, which when combined with the glowstickers, is pretty impressive, I can tell you. The less said about my own ‘dancing’ the better, though…
By the way, this video came courtesy of the Hard Dance Ravers, and you can check out a few more videos on their site.
Yet another new mix, this one from Canadian dark freeform artist Micken. Although he’s been a bit quiet recently, now we know why – this mix has got a few new tunes soon to be released on Kreatrix and Electronica Exposed. Retribution and Rainforce are both excellent, and the mix itself is very well planned, with some unexpected/original track choices keeping things interesting…I was especially surprised at how well Lost Soul’s track fits into a ‘real’ dark freeform mix.
01 – Micken – Retribution (Forthcoming Electronica Exposed)
02 – Micken – Collar (Kreatrix)
03 – Nightforce – Break through the dream (Kreatrix)
04 – Twisted Freq – Dirtier World (Kreatrix)
05 – Micken – XC (Kreatrix)
06 – Micken – Rainforce (Forthcoming Electronica Exposed)
07 – Lost Soul – Drifting Entity (Electronica Exposed)
08 – Pain on Creation – Mortality (Finrg)
09 – Nightforce – Metaphysical Redemption (Kreatrix)
10 – Sam One – Mechanical (Electronica Exposed)
11 – RaverRose-TF – Eternal Kannon (DJ RX Remix)
12 – Micken – Prophecy (Forthcoming Kreatrix)
13 – Twisted Freq – Red Android (Kreatrix)
I’m off to Dance or Die vs Hell’s Gate tonight, but thought I’d post up a few things before my pre-event nap.
If you happen to live in Finland, Italy or the UK, then don’t go anywhere during November/December – it seems that Guld might be on his way. I was recently reading the flyer for August’s NRGetic Romancer, and it mentions that he’s planning a trip to the three countries. Recently the subject has cropped up again (although the list seemed to have been reduced to Finland/Italy only), and so even if details are a bit sketchy at the moment, he’ll definitely be on the way to Europe at the end of the year. Why Italy though, I’m not too sure…how much of a scene is there, I wonder?
As soon as anything more concrete is announced it’ll be up on here faster than you can say ‘hoover’ – if you haven’t seen him play live yet it really is worth doing whatever you can to get to one of these events…his mixing style is very much Proteus with a Japanese edge, I’d say.
Of course, he’s also playing on Sunday in Shibuya, which I’ll also be wandering along to.
I’m quite a fan of Eryk Orpheus, even if a lot of his tunes stick a bit too closely to the UK Freeform style of doing things for my liking. Some of his ‘oldies’ though, PVC and Surrounded by Insanity in particular, show a Finnish/UK influence that sounds really fresh. Here’s a new Live PA mix, then, featuring a lot of newer tunes – highlights for me include his Higher State remix, Demons 2007, and his remixes of DJ Rx’s Killer Instinct and Robert Miles’ Children. I’m not quite so keen on the others, but the mix is nicely put together and well worth checking out on its dontstayin topic. As Eryk mentions there, some of the tracks will be available on the digital arm of his Intelli-Trance label….very soon, no less.
1. Psyclic – Eryk Orpheus
2. Take Control – Eryk Orpheus
3. We have control – Alloy Mental (Eryk Orpheus’ Twisted Legboot)
4. FunkyPsyThang – Eryk Orpheus
5. If U Wanit – Eryk Orpheus
6. I Am Orpheus – Eryk Orpheus
7. Somacide – Eryk Orpheus
8. Higher State – Josh Wink (Eryk’s Fusion Lick Mix)
9. Demons 2007 – Eryk Orpheus
10. Killer Instinct – DJ Rx (Eryk Orpheus Remix)
11. Children – Robert Miles (Eryk’s Childish Mix)
12. Positive Evil – Pressure Technique featuring Eryk Orpheus and Sigmund Fraud
Hard TranceとFreeformの曲をリリースさせるフィンランドのHybridizeというレーブルできました！ 参加してるアーティストはEpyx & CyrezやSubstancedやSam Oneなど。初めてのリリースは九月ですが、もうすぐFINRGのページでプロモCDも買えます。
Here’s some very big news – FINRG is soon to launch a sub label fusing the Hard Trance/Freeform styles, featuring artists of the calibre of Epyx & Cyrez, Substanced, Sam One, and many more. An excellent move, the label will allow the Finnish sound to branch off into new territory while also maintaining the original Finrg style. Although the first releases aren’t until September (via FINRG digital and other online music spots), there’s soon to be a Promo CD release on the Finrg site – I can confidently say that these tracks are absolute blinders, and a really exciting addition to the scene. More news to come before too long.
Eight days to go until the Bootek tour event in Shibuya, and the Full Circle DJs have announced the line up for the second ‘Hardcore’ floor. I already thought that the line up was the right side of excellent, but now I know that Buzzmasta and DJ Yousuke will be joined by Asshi, M-Project, and Cogi (amongst others). I’m still hoping to catch Nish’s set if possible, and Guld is playing on the main floor too….there aren’t many events where you have that kind of problem though, so should be thankful, I suppose.
Great news for the Full Circle crew, Psychadelic New Rose is soon to be available on Trackitdown, Juno Download and Beatport. As tracks will be available individually, there’s no excuse at all now for anyone who was put off my the wide-ish range of genres on the CD – you can pick and choose instead (although I’d say that buying them all is the best option, of course).
It’s been looking ominous for a while now, and digi-up has finally announced that it is to close down at the end of the month. A real shame, but sadly the site didn’t live up to the early promise, and the decent releases seemed to quickly dry up.
Definitely a missed opportunity then, but there is some good news for those who didn’t get around to buying Betwixt & Between’s tracks, Guld’s Hannya8000 and the other early gems – the site is now selling every single mp3 release since digi-up’s formation. That’s a pretty hefty collection of tunes, but only until July 31st, so get yourself along there asap.