I’m sure most people will have noticed this already, but I thought it’s worth drawing attention to what I think is one of the most exciting mix compilation-type things to have been released for an age.

Actually, shame on me – I should have mentioned volume 2 of Crush on Hardcore some time ago, but completely forgot, to be honest. Volume 2 is particularly notable for anyone who actually reads TYFTH regularly (well, that’s me, at least), as it includes two tracks by Buzzmasta, Lenny (quite a favourite of mine) and Shoreline – albeit the Orbit1 remix. Excitingly, I’m downloading the first of the four CDs as we speak, so I’ll give them all a listen before too long.

On to the actual topic in hand, volume 3 – and, well…the focus has obviously shifted towards freeform this time around, with four CDs mixed by Shanty, Invader, Addictive DJs and a timely mix from that man Entity. All four sets look great, but Shanty’s in particular has me salivating embarrassingly every time I look at the tracklist – not only for the remix of Cyrez & Annti S’s Never, but also the use of some old classics among the brand new tunes. It’s something I think DJs should do much more often (I know, I know, I didn’t last time, but it was my intention, honestly), and here Shanty uses perennial set-opener Tigris somewhere in the middle, as well as Cyclone at the end.

The mixes won’t be released until the 24th March, but all four will be free to download. As you’ve probably noticed from the photo up there, a physical version also exists, in very limited numbers. The design has quite a no-frills appeal, I reckon, and although the postage might be fairly hefty from the UK to Japan, I’m more than happy to be supporting this kind of ambitious project. I’ll do a bit of lazy copy/pasting of tracklists next, but click the ‘Read the rest of this entry’ down below, will you? This post is going to swamp the whole site otherwise.

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I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I saw this last night, but if you hop briefly over to Epyx & Cyrez’s website you’ll find a news piece on NRG Monogatari 2! Cyrez has very kindly recommended it to one and all, and I’m pleasantly flabbergasted that the mix is proving so popular. Once again, thanks a million to him – this will ensure that a good few more people hear the kind of NRG sound that’s coming from Japan at the moment, which can only be a good thing, obviously.

Also, Epyx & Cyrez’s new album (Sleep Paralysis/EECD025) release is nearing completion, with a release date set for sometime in March. Given their pretty prodigious output lately, there’s sure to be a huge number of new tracks, and I’m looking forward to this one very much indeed.

Here’s a new release that I’ve been looking forward to for a while – the next installment of Munetica’s Energetic Trance series. The tracklist is fairly tasty by anyone’s standards, with a raft of Japanese tunes including Munetica and Buzzmasta’s Cross Water and a Nish & Rayieza Blassty remix of Munetica’s Ultimate Seduction. I’m sure you can guess what caught my eye – the original mix (rather than Arkitech’s somehow disturbingly bouncy remix) of Alek Szahala’s Alanamra, but the entire set looks very nice indeed. It’s out on Friday, for 2,200 yen, and – what’s this? – it can even be purchased without a trek to Shibuya’s Guhroovy, if you can navigate the Amazon.jp site, that is.

The tracklist:

  1. StripE – Fighting For Freedom
  2. Munetica & Buzzmasta – Cross Water [Original Mix]
  3. Nish – Listen to Me (StripE remix)
  4. Jason Cortez – No Other Way
  5. Nish & ataRai – This Program is Now Interrupted
  6. kors k – Higher [Schranz Mix]
  7. Kraut Meister – Play it Hard
  8. Dark By Design – Loops N Tings
  9. StripE – meta Dimension
  10. dexterpurpure – Do You Believe In Love
  11. Shohei Matsumoto – Black Angel [Original Mix]
  12. Munetica – Can You Over There [Original Mix]
  13. Nish – I’m Here to Stay [Original Mix]
  14. Munetica – The Ultimate Seduction (Nish & Rayieza Blassty Remix)
  15. Alek Szahala – Alanamra [Original Mix]

Has it really been 6 months since the last one? I’ve spent far too much time sorting out the tracklist for this, but the upside is that I’ve already got a mountain of tunes in the ‘possible’ pile for number 3. The original idea this time was to base the mix around Betwixt & Between’s Surendrajit, but given the variety of other tunes that I was coming across, it wasn’t really possible. Famous last words, but I might attempt that next time.

As for this mix, I eventually decided on a trancy-melodic opening, then a spot of evil in the middle, and a melodic hardcore/drum & bassy finish. Er, and shoehorning Surendrajit in at the end. I’ve been listening to these tunes for so long, I’m not really sure if the progression works or not any more….any opinions, do let me know, eh? It’ll be interesting to see what people think of the inclusion of DJ Entity’s Stargazer, a drum & bass tune with a hint of UK hardcore – it suddenly struck me as something that might sound nice mixed into the hugely unpronounceable Zusammengehorigkeit, and is followed by the breakbeaty Sadness and Sorrow remix. There are plenty of Betwixt tunes again, but this time I was hoping to draw attention to Hase and Zio too, both of whom might be coming out with some new stuff before long.

NRG Monogatari 2

  1. Hase – 法界 (Houkai)
  2. Substanced – Colombia
  3. Betwixt & Between – Skybreak
  4. Zio – Glacial
  5. DJ Rx – Code of Silence
  6. Guld vs Betwixt & Between – Hatral
  7. The Machinist & Rika – Love 2 Death
  8. Epyx & Cyrez – Polar Energy
  9. DJ Rx – Hellfire (Betwixt & Between remix)
  10. Rank 1 – Airwave (Betwixt & Between remix)
  11. Betwixt & Between – Zusammengehorigkeit
  12. DJ Entity feat. Amy – Stargazer
  13. Nightforce – Sadness and Sorrow [I Never Felt This Way] (Epyx & Cyrez remix)
  14. Betwixt & Between – Surendrajit

(Huge thanks for their help to: Cyrez, Betwixt & Between, Substanced, Zio, Guld, Cogi, and The Goat)

What with a trip to Tokyo, the completion of NRG Monogatari 2, and that pesky ’employment’ thing, the last couple of weeks have been verging on the chaotic. Anyway, I’m back again, and I now know why Alek Szahala’s website is full to the brim with folk eulogising his latest set. Quite possibly the best I’ve ever witnessed live, at NRGetic Romancer Alek (perhaps wisely) played a lot harder than his Australian sets of the last couple of years, and even appeared at the end of the night / early morning for a b2b finale with Guld.

Having earlier dashed around Tokyo in an apartment-checking blur (I’ll soon be living in leafy-ish Mejiro), I managed to be late enough to miss Horny’s schranz set once again, and so things started for me with Cogi’s dark NRG/Freeform. There were a fair few classics, Japanese and Finnish, although it’s been far too long, and I’ve forgotten the titles of a couple of them (what’s that tune with the gravelly-voiced fellow talking about ‘a bullet-shaped hole where the answer should be’?). Once again, a tracklist would be nice – I’ll see what I can do. It was a great set, and it might be good if Cogi was shifted another hour or so further down the schedule, as his last two or three efforts have been far too good to be ‘warm-ups’ while the crowd is still arriving.

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久しぶり日本語で書きますね!先月コギさんに5の2007でNRGシーンについての質問を聞きまして、おもろしろい答えてくれました。コギさん、ありがとうございました!

1)2007年で、一番好きな曲はなんですか。

コギ:Full Circle DJs – Halcyon, Invader feat. Indigo – Indecision, DJ Rx – Hellfire

2)2007年で、一番好きなDJは誰ですか。

コギ:DJ Proteus

3)2007年で、一番好きなアーチストは誰ですか。

コギ:Guld

4)2007年で、一番好きなイベントはなんですか。

コギ:7/28 RUN-RUN vs 4REAL @ Bend Cafe

5)今年は何か楽しみしていますか。

コギ:新しいアーチストが多いで、Hard NRGシーンが大きくなったら楽しみしています!(たとえばEpyx & Cyrez/Cyanide Project/Substanced。今年もRe-formはまた曲をリリスします!)そしてAlekの「Iron Squid」もすごく楽しみしています 🙂 もちろんFull Circle DJsに気がついてくださいね 😉

(Click for the English version, by the way)

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So much for my advice to the good folk of Finrg, re. CD/mp3 releases – after taking a trip to Junodownload I discovered that all the previous Electronica Exposed CDs are available as mp3s (both individual tunes or the entire release). Kreatrix releases are up there too. So that’s why research is important, eh? To make things worse, it’s not as if I’ve never heard of Junodownload – I quite often buy a tune or two there (including DJ Fury’s classic Lemonade Raygun, just the other day).

I should stop looking out for new tunes, I think – I’m never going to get this mix finished otherwise. Anyway, here’s a release from a lesser known Japanese artist, qurter, courtesy of digi-up. To be honest, I hadn’t heard anything of him before, but a quick look at a few previous tunes shows that qurter usually leans more towards the trancey/techno side of things (plus a bit of Roni Size-influenced Drum and Bass, apparently). Solid State Spider, aside from having a spectacular name, shows a few signs that he is at the ‘still learning’ stage, but this might be partly the result of taking on an unfamilar genre.

The other tune I forgot to mention recently is Epyx & Cyrez’s Subida Del Muerto, one of my favourites right now. Note that I don’t always relate everything to the Japanese scene, but this tune really does have a bit of a Hase feel to it, particularly his old remix of M-Project’s How Low? Anyway, great tune, and I notice that it’s in Proteus’ current Top 10, too. No release yet, but Electronica Exposed are coming out with CDs like there’s no tomorrow, so don’t quote me on that.

So, Arkitech’s jaunt around Tokyo with the Full Circle crew is not very far away after all. First up is the ‘Daytime Edition’ of X-Treme Hard, this time at Shibuya’s AMATERAXI on the 2nd March, where Arkitech will be playing back-to-back with DJ Yousuke. Now that does sound pretty appealing – I might have moved away from Happy Hardcore/the merrier side of things these days, but Yousuke’s sets are quite possibly the best that you’ll find anywhere, and his effort at Run-Run vs 4Real was about the most original HappyCore/other stuff set I’ve heard for a long time.

The 8th March sees Arkitech make another appearance in Shibuya, this time at the Hardcore Baby’s Revenge Release Party (at Club Kinoto). No other news on who else will be turning up for this one yet, but after the epic wait for this release it’s probably safe to expect a decent line-up.

Incidentally, the next Hell’s Gate event is almost here – once again held in the middle of the week, somewhat bizarrely, on the 13th of this month. I won’t be able to make this, which is a real shame – I can say with some authority that Zio will be playing some cracking tunes, a lot of them unreleased. Anyone who happens to be in the AMATERAXI vicinity would be advised to wander along, for sure.