Hardcore Baby’s Revenge!

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 25, 2008
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes, Releases. 1 comment

Oh dear. After sagely predicting that there would be no news of DJ Yousuke’s next mix compilation until after the upcoming clutch of events, I’ve been proven utterly wrong – it’s very much on the way! Have a rummage through the previous posts and you should find the rather lovely tracklists for the two CDs. So, coming soon, and costing 2500yen, apparently.

Continuing the Full Circle theme, it appears that Nu-Energy’s bouncy-hardcore-meister, Arkitech, will be joining DJ Yousuke, Buzzmasta and Cogi on a tour of sorts. No news of the venues(s?) yet, but it’s looking like sometime in March, from what I can gather.

Re-form – Silver Cube

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 25, 2008
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. 2 comments

FINRG’s new compilation CD, Hakkapeliitta, arrived a short while ago after an epic wait – which is quite understandable, as it is the label’s first CD release. All in all, it’s pretty impressive, and in general the tracks are excellent choices. Rx’s Code of Silence, Alek Szahala’s Maruuk and Iron Squid and Proteus and Carbon Based’s Heavy Fusion are all well known, but still classic tunes. The stand out for me though has to be Re-form’s Silver Cube, an absolutely storming tune that either hasn’t been released before, or has simply passed me by completely until now. My previous favourite Re-form tracks (Cobra and Sunstroke) are both great, and wear their ‘Made By Re-form’ mark very conspicuously, but on listening I sometimes wish for a few more of the filtering tricks etc that other artists have been making use of for many a year. Silver Cube definitely delivers, sawtoothing away through the early sections until a classic Re-form melody kicks in after a couple of minutes. I’m not sure when the track was originally produced, but it bodes very well for the duo’s comeback this year.

Just a thought on Hakkapeliitta itself though – I noticed while I was researching tunes for the next mix that the whole release is available in mp3 format on Trackitdown. By then I’d already ordered it, so it made no difference to me this time, but to my mind it should be one or the other, at least at first. There are a couple of tunes on the CD that I could have done without, and had I known, I’m quite sure I would have only bought the tracks that immediately appealed. That would mean one less person buying the CD release, and given what I hear about the expense of bringing out a compilation in such a small scene, that’s surely something to think about. Maybe going the Electronica Exposed route, and making it CD only, is a decent idea if a label is going to go to such trouble in the first place.

Energize & Hardcore Baby’s Revenge – 27th Jan, club complex CODE

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 20, 2008
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 2 comments

Completely out of the blue, as far as I can tell, but Shinjuku’s club complex Code appears to be closing. As one of the biggest venues in Tokyo, it’s definitely a surprise – but one final NRG event is taking place next week, and what an event it promises to be. Energize & Hardcore Baby’s Revenge sees nigh on every name in Japanese Hardcore/NRG making an appearance – it might be best if I simply list them all, in a shameless copy/paste from mixi. Behold:

ENERGIZE [Main Floor]
DJs: [AtoZ]
COGI / DJ CHAMP / DJ YOUSUKE / DJ ZET / enbun8wari / GULD / HATAKEYAMA / HIDEAKi / HIROSHI / KEITA / KEISUKE / m@-nya / marix / MASUO / MUNETICA / NODA / TOSHIYUKI / YAGISHITA / YAMARIKI / yoshiko
VJ:
CDC

HARDCORE BABY’S REVENGE [Second Floor]
DJs: [AtoZ]
aSaKO / ASSHI / AZSA / Betwixt&Between / bio animal / Blasterhead / BUZZMASTA / DJ BIRDHEAD / DJ EUTO / DJ KONNY / DJ YOUSUKE / eckoz / kanon / Lunch / MAREHITO / NDE / REDALiCE / Short-Cutz / takahashit / yucadisco / 狗神 / 唐沢 / カリビアンコム / 電撃姫
MCs: [AtoZ]
KONNY MC / MC Euthman / MC Tyrant / MC YAMATO

One not to be missed, as you can see – but as my trips into Tokyo are now temporarily via Shinkansen rather than the Hibiya line, I’ll be reluctantly conserving my energies for next month at NRGetic Romancer. Hopefully the sets will be recorded, and I’ll be sure to get an account of how things went from one of the fortunate souls who can make it.

Whale noises / Amens

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 19, 2008
Posted in: Drum & Bass, Releases. Leave a Comment

I’m currently going insane as a result of working out the final tracklist for NRG Monogatari 2, and decided to chill out with some intelligent d&b from back in the day. Sadly, my CDs/tapes are gathering dust in the UK, but YouTube came riding to the rescue with a few of my favourite tunes.

So, in a slight departure from the usual dark synths and four to the floorness, I’ll be sporadically posting up some highlights from what is possibly the most criminally ignored of all electronic genres. First we have Seba & Lotek’s So Long (1996), which may well be my all time favourite track.

Just take a look down there

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 15, 2008
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

 

 

Incredibly, Guld has pulled out all the stops for the next NRGetic Romancer….he’s only gone and booked the most talented producer in the scene at the moment – simultaneously realising my long-held hope for an Alek Szahala/Betwixt & Between joint event. Upon first arriving at NRGetic Romancer last May, one of my first questions to Guld was whether booking Alek was a possibility. He had been trying for quite a while already, but was thwarted by Alek’s lack of time and the small matter of a few thousand miles, of course. This really is spectacular, then, and given the rarity of Alek’s appearances abroad (only the UK and Canada so far?), quite a coup for NRGetic Romancer. After the last event, I was quaintly hoping for similar numbers in February – I think that now Studio Cube will be as packed as it’s ever been, rivalling last August’s Proteus/Adam Lab 4/Guld event.

To say I’m looking forward to it would be the understatement of the year (it’s only just started, so I can get away with that, I think), as the reaction of the NRGetic Romancer crowd to Alek’s tracks is always special – a whole set could really make for the best NRG/Freeform event that has been seen in Tokyo for a long while.

Alek Szahala – Voices of Babylon

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 15, 2008
Posted in: Releases. Leave a Comment

The start of the year sees a new preview from Alek Szahala, after Rebirth of Maruuk and Iron Squid finally see a CD release on the Hakkapeliitta compilation, and once again it’s fabulous. If Alanara, Last of the Mohicans, and Lagas appear slightly more conventional (if still absolutely excellent), Voices of Babylon marks a return to the style of his older tracks. Indeed, Alek himself describes the tune as ‘Something between Maruuk and Balag Lamara’ (and if I understood/guessed correctly from his description on Klubitus, a bit of Iron Squid, too). Whatever the influences, the arrangement and melodies are almost beyond belief – although a few other artists have gained rather more exposure recently, VoB shows once again that Alek really does remain on a entirely different level.

Voices of Babylon can be found in the download section of Alek Szahala’s site.

Sade & Finrg present Organ Donors 12th Jan

Posted by PlasmaDancer on January 15, 2008
Posted in: Events. Leave a Comment

Of course, I wasn’t at this one – but I’ve heard that Nomic was something else, in his first Live PA for an absolute age. The rest of the line up was hardly shabby either, and so I’m glad to see some videos of the event have made an appearance already. Here is a decent clip of Nomic’s Live PA, and a compilation of the Finrg artists, both thanks to Syntse. The keen-eared will notice DJ Rx playing RaverRose/ThermalForce’s almegiddo in the second video.

[Ah. It seems the videos are ‘no longer available’. You’ll just have to take my word for it then, they were great.]

あけましておめでとうございます！／Happy New Year!

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

Happy New Year indeed! I’ll start off this year’s posts with a nicely out-of-date note re. X-Treme Hard’s end of year party on the 21st of last month. Although I’m not the biggest fan of Gabber/Speedcore, it was a very good evening – even if the Full Circle Collective played for a slightly less than gargantuan 15 minutes (understandably, given the number of DJs playing). The couple of tunes that they had time to play were excellent, including DJ Yousuke on guitar (and vocals!), and a typical combination of Hardcore/Drum & Bass.

Other highlights (for me, at least) included DJ Sharpnel’s set and DJ Champ’s Happy Hardcore mix, but both were surely overshadowed by the Bingo session half way through the night! You couldn’t make it up, but the sight of a group of ravers checking off Bingo numbers was almost worth the price of admission alone (despite me not winning anything).

DJ Chucky definitely came up with among the best of the harder sets, and it was the first time to see him live. His mixing was very impressive indeed, but sadly his set (and most of the others) was augmented by MCs – I didn’t like them back in my Drum & Bass days, and I’m not much more of a fan now. Aside from that, it was all good fun, and surprisingly my first trip to Shibuya’s pokey (or should that be ‘intimate’?) Club Kinoto.

NRGetic Romancer – 15th Dec

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 27, 2007
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

Better late than never! I did make it to the last NRGetic Romancer of the year, and a good thing too – there were quite a few new tracks, and once again some blinding sets. Unfortunately, I arrived just after midnight, and so missed Horny’s schranz set, but by all accounts it was very good indeed. I’ll keep a look out for him in the future, particularly as I’m not very familiar with that style.

Cogi played an excellent psychedelic set this time, taking me slightly by surprise. He even included Substanced and Cyrez’s Venom, one of my favourite tracks at the moment. I’ll happily admit that a lot of the tracks were new to me (perhaps I’ll attempt to find out the tracklist for the set, thinking about it) but the selection was excellent. It’s definitely a plus to have Cogi playing independently of the Full Circle DJs at NRGetic Romancer these days – DJ Yousuke’s NRG set (following immediately afterward) bumped things up slightly, speed-wise, and darkened the atmosphere, but expertly carried over the vibe built up during the previous hour and twenty minutes.

Continue Reading

Recent Releases / Events

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 20, 2007
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Releases. Leave a Comment

A chronic lack of internet means that this is the first post in over a month, embarrassingly, but there have been more than a few interesting happenings during my absence.

Epyx & Cyrez have seen a few more releases on FINRG, including one of my favourites, Fragile Mind. Others include Black Mamba, and a clutch of tunes on Electronica Exposed’s newest release, Electronic Exclusives 5 – Digital Dawn. Another future classic, Unohdetut, is included, along with Unreachable, Everlasting, the remix of Substanced’s Challenge, and Expedition Bloodbath (with Substanced). Some very nice tracks there, then.

There have also been a few Kreatrix releases on FINRG, mostly tracks that have been released/are about to be released on various compilations (such as Vol. 3 of the Kreatrix Unmixed Compilation). Elephant King is one, and certainly among my favourite recent Twisted Freq tracks. Sunday will also see the mp3 release of Rx’s Hellfire, so here’s hoping that a few of Alek Szahala’s recent tunes (Lagas, Iron Squid mp3 etc)will also appear before long.

Finally, despite some slight disturbances (such as moving apartment on the following day etc), I made it to NRGetic Romancer last weekend. It was another great night, with a few new tracks from Guld and Betwixt & Between, while Cogi was on top form again, but perhaps a longer report can wait until (all being well) the next post, when I may even have some pictures to go with it.